ENVY 15t-j000 mSATA SSD + HDD fresh install, with mSATA as boot drive

Found F.35 thankfully I had saved to a USB flash drive. Although bad news is, this one does not allow for the creation of a recovery USB drive.

So I used the tools when you press F2 at boot, and selected an older BIOS, which came up as version F.00, which I don't think there was, but used that anyway as I would believe this would be F.24, as that is the only other one that could exist. And it bricked my it for the second time.

Tried to run the recovery from USB of BIOS F.36, which I have done once before and worked. It flashed the recovery BIOS of F.36 just like last time, problem this time, laptop is bricked with black screen and does not start up at all.

Pretty much stuck now, will be digging into trying to recover just to get it to start up. Looks like HP might have removed F.35 and F.36 from their website. Cannot find either now, unless I looking in the wrong places.

Warning to all, if you ever go to roll back from F.36 to F.24, with F.24 is actually listed current. Don't go back to F.24, it will brick your laptop with a black screen.


Update:

There is some serious problems with F.36, not the only place this happening, no wonder they may have pulled this BIOS, let hope HP fix this mess up really quickly. My Envy 15 cannot even recover now and is bricked.

This link makes for a interest read over at HP support forums for BIOS F.36

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebo...ed-my-computer-HP-ENVY-15/td-p/3227083/page/2

 

There's only 1 option on my Envy 15, "Speakers/HP" which apparently handles the headphones jack as well. This is why I couldn't have it set headphone volume separate to the internal speakers, and it's also why I asked others here with Envy laptops whether they have this same issue or if it's just a driver/software difference on mine. Do you have a headphone option on yours?

@T2050, I posted earlier already when I tried to roll back to F.24 from F.35 and fully bricked my laptop...unfortunately I guess you didn't see my post on that.

 

Nar, I did not see that. I think no one expects that that is going to happen. I brick mine once and was able to recover from it using a F.36 recovery USB. The second time around when I tried to go back to F.24, I was fully bricked. Bad news is I thought I was totally stuck, but push in the main BIOS files from F.35 into a installer from F.36, and was able to make a recover USB that actual worked!

Bad thing is (even though very happy I have got it going again) is that forcing F.35 back does not fix my problem. Its almost like F.36 writes to an area of the BIOS that once written to F.35 is not going to overwrite it. Almost like a boot loader to say, nope you are not booting from that mSATA with another drive in there.

I now have a mSATA SSD and SATA SSD in a RAID0, but it not going to even boot from that, even though the data in on a single logical disk in the form of a RAID0.

Just to add, even if I create a FAT32 partition at the start of the RAID0, then I still cannot boot, no matter is EFI or legacy enabled. The BIOS just simply detects as no OS on first disk and will not boot. Only chance here is to use a USB enabled USB key then browse to the bootx64.efi file

 

Hi guys,

I bought the ssd. But how u guys even manage to get the windows 8 or 8.1 iso? I tried getting it from Microsoft, but oem keys cannot be used. Generic keys found online results in "cannot connect" errors.

Very frustrating.

 

I ended up using BT...not ideal but there's no other official way. Just make sure you verify the file hashes to ensure it's a clean ISO.

 

Thanks. BTW, if I were to use an downloaded win8.1 iso, do I have to reactivate the product key or will it auto retrieve from the bios.

 

Does nothing, and if you re-use you existing windows 8 key it will reject it.

 

some have mentioned that you install 8.1 without the key, then just activate it online after it's installed and it should work.

 

Thanks.

I manage to find the rtm iso, and completed the installation following the 1st post. My bios is F.24 if u need to know. Everything worked nicely.

During the installation, there is an need to input the product key, which I used the generic key I found on the internet. After installation is completed, I used the actual key found in my bios (extracted using some software) and activation is completed.

Btw, on the desktop, there is a prompt mentioning that my secureboot is not configured correctly, which I guess is due to disabling of secure boot during the installation. Should I go to bios and enable it again?

Also, regards to the drivers, can I download HP support assistant and install everything through there?

 

Nice but what ever you do, don't ever upgrade (or should I say downgrade) past the F.24 version BIOS you have.

