SSD Upgrade on HP ENVY x360 - 15m-bp011dx

[Drewboy22]

Good Afternoon y'all,

  I am trying to upgrade to a m.2 ssd (Crucial P5 500gb).  My envy has a 1tb hdd drive as factory.  I was able to get the back cover off and add the ssd and the drive does show in "Disk Management" .  My problem is 2 fold;

1. When I try to clone the hdd using Acronis from crucial, it fails at the last minute and does not clone the "Recovery" Partition.  I tried other clone programs but didn't want to pay if it wasn't going to work.

2.  I was able to get into Bios but under the list of boot options I do not see and "drives".  

Now if cloning is not an option, how do I do a clean install?  I do not have any installation media from the original purchase.

Thank you for any assistance,

Drew

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Drew:

Chapter 1 of the service manual indicates that NVMe drives are supported.

HP ENVY x360 15m Convertible PC Maintenance and Service GuideIMPORTANT! This document is intended fo...

You should be able to use the Microsoft media creation tool to create bootable installation media and clean install W10 on the NVMe SSD.

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

Bear in mind that all HP notebooks that come with dual drive configurations do not have an operating system on the 2.5" drive.

The notebook will always want to boot from the 2.5" drive if there is an OS installed.

What I recommend you do is to temporarily disconnect the 2.5" drive, and get W10 installed and working on the SSD.

Then connect the 2.5" drive back up, format it and then you should be able to use it for storage and the notebook should automatically boot from the M.2 SSD.

You can install the drivers and available software from your notebook's support page.

HP ENVY x360 - 15m-bp011dx Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support

You can also try the HP cloud recovery tool to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall W10, the drivers and the software your notebook originally came with on the SSD.

You would need to disconnect the hard drive before using the bootable cloud recovery tool media, because I believe it would install on the 2.5" drive if you didn't.

Boot from the cloud recovery tool media and see if it asks you what drive you want to install on.

Here is an info link for how to use that utility...

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool (Windows 10, 7) | HP® Customer Support

[Drewboy22]

Thank you Paul for the quick response,

Sorry for all the questions but thank you so much for your help!

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@Paul_Tikkanen wrote:

Hi, Drew:

Chapter 1 of the service manual indicates that NVMe drives are supported.

HP ENVY x360 15m Convertible PC Maintenance and Service GuideIMPORTANT! This document is intended fo...

You should be able to use the Microsoft media creation tool to create bootable installation media and clean install W10 on the NVMe SSD. - - I have a boot media on USB I could use.  What about my Win10 license?  Will that carry over?

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

Bear in mind that all HP notebooks that come with dual drive configurations do not have an operating system on the 2.5" drive.

The notebook will always want to boot from the 2.5" drive if there is an OS installed.

What I recommend you do is to temporarily disconnect the 2.5" drive, and get W10 installed and working on the SSD.

Then connect the 2.5" drive back up, format it and then you should be able to use it for storage and the notebook should automatically boot from the M.2 SSD. - Do I would need to disconnect the 2.5, the use the boot media to install to the M.2?

You can install the drivers and available software from your notebook's support page.

HP ENVY x360 - 15m-bp011dx Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support

You can also try the HP cloud recovery tool to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall W10, the drivers and the software your notebook originally came with on the SSD.

You would need to disconnect the hard drive before using the bootable cloud recovery tool media, because I believe it would install on the 2.5" drive if you didn't.

Boot from the cloud recovery tool media and see if it asks you what drive you want to install on.

Here is an info link for how to use that utility... - So, if the install media does not keep my license then this is the best way to go?  Maybe I should try this first?

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool (Windows 10, 7) | HP® Customer Support

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[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The W10 product key/license is in your notebook's BIOS.

You don't need the key to install or reinstall W10.

Yes, you can try the recovery tool created media first.

It would save you the trouble of having to install drivers and whatnot.

You can try installing Windows on the M.2 drive without disconnecting the hard drive, but I believe the notebook will only boot from the 2.5" drive if there is an OS installed on it.

[Drewboy22]

Thanks again, I will be giving that a shot!

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Anytime. 

Glad to have been of assistance. 

Remember, if the cloud recovery tool media doesn't ask what drive you want to install Windows on, disconnect the 2 5" drive before proceeding further