2nd HDD caddy replacing optical drive for HP Pavilion 15-e073ca Notebook PC & Windows 10

[Haghe]

Hello !

I am planning to add a SSD to my two-years-old HP Pavilion 15-e073ca Notebook PC. I found on some sites that I can remove the optical drive and put a second drive using a caddy adapter into the optical drive bay. I found that some people on the forum have done it successfully, but nothing about my PC model. I want to know if it could work with my product.

In other words, there is my plan:

1-Remove the actual HDD from the hard drive bay and replace it with the new SSD.

2-Remove the optical drive and replace it with the caddy adapter containing my old HDD.

3-Do a clean install of Windows 10 on the SSD, using a USB recovery flash drive made with my actual Windows 10 system (which was updated from Windows 8.1).

I am planning to buy the following parts:

1- a HDD / SSD caddy adapter for HP Pavilion 15 (model OBHD9-SATA-SATA-BU9), from NewmodeUS (http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_5&products_id=583)

2- a 128 GB SSD drive (item SDSSDHP-128G), from SanDisk (http://www.sandisk.com/products/ssd/sata/ultra-plus/?capacity=128gb)

I have some questions before buying the parts:

1- Will the two drives (my old HDD and the new SSD) be recognized by the motherboard / BIOS and the operating system (Windows 10)? Is there a limit of one unique HDD/SSD drive on the computer?

2- The height of the SSD is 7mm, and it seems that my old HDD is 9.5mm height (model WDC WD10JPVT-60A1YT0). Would it cause any problem (would I need to add spacers)?

3- Do these parts work together and with my computer (size, compatibility)? Do you expect any problem with this upgrade?

4- Will the clean install of Windows 10 work, since I plan to install it on a different drive than the one I used to create the USB recovery flash drive? I have never done a clean Windows installation before.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Haghe

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Your plan is perfect. The SSD at 7 mm will still fit fine it will just ride lower in the caddy. The holes and SATA connections are in the same place as a 9.5 mm hdd. You can use a spacer (many SSDs include one in the box) but not really necessary. 

The SSD install of Windows 10 the way you envision is not really "clean" it will place back the files and programs I believe, and certainly the drivers. Either way, it will work fine and will activate if the old installation was activated. 

The hdd in the optical adapter will not be bootable and will transfer data a bit slower than a drive in the main compartment, but will still be useable for most purposes. If you need fast input/output as for Photoshop or video editing move the working file to the SSD first. You might also want to consider migrating Documents and Pictures and such to the HDD to keep the 128 gig SSD from filling up. You can right click on those folders and choose "location" and move them. Post back if you need help with that. 

Enjoy.

If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it. 

[Haghe]

Thank you very much for your answer. I am now confident to go ahead with this upgrade.

I will post a new message in the coming weeks, once I receive my parts, to inform you how the upgrade went.

[Haghe]

**Update**

I finally got all the parts I needed:

-SSD from SanDisk (I got a SDSSDP-128G)

-Caddy adapter from NewmodeUS

-External Enclosure for Optical Drive (9.5mm USB 3.0 to SATA) from NewmodeUS, which allows to use the optical drive externally.

Here are the steps I followed:

1. I downloaded the Windows 10 Installer from Microsoft (https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10) and created a USB media to install Windows 10 from scratch.
2. I had then backup the files on my HDD to an external hard drive.
3. I replaced the HDD with my new SSD. I followed the instructions provided by HP (http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03939658.pdf). I did not use any spacers, I used the same screws that were used for the HDD. I also removed the optical drive.
4. I boot my laptop using the USB media previously created. I followed the instructions and I installed the OS on the SSD.
5. Once the OS is installed, I put the HDD in the caddy adapter.
6. I then installed the drivers suitable for my model from the HP website (http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-Pavilion-15-Notebook-PC-series/5355006/model/5401...).

The performance of my notebook are better (a complete restart takes less than 15 sec). I don’t know what among the OS clean install or the SSD had more effects on performance.

As Huffer suggested, everything went good with this upgrade.

However, I had some issues with my drivers:

• The settings of my Synaptics Touch Pad were reset after each system restart. I successfully found a solution (http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings/windows-10-synaptics-touc...).
• I have two unknown devices when I look in my Device Manager, which seems to correspond to HP Quick Launch Buttons. I installed some drivers from HP, but they are still not recognized. I don’t even know what it is, I don’t use these buttons.
• I heard a popping sound after each sound played by my speaker/headphone (after system sound, music, etc.). It seems that my Realtek audio chip shuts down after every sound. It’s a bit annoying. I downloaded the drivers from HP, but it did not work. Any help or suggestion is welcomed!

Thanks !

[Huffer]

Can you post the plug and play Device IDs for the unknown devices? Also for the sound card? We can try to help with these petty annoyances. The popping sound card is a little more than that I am afraid. Let's poke around under the hood a bit. 

[Haghe]

Thanks for the help !

Here are the infos about the unknown devices:

Hardware ID for the first unknown device : ACPI\VEN_HPQ&DEV_0004

Hardware ID for the second unknown device : ACPI\VEN_HPQ&DEV_6001

For the audio, I cannot identify where exactly is my sound card in the Device Manager, so I put everything that seems to be related to audio. My OS is in French, I put some of the device names in French, with an English translation between brackets.

1-

Name = Realtek High Definition Audio

Hardware ID = HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0282&SUBSYS_103C196F&REV_1000

Driver version = 6.0.1.7548 (date 2015-06-30), from Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

2-

Name (in French) = Périphérique High Definition Audio [High Definition Audio Device]

Hardware ID = HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_8086&DEV_2806&SUBSYS_80860101&REV_1000

Driver version = 10.0.10240.16384 (date 2015-07-09), from Microsoft

3-

Name (in French) = Haut-parleur/Écouteurs (Realtek High Definition Audio) [Speakers/Headphones (Realtek High Definition Audio)]

Hardware ID = MMDEVAPI\AudioEndpoints

Driver version = 10.0.10240.16384 (date 2015-07-09), from Microsoft

4-

Name (in French) = Contrôleur High Definition Audio [High Definition Audio Controller]

Hardware ID = PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1E20&SUBSYS_196F103C&REV_04

Driver version = 10.0.10240.16384 (date 2015-07-09), from Microsoft

Do you need more infos ?

Thank you very much !

Haghe