 

I used the a downloaded 8.1 ISO and it did not activate nor did it let me activate. I did manage to get my BIOS's product key but I didn't try it as the product key for the Win8.1.

You can download a Win 8 RTM ISO and install using it. My version did not ask for a product key BUT I did have to re-activate it and at the activation screen I required a product key. I used an app that can scan various parts of your PC and it has a window that provides the product key.

Google "product key bios OEM windows" and you should find a bevy of them.

 

I am running F.35 and for the life of me, I could not get the USB key to work with Legacy model disabled (and secure boot disabled). I always get the "NO OS" error.

I am happy with the Legacy boot version as it seems to be a lot faster - then again, I may still be use to my old Vista machine which took about 2 minutes to boot up.

I have tried a variety of ways to create a UEFI enabled USB key and I think I have it right but the PC won't let me boot with it unless I have Legacy mode enabled. I thought you need to keep it disabled so that it installs Win8 using EFI.

 

To keep your UEFI and boot from USB stick do following things:
1) create primary partition on your USB stick
2) format it using FAT32 file system (this is important - cus bios cannot boot from NTFS partitions)
3) copy content of windows bootable CD to USB stick using for ex. XCOPY utility
4) disable SECURE BOOT in the bios
5) boot from USB (now it will be available in the list of bootable devices) and install OS
6) when OS installed return SECURE BOOT back to its original state.

So now you have both UEFI and SECURE BOOT enabled

 

Thanks - I thought I was doing this. I also used RUFUS to create the USB stick but maybe I missed something.

Do I need 2 partitions on the drive? One for boot and one for OS install?

 

If you going to install OS on mSATA I still would recommend you leave UEFI on the SATA drive. OS partition can be deleted from SATA drive
Whole mSATA can be used for system and programs while SATA drive - for media. This scenario work for me very well

note: there are 3 reserved partitons on SATA drive from scratch ...
if you want to: you can remove all of them except UEFI.

 

BTW: if you planning to upgrade to WIn 8.1 PRO using official MS's ISO you might experience problem due to embedded OEM key in the BIOS. When you install windows - it wont prompt you for key and install home edition instead.
To resolve this problem - you might need create USB stick with preconfigured edition/key embedded into it.
Following recipe can be used:
under "sources" directory on the installation media
create file "ei.cfg" with following content:
[EditionID]
Professional
[Channel]
Retail
[VL]
0


then create file "PID.txt" file in same dir with following content:
[PID]
Value=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

replace X's by your retail key

 

Does anyone have the BIOS for a TouchSmart 15t-j100? Any BIOS? I have a new one from HP that is doing the two caps lock light blinky routine and I could reflash it if I could only get a BIOS file for it - but none is listed on the support page.

 

I'm confused at the UEFI process. When I create my USB boot disk it doesn't work without having Legacy mode enabled. The USB disk is GPT but the MSATA and the SATA are not.

So, would I need to do the following:

1) boot the USB in Legacy mode
2) run windows install and use diskpart to create the partitions on the SATA (per instructions from MS which has 4 partitions for the disk)
3) install windows on mSATA and continue the process as usual

Does this make sense?

 

1)boot from USB convert your drives to GPT ones
2) create UEFI partition on your SATA disk (at least 256 MB) for UEFI (diskpart can do it for you)
3) restore original UEFI to this partition from backup
4) disable legacy (leave secureboot disabled)
5) boot from USB in UEFI mode and install OS on your mSATA drive

here is good video guide on how to prepare USB stick for UEFI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU7RPyog0_A

 

what if I can't restore the original UEFI to the partition on the SATA? I didn't back it up.

 

I can send you 15t j100 F35 UEFI. just PM me your email

 

Thanks. I had some trouble and I messed up my booting now.

I am starting over but I can't seem to get the USB key to work in uefi mode.

How do I get it to boot from a gpt/uefi formatted disk with this crazy Hp bios?

 

Has anyone been able to roll back to F.23 or F.24 from either F.35 or F.36 without being bricked?

