Unable to Get my HP ProBook 650 G1 to Recognize my SSD as Replacement for my HDD

[gbmungan]

Is it possible that, ,  since this was a refurbished lap top someone did mass installs of windows on several laptops and never provided a key?   

The other difference that I failed to mention between the Acer and the HP was that the Acer is running under UEFI mode and the HP is running under Legacy mode.  Don't know if this has any bearing on what I have been experiencing.   

At this point,  it appears that in order to install a clean version of windows on the ssd, I will have to acquire a windows 10 installation disk and then run install to get windows  on the ssd.   

I appreciate your sticking with me, but I think I am out of other options.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Unfortunately, I wouldn't know.

If the notebook was previously upgraded to W10 Pro, it would have gotten a digital license for W10 Pro and you can reinstall W10 as many times as you want as long as you select the 'I don't have a product key option,' when you are asked to enter a product key.

[gbmungan]

I was able to create a bootable DVD using  Microsoft Media creation and the DVD creation application that you sent. I was able to boot up the system, with the new ssd installed.  However, when I get to Install Windows, after setup has started, instead of the application page appearing, where I could enter a key or indicate that I don't have a key, I see the license agreement page.  When I agree to the license and click on Next, I see the page asking if I want to install windows and keep my apps and files or Advanced- want to only install windows. When I choose Advanced, I see the screen asking where I want to install windows, with the disk highlighted. At this point, there always seems to be a problem with the disk, and I can go no further.  Having done this multiple times with the flash drive and the DVD, I decided to ask Google why I was not seeing the application page as part of the windows install.  I discovered that if windows was activated through volume licensing, the key for the windows installation is only available if you are on the same network that was used to install windows.  Since I am obviously not on the network that was used for installation, no record of the key exists on my computer.  Hence when the Media creation tool is collecting files for windows, there is no file with the key available.  I found that a way to confirm that my windows copy was created by volume licensing is to go into Command Mode, as administrator, and enter the following  -Slmgr.vbs /dlv.  When I did this, a report appeared about the copy of windows on my PC. Among other things, it indicated that - Product Key Channel:Volume GVLK.  The GVLK is an indication that the windows copy was activated through volume licensing.  As such, in order to create or a new copy of windows you either need a new license or a new copy of windows.  So, it appears now that my choices for this lap top are to stay with the current hdd, which is operating without issue,  or intstall the ssd and install a new copy of windows on it.  Since I was hoping to speed up the system a bit, I am leaning toward the ssd and the new copy of windows. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

That is very interesting...given that information, I have another idea...

There should be a W8 Pro product key in the BIOS according to the specs for the model series.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04029874

Here is how you can clean install W8.1 Pro on the SSD by using the W8 product key in your notebook's BIOS.

Then I am going to give you a way to upgrade from W8.1 Pro to W10 Pro for free...

First things first...

Install W8.1 by creating the Microsoft installation media, using another Windows PC, if yours is not working...You want W8.1 Pro 64 bit.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8ISO

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, use this generic key.

This is the generic key for W8.1 Pro:

XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB

When you get to the screen that asks 'Where do you want to install Windows,' delete every partition on the hard drive, leaving just one partition of unallocated space. Click Next, and W8.1 should begin to install.

If you had to enter the generic key, manually change the generic product key to the W8 key in your PC's BIOS in the PC settings menu.

After you get W8.1 installed, and you had to manually enter the W8.1 generic product key, you will need to run the free utility I zipped up and attached below, that will show you show the W8 product key in your PC's BIOS.

Use the Microsoft tool you are familiar with now, which hopefully will transfer the ISO file to a DVD or USB flash drive so it is bootable.

Then you can install the available drivers and software from your PC's support page.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-probook-650-g1-notebook-pc/5405400

If that worked, read the info at the link below that shows you that you can still get the free upgrade to W10...

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

Then click on the blue Update Now button at the link below.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

[gbmungan]

Thanks for this suggestion. However, I have a question. If you will recall, earlier I said that one of the first things that I did with this computer was to update the existing BIOS.  Having done that, is the key for the old version of windows 8 pro still available in the BIOS?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Updating the BIOS would have no impact on a Windows product key in the BIOS.

Your notebook will have a W8 product key in the BIOS unless:

1. The original owner or company ordered the model without Windows.

It is cheaper that way and then they can install their own licensed operating system.

2.  The refurbisher has a way to delete existing product keys in the BIOS.

Otherwise it has a key in there.

If you have the working hard drive in there now, run that showkey plus utility and it will report all keys...the installed key and the OEM key in the BIOS if it has one.

If you see a W8 Pro product key in the report, then you should be able to implement my suggestion to install W8.1 and upgrade to W10.

[gbmungan]

I was able to make the windows 8.1 bootable ISO DVD.  Prior to doing this, I ran ShowkeyPlus, and saw that there was a listing for windows 10 and one for windows 8.1 on my system, .  The key for windows 10 had a key listed with an asterisk next to it.  The note for the asterisk indicated that the key was a default key and that it required a digital license for activation.  The key for windows 8.1 did not have an asterisk.  I then used the DVD to boot up the system with the ssd, with nothing but unallocated space.  When I clicked on the install button for windows 8, I did not see an application page again. The process went to the license page and then the page for installing only windows, and finally the page asking where did I want to install windows. The ssd was listed as unallocated space.  When I clicked on Next, Next greyed out and a circle appeared, which I assumed meant that something was happening.  The circle continued to appear for about an hour, and then a message appeared that windows could not be installed, because the partition size had to be at least 8796mb.  Again I am stumped why the application page, asking for the key, does not appear in this process.  I thought that I was going to make good progress here, but apparently not.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I am totally stumped.

If the Showkey plus report shows a product key for Win 8.1 RTM Professional OEM:DM, W8.1 should have installed without any need to enter a key, and you would not get a screen to prompt you to enter a product key.  So that is completely normal.

If the key was good for Win 8 RTM Professional OEM:DM, then you would have been prompted to enter a product key.  That is why I provided a generic product key for you to enter.

The specs on that link I posted earlier today did not mention any of the 650 G1's came with W8.1, but if yours was made in 2013, it may have.

So something is not right.  What it is, that I do not know. 

Apparently your disk is providing less than 9 GB to install W8.1 on, and it would require at least 16 GB for a minimal install with no additional programs.

Do you have any other drives...SSD or 2.5" mechanical SATA hard drives you can try in lieu of the current SSD you are using?

So, I think you are making progress.  I think there is something wrong with that drive.

[gbmungan]

I just used the hdd that I removed from my old Acer Aspire and ran the same window 8 install, and everything work fine. You may recall that when I was having trouble getting this same ssd on my HP to work correctly, I switched it to the ACER and ran the windows 10 iso install and it installed perfectly.   Since then, I have run various operations on the ssd, like clean, and initialize making sure that I had only unallocated space on the ssd, so I am not sure why it was having trouble writing to the ssd.  I can return the ssd and get another, but I guess that I am not convinced that the drive is bad since it was able previously to be written to when I used it on the Acer.   To be clear, if I get another ssd to use, is formatting the disk the only thing I should do before using it?  

[Paul_Tikkanen]

When you get a new SSD, you don't need to do anything to it.

Just boot from the installation media, and let Windows install on the unallocated space

Windows will create the necessary partitions it needs to install.