Trying to upgrade SSD on Victus by HP 15.6 inch Gaming Laptop 15-fb1000 (7Y8M8AV)

[Pidgeo5]

Hello. I recently purchased a Victus by HP 15.6 inch Gaming Laptop 15 (fb1000 [7Y8M8AV]) and have been trying to upgrade the SSD from 1TB M.2 SSD to a 2TB M.2 SSD that I had in my desktop computer.

For reference, the 2TB M.2 SSD that I am trying to install is a WD Blue 3D NAND 2TB Internal SSD - SATA III 6Gb/s M.2 2280 Solid State Drive - WDS200T2B0B I purchased from Newegg back in 11/2020. 

When I try to swap out the M.2 SSD that came with the laptop for the one from my desktop, it is not recognized or found by the Windows installer. I thought it might be an issue of needing the drivers for the M.2 SSD, so I copied the drivers for my laptop from the HP site and added them to the Windows Bootable USB along with the drivers I found being used by Windows 11 on the original M.2 SSD. Unfortunately, the drivers were not found.

I also tried to create a bootable USB using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool, but when I boot from the USB after installing the 2TB M.2 SSD, I get an "Error, No HDD" as soon as the HP recovery program starts and it shuts the computer down.  

I'm at a loss with how to proceed. I'm not sure if this is an issue with the drivers or maybe the M.2 SSD I'm trying to use is not compatible, or something else? I was having a hard time finding a list of compatible hardware for my device on the HP site to confirm this. 

I did check the Boot settings in the BIOS and found that Secure Boot is currently enabled, so I'm not sure if disabling that might fix my problems.

I've been working on this for a while and needed to step away and felt it best to ask the community for help. 🙂

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

Your notebook's M.2 slot only supports NVMe SSD's.

You need the WD Blue SN570 or SN580.

See chapter 1 of the service manual for the supported drive types--NVMe only.

Victus by HP 15.6 inch Gaming Laptop 15-fb1000 (7Y8M8AV) - Setup and User Guides | HP® Support

[Pidgeo5]

I suspected as much. Thank you so much for your help and providing the information on supported drives! 🙂

Not sure if I should make a new post for this or if this could be considered as part of the current post:

The manual only lists up to 1TB for the M.2 solid-state drive (PCIe-3 × 4, 2280, non-volatile memory express (NVMe), three-layer cell (TLC). Is 1TB the max this model of HP laptop can support, or is it just the max that this product comes with?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The drive capacities listed in the manual are normally just what HP offered in the model series, not the maximum capacity supported.

I neglected to note that the service manual is for the older 15-fb0000 model series and the specs for the 15-fb1000 model series indicates that PCIe Gen 4 x 4 NVMe SSD's are supported, so I would not buy the WD Blue SN570, which is only PCIe Gen 3.

Victus by HP 15.6 inch Gaming Laptop 15-fb1000 series specifications | HP® Support

If you want a better performing Gen 4 NVMe SSD than the SN580, look into either the Samsung 980 Pro or the newer Samsung 990 Pro.

The Crucial SSD report indicates they sell NVMe SSDs up to 4 TB in the model series.

HP - Compaq HP Victus 15-fb1000 | Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | Crucial IN

[Pidgeo5]

🙂 This is all very helpful! I'll be able to find something that works with this information. You've saved me a lot of time! Thanks again, Paul!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime. 

Glad to have been of assistance.