If there is a way get back to F.23 or F.24, then you can boot from the mSATA again with the SATA drive in the laptop, and likely RAID0/1 SSD

 

Yeah that thing needs to be restored from USB, which is simply just a recovery BIOS flash, and is basically the same as any other BIOS flash. Grab F.36 and make a USB recovery from it on a different computer.

Failing that F.35 will be your only chance, but you will not be able to make a recovery on a different computer. The dumb asses at HP made it that you had to make the recovery USB for F.35 on the actual Envy laptop you have, before the BIOS is bricked.

Personally I could only recovery from F.35 as recovery from F.36 would not work for me.

 

What I did is restored UEFI on my hard drive, then I can boot from USB in UEFI mode ...
BIOS itself have too few options for UEFI mode. most functions are in UEFI itself

 

I made a clone of my factory restored SATA drive to the mSATA drive. Both the same yeah, both are bootable (providing you press F9 to manually boot to the mSATA), with the SATA booting first, and the mSATA only automatically if the SATA drive is removed, which is expected with F.36

I deleted the C: drive system partition from the SATA, but this does not allow the laptop to automatically boot to the mSATA just because there is a UEFI partition on the SATA drive. And does not matter what partitions you delete (or add) around the SATA drive, cause it is not going to boot from the mSATA drive.

This is not getting any better, not will it, as it is what it is now with F.36. The only way back is to go back to F.24, but good luck trying to flash that, it just bricks the laptop, and you will have to resort to a USB recovery BIOS procedure.

It anything (given what has just happened), when HP release their next BIOS update, I would not be surprised that you will be no longer able to boot an OS at all from the mSATA drive without the SATA drive in there. HP don't tell their customers what they are really doing in the BIOS updates, I highly doubt a BIOS update contains just those one or two things they give their customers in their release notes.

 

I am so glad that I did not update my bios from F.24.

 

Just want to point yet again, for those that don't read all the thread. Once you upgrade past F.24 there is no going back, you will not be able to roll back without bricking your laptop.

I am working on trying to find a loop hole, but looks like it is impossible to go back to F.24 at this stage. Although, if anyone has discovered a way to do so, then please post.

 

In the past HP has completely locked BIOS from flashing back. I doubt this laptop will be any different.

I find it funny that the HP utility does not even mention a BIOS update for me and has not forced me to update at any point. I check every time I get an update notice that the BIOS is not updated by any other update so I will try to stay at F.24 for as long as HP does not force it upon me.

 

Likely cause they pulled F.36 from their website pretty fast, was only around for a couple of weeks. Just uninstall the HP updater software from add and remove programs, you won't need it.

 

Just a quick note to say that I managed to get my system booting from mSATA after a lot of trial and error and after discovering that I had the wrong Win8 ISO which didn't allow UEFI install as it wasn't a UEFI image.

For the record, I have BIOS F. 35 so I don't have the same problem as T2050.

Such a shame for HP to mess this up with F. 36 - hopefully they can see the light and allow for proper booting from mSATA.

@T2050 - did you try using rEFInd installed on your SATA? Would that provide a workaround for the BIOS problem?

 

I already had UEFI system functioning just fine.

I already had F.35 functioning with UEFI before the flash to F.36

I never had a problem before the flash to F.36

I only had a problem after the flash to F.36, and even when rolled back to F.35, as it seems F.36 changes something for good that does not revert.

Yes I have already used rEFInd and posted a short guide on how to set it up a few pages back. Although I refuse to use it now, as I feel HP shouldn't stab us in the back, also I want use a SSD RAID0 array which is no longer possible.

 

I visited this forum few times after i placed the order for 15t-J100 two weeks ago, but just registered to post.

I just wish to share my installation steps with bios F.36 which is very stable booting from mSATA ( Amazon.com: MyDigitalSSD 50mm Bullet Proof 4 BP4 50mm mSATA Solid State Drive SSD SATA III 6G (240GB)(256GB): Computers & Accessories), I received my system two days before Christmas (HP ENVY TS 15t-J100 Quad Edition). I followed the steps listed below, boot time is 8 seconds from cold, 2 seconds from sleep, the system was already flashed to F.36 from HP.

