HP ENVY 17-j017sg mSATA & 2xHDD

[Oz1um]

Many thanks LocutusOfBorg for the tutorial. It got me through a frustrating struggle and saved HP one returned notebook.

I bought an HP Envy 15-J043ed and a 240 gig mSATA SSD. I managed to install windows by removing the SATA connector from the other HDD. Then follow your tutorial and your set - good job!

As for HP, I can't believe they would cripple their BIOS like this. My first few days with the product have not been the best. It could have been so simple, just switch 2 boot devices in the BIOS.

[seun75]

Unplog the external hard drive and all what you connected to the system and reboot again.

[sherifmadkour]

i have Hp envy 17t j100 with 1 tb main HDDwith windows 8.1 and i need to put 120 GB SSD in the main and use the 1 TB as second drive but when i try to colum the windows and all parionto SSD he colum but when i put it alone the SSD the system said recovery if you have the original Media restore your windows and it not work so how i can do this??

PS: if i get 1 tb SSD and put it as main Hard and put the recovery CD it work or not

[francise]

good day, i am having issues installing up grading from window 7 to 8. When ever i try loding the opeating system . it start normaly and when reaches the point to detect the HDD partion, it shows no HDD partiton . how do i enable the bios or boot option to get the HDD partition . thanks

[LocutusOfBorg]

Is it related to the issue under discussion? is your boot drive currently an mSATA SSD?

[Huffer]

The BIOS storage controller is set to RAID so during Win 8 install you have to provide a usb flash drive with the IRST "F6" RAID driver on a thumb drive. 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24293&lang=eng&ProdId=2101

You need the f6flpy-x64.zip unzipped on the thumb drive if you are installing 64 bit Windows. Browse to the thumb drive where the installer asks you for a driver. You will then find the hard drive(s). 

[juanpi_82]

Once you have everything set up (mSATA with windows and the bootloader in the HDD) and you decide to add an additional operative system, for example linux (without removing windows 8)... what do you have to do? I guess you have to modify that bootloader... may we expect to have any problems with that?? thank you in advance!

[RaymanForever]

Thanks LocutusOfBorg!!! It worked perfectly! I'll include some steps with detailed explanation for helping others:

My steps are as follows:

1) I installed a Samsung 840 EVO 500Gb mSATA SSD, it should work with any disk.

2) Clone the HDD with the Samsung software (or third party software). You may remove and backup on an external hdd all personal large files and data in order to leave only the system files: this way you can clone a larger disk into a smaller mSATA, and also, speed up the proccess by reducing the cloning task.

3) After finished shut off the system and disconnect the HDD from the port.

4) Power on the system and check that everything works OK. You should be able to start as usual but ultra faster than before, because you are booting from the SSD. This is very important, as my first attemp to clone the disk may failed becuase I simply can't start windows when the hdd was removed. Restart a couple of times, just to be sure.

If the ssd wont boot or something is missing, i.e. user account images etc, re do the disk clone proccedure:

If the SSD fails:

   a) Turn off your computer, wait until its turned off properly, we wont damage our ssd. 

   b) Connect again the hdd to the port.

   c) Turn on your system, it should boot from the HDD. (EDIT: you may need to disconnect the msata and then restart with it connected).

   d) Re run the Samsung data migration software or third party one.

   e) Procceed with step 3 and 4. If you start as usual and everything is normal -unless the astounding speed boost- procceed with step 5.

5) With the system off, connect again the hdd to the port.

6) Power ON the PC while repeteadly pressing F10. You will enter BIOS configuration. On 'System Configuration' go to 'Boot Options' then ENABLE 'Legacy Support'. Press F10 to save and exit.Turn power on and press f9 to change boot order.

7) On Boot Option Menu select 'Boot from EFI file', then press enter and select your SSD it should be the one on Port 2 and press enter.

😎 Select bootmgr.efi on Microsoft/Boot/ and press enter.

9) Once booted, check "This PC" to see if you already booted from the SSD, it should appear a windows blue flag over it, AND it should be named as C: . You need to have your SSD recognized both as C: drive and with the blue windows logo over it to continue.

10) Now you already booted from the SSD which is now C drive and with the windows logo above it. You should also view the hdd disk there on "This PC".

11) Open Start and search for "cmd". Then right click and Run as Administrator.

12) Write 'diskpart' and press enter.

13) Then 'Select disk 0' and enter.

14) Then 'List partition'. We want to erase all content on the HDD and define the boot there and leave the free space for data storage. So you need to make sure that disk 0 is your hdd: look at the partitions and size.

15) WARNING! we are wiping the HDD!! Write 'Clean' and press enter.

16) Then 'Convert gpt'.

17) Then 'Create partition EFI size=100' and enter.

18) Then 'Format quick fs=fat32 label="system" '

19) Then 'Assign letter="s" '

20) Then 'Create partition primary'

21) Then 'Format quick fs=ntfs label="Data" '

22) Then 'Assign letter="d" '

23) Now write 'Exit' andd press enter.

24) Now we are out of diskpart and again on the cmd. Now copy bootloader to EFI partition writing on the cmd
'Bcdboot c:\Windows /s s: ' and press enter.

25) Enjoy and make childrens, plant a couple of trees and write a book.

[donrosco]

Thanks all for the detailed instructions for this. 

Before I go ahead and pull the trigger on an mSata drive, does anyone know if this will work the same on a HP ENVY TouchSmart 15-j184sa?

[NashvilleSlim]

I've got an Envy 17t-3000 CTO. BIOS is HP F.05 (12/9/2011). I'm now running Windows 10.

I downloaded its service manual to guide me through the installation of a new battery (that part went flawlessly). While looking through the manual I discovered I had an mSATA slot. So I bought a Samsug SSD 850 EVO mSATA, 250GB hoping to make it my boot drive (I had a plan all worked out involving Acronis True Image and a very large external hard drive). But ...

When I installed the mSATA SSD and powered on, I was greeted with "no bootable device found." I expected, at least, that the SSD would be recognized. Take it out, boots without issue; put it in "no bootable device found."

After reading all the "only 1 in 100 people can figure it out" stuff, I'm willing to forgoe using the SSD as a boot device. I hardly ever turn the thing off anyway and I can usually spare 30 seconds.

But how can I at least get the SSD to be recognized as a usable drive?

NOTE: I do not fear playing with the BIOS.

Thanks in advance!

Slim