How to upgrade your notebook to a SATA 2.5" SSD

[erico]

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@alexc1 wrote:

Hi erico,

Thanks for your advice. I actually tried and I was given the error: "There were no writable device detected" (EliteBook 820 laptop come with no CD drive and inserting a 16GB flash drive in the USB port did not work either)

I called HP and they then advised me to pay $30 to order a full set of recovery media. 

Once I got the CDs I had to convert them to ISO images and to place them and boot from a USB flash drive. But I did not think about the partition creation... They are not CDs. The DVDs comprise a recovery disk set.

It therefore did not end nicely... (Yes I should have anticipated that) You should have ordered the usb recovery flashdrive from HP. You should have asked your friends or relatives if one of them had a usb optical drive you could borrow so you could recover your notebook's operating system. The alternative would have been to purchase one.

Here is some more questions:

1. How does HP technicians do to recreate all this when they replace a faulty hard disk? Using the recovery DVD set and selecting factory invokes a script that deletes the original partitions. It then recreates the partition that are required to return it to the factory delivered state while installing the operating system and most of the required drivers. I have been doing that ever since I recieved my first HP product loan for practice. I have done it five times with my current product loan HP Omen 15.

2. Using Paragon, shall I manually backup the 😧 partition from my old disk and manually restore it on my new SSD drive? You can do that. The only way you will be able to use it in an emergency will be to make it active. That will  cause your notebook to boot to the HP Recovery Manager. At that point you will have the options available in the  HP Recovery Manager for restoring your notebook. You will not be able to invoke it with the F11 key. That is only an available option when the factory image scheme has not been modified in any way.

3. Using Paragon, shall I manually backup the E: partition from my old disk and manually restore it on my new SSD drive? No. If your E" partition is HP_Tools, then run the Diagnostic update available from the download section of the web support portal for your notebook. It will install the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI in its own partition. Another option is to run the installer and install it to a usb flashdrive. You will see that as an option when you run the Diagnostics update softpaq.

4. When you say "You can't recreate theHP_Recovery Partition for Windows 8.1" do you mean this tool was available in Windows 7 and no longer available for Win 8.1 or is it for some other reason? The HP_Recovery Partition for Windows "X"" that was on your notebook's hard disk is only available for the original operating system. It can be created by the HP recovery media when running a factory image recovery. 

Thanks for your expert advice,

Alex

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I hope that helps you understand your options with more clarity. 

[Harry21]

Hi, I'm new to the form so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right but I really need my computer up and running.

So recently I bought an Samsung 850 evo SSD (120GB) from Fry's and it was working fine on another computer, however that computer suddently doesn't show anything on the screen anymore, I decided to upgrade my HP laptop with the new SSD. After replacing the new hard drive into the computer, I booted the recovery process from the recovery disk that I burn from the laptop, and for some reason the recovery manager won't install the OS onto the new hard drive and is giving me an error: 0xe0ef0003. Which is rather wierd considering I was using the SSD without any problem on the other laptop, and now it is telling me that this hard drive is failing and need to be replace. The worst thing is that even the old hard drive won't boot up and I am running out of ideas what to do.

[Sparkles1]

Hi @Harry21,

Thank you for your query!

I grasp that you wanted to upgrade your HP laptop.  You had a new SSD installed in a different computer and it was working fine.   When you installed it into the HP laptop and booted to the recovery disks you had created the Recovery Manager will not install  and you receive the error" 0xe0ef0003" and tells you the hard drive needs to be replaced. 

Would you please take a look at this post by@Daniel_Potyrala.   As he suggests I would run the test to rule out hardware.   How to test RAM and HDD (Hard Drive)..  You will not be able to test the drive the way he suggest but you can test it from the UEFI diagnostics on the laptop.  HP Notebook PCs - Testing a Hard Disk from the BIOS, 

As the old drive will no longer boot up either, I would lean toward a memory issue.

As Samsung doesn't have any diagnostic tools available for the public. The only bootable thing Samsung has is the Secure Erase, which completely wipes your drive.  If the memory and hard drive test OK , you could try that and re-install your OS and see if it works fine after that.
If atter testing the hard drive you still have question or need to RMA your driver please call  1-800-SAMSUNG(726-7864).

If you still receive the error it is possible that your recovery disk has become corrupt and will need to be replaced.  Also check the disk to ensure it is clean and undamaged.  Here is a link that may also help.  HP PCs - Troubleshooting HP System Recovery Problems (Windows 7).

[erico]

@Harry21

I happen to own a Samsung 850 EVO and an 840 EVO SSD drive.

My first question is what is the product name or product number of your notebook?

Have you entered the BIOS and in Boot options, enabled Legacy Support? 

Was the Samsung 850 EVO SSD recognized as present by the BIOS?

Troubleshooting the drive should be pretty straightforward if you have access to a Windows desktop PC that has a SATA interface.  Remove the 850 EVO drive from the notebook and connect it to an available SATA port on the desktop PC. Boot into Windows and then open the Windows Explorer.  Is the SSD drive recognized as being present by the operating system? 

Samsung does have software that will let you check on the health and performance of the SSD. One such handy utility is called Samsung Magician.  It includes the ability to see the  SSD disk's health and condition and  apply firmware updates . You can install it on the desktop PC and use it while the SSD is connected. It is at the following URL.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/downloads/software/Samsung_Magicia...

Downloads for Samsung SSD drives

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html

[Harry21]

The model of the laptop is G72-250US and I have been using it for maybe 4 years now. I just downloaded a program called AOMEI Partition Assistance and wiped the SSD completely. After installed the SSD back into the laptop and ran the recvoery manager, it no longer showed the error and have completed the recovery process. However, after clicking on continue on recovery manager, the computer restarted and just stopped at a black screen where "_" keep flashing, I tried wait about 10 mins and it's still the same thing.

[Harry21]

Ok, so I've managed to get pass the black screen into windows after following this post http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/209-69-windows-bootcamp-black-screen-blinking-cursor-ages-boot

But for some reason it's telling me that something has crashed and it wouldn't continue the process of installing the drivers. As of now, I installed windows 10 on the machine and doesn't seem to be encountering any problem, so I assume that the recovery disk I made from the old hard drive have files corrupted and wouldn't let me continue on the process.

[erico]

@Harry21

I found nothing at the link to Tom's Hardware you posted. If that is a DVD recovery disk set made four years ago, then there may indeed be some corruption. Can you post the failure log from the recovery attempt?

[idephil]

Hi everyone!

I just finished to read all 12 pages of this post looking for something i probably missed. I hope someone will answer my question, i'm trying to do a clean install of Win10 on a new SSD in a HP laptop for 30 or more hours...

HP Pavilion 17-e033ca

(upgraded to Windows 10 Home 64)

Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB

My first try:

-Connect the new SSD to a desktop pc and preps it as shown in page 1

-Create a USB drive with Microsoft Creation Tool -> Windows 10 Home 64 French

-Install the SSD in the laptop

-Boot with USB drive using the F9 key -> UEFI boot on sandisk...

-Lauching the Windows 10 setup, Setting keyboard, Install, Ignore Product key, Agree, Custom install...

=The problem= The SSD is not displayed, the box where i should select a drive/partition is empty!

I repeated the steps again dozens of times, always the same thing.

I can't see the SSD or the original HDD in the BIOS because there NO place to see it.

The only options are about Legacy Mode, Secure Boot and Boot order for either UEFI or Legacy Mode.

I tried all the combinations and yes the SSD is physicaly connected well.

Everything works fine with the original HDD and if I boot with it, i can acheive the Samsung Data Migration process succesfully with the SSD attached with a powered USB to SATA adapter.

I really don't understand why I can't see the SSD in Windows10 setup. There's no firmware update available yet at the samsung website.

I have also tryed to make diffent USB Drive using the manual method, the Rufus method, UEFI, non UEFI. I've also make a copy of all the the HP drivers on the usb drive and selected it in the "Load a driver" dialog (see image).

 This is a image taken from google image, in this case there's only the Refresh and the Load driver that aren't grayed out.

Please help!

[erico]

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@idephil wrote:

Hi everyone!

I just finished to read all 12 pages of this post looking for something i probably missed. I hope someone will answer my question, i'm trying to do a clean install of Win10 on a new SSD in a HP laptop for 30 or more hours...

HP Pavilion 17-e033ca

(upgraded to Windows 10 Home 64)

Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB

My first try:

-Connect the new SSD to a desktop pc and preps it as shown in page 1

-Create a USB drive with Microsoft Creation Tool -> Windows 10 Home 64 French

-Install the SSD in the laptop

-Boot with USB drive using the F9 key -> UEFI boot on sandisk...

-Lauching the Windows 10 setup, Setting keyboard, Install, Ignore Product key, Agree, Custom install...

=The problem= The SSD is not displayed, the box where i should select a drive/partition is empty!

I repeated the steps again dozens of times, always the same thing.

I can't see the SSD or the original HDD in the BIOS because there NO place to see it.

The only options are about Legacy Mode, Secure Boot and Boot order for either UEFI or Legacy Mode.

I tried all the combinations and yes the SSD is physicaly connected well.

Everything works fine with the original HDD and if I boot with it, i can acheive the Samsung Data Migration process succesfully with the SSD attached with a powered USB to SATA adapter.

I really don't understand why I can't see the SSD in Windows10 setup. There's no firmware update available yet at the samsung website.

I have also tryed to make diffent USB Drive using the manual method, the Rufus method, UEFI, non UEFI. I've also make a copy of all the the HP drivers on the usb drive and selected it in the "Load a driver" dialog (see image).

 This is a image taken from google image, in this case there's only the Refresh and the Load driver that aren't grayed out.

Please help!

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In the BIOS, enable legacy mode. 

With some brands of SSD, you need to prep the SSD by use of the Diskpart commands I described in the first post in this thread. Once you have prepped the SSD on another PC you can reconnect it inside the notebook and use method # 1 again. It should work.

[Jsanchez1221]

I had the same exact question. I am planning on replacing a 1TB hdd that came with my envy 15t slim quad windows 7 laptop with a 512 gb samsung 550 pro. I read that the recovery disks that I had made would not work if I ever needed to do a system restore because the size of my ssd was smaller than the factory 1TB HDD. What I gather from Sparkles1 is that if I ever needed to do a system restore from the recovery discs/usb I made, it would work because my ssd is over 128gb. Am I correct?