1. Create UEFI bootable USB flash drive from windows 8.1 iso (used Rufus with the option "GPT partition scheme for UEFI computer")
2. Shutdown, and disconnect 1TB hybrid hard drive, connect mSATA
3. Power on the system, go to bios, set the boot order to USB drive
4. Install windows into mSATA, once done, go back to bios set to defaults
5. Now, it should boot from mSATA, important connect your SATA HDD using USB to SATA cable and format everything, now you can put/connect your HDD back into SATA slot

That's it, Warning but if you ever connect HP recovery USB/Disc and try to recover anything from it, then you spoil your settings, don't panic, just remove SATA HDD (not mSATA) and reformat using USB to SATA, everything will be normal (this is bcoz HP recovery create MBR partition on HDD as that is disk 0 on bios)

I have fully functional boot from mSATA, and 1TB HDD as storage. I have no issues at all with bios F.36

Edit:- all drivers can be downloaded from HP site Software & driver downloads HP ENVY TouchSmart 15t-j100 Quad Edition CTO Notebook PC | HP® Support

 

How exactly did you format this. Did you use the built in Windows format tool, if so did you use a full format?
If you didn't use the built in Windows format tool, what did you use exactly to format it with?
Is there any tool out there that will just simply remove the MBR without a full format, if the above is the case?

I used disk part. "select disk 0", and then "clean all", and this takes out the MBR. Does not work once drive is back in.
Something is up, I used dban autonuke disk, which completely takes out all data, and still does not work. http://www.dban.org/

 

--
I did quick format using built-in windows tool. "something is up" -- there was some strange footprint from recovery disk leftover -> i once used recovery USB to see if i can get "HP connected music app" , that knocked out my boot from mSATA-> to solve all i did was just removed SATA HDD ->booted back from mSATA without any issues ->connected SATA HDD using USB to SATA cable ->in addition to MBR, i noticed text file named "RecoveryPartition" on SATA HDD-> i simply formatted using builtin disk management.



Edit:- in case you can't boot from mSATA after entering bios-even if you did not change anything, don't do anything and don't panic-this is where HP's stupidity welcomes you to missing boot or install OS on hard disk, just power off your system and remove SATA HDD, boot into mSATA, after successful boot connect back SATA HDD, everything will be fine.

 

Thanks for that info. :thumbsup:

 

I have pulled out and formatted the SATA disk in several different ways. On no occasions does it boot to the mSATA. Tried changing the BIOS settings in advance and booting first to mSATA without the SATA drive in then out, and this does nothing to get it to boot exclusively from the mSATA disk once the SATA disk is back in.
Even tried manipulating ever setting in the BIOS in hope that it will skip the port 0 disk and go to the port 1 disk, but it just not going to happen if there is any physical disk connected to port 0 and does not matter it the disk is wiped completely clean or formatted clean. Its not going to happen.
Not sure why yours is different. Damm sure mine to set in the BIOS beyond what we can see, to boot from SATA port 0 first, and if there is nothing on that disk, then its not going to boot period.

HP have done this for a reason, they don't want their customers to have any control over their notebook, and you want such a thing then you need to buy the model that support this. Likely another reason is, it make locking down potential breakages and returns for warranty less likely, thus saving HP money with repairs in the long run. The less that can go wrong the less trouble for HP.

The only real way around this without resorting to boot loaders and such as removing hardware, which are both ridiculous thing to have to do, is to replace the mechanical SATA drive and ditch the mSATA drive for a 2.5" drive which generally perform better and are more cost effective. mSATA drive are not on the cheap side, and nor are 2.5" SSD drive. All in all, no matter what way you look at it, you have to give up something now just to have what you had before.

Damm HP for these BIOS updates. I have tried several times to roll back to F.23 and F.24 from either F.35 and F.36, there is no way back, I have tried ever possible combination to flash these back, and both from Windows and from Recovery.

I'm fast giving up on this POS what it has become, got this thing listed to sell, don't think I will bother buying another HP, been buying their crap for years now, will move onto systems that allow you to have some control, or systems that are already fully loaded. The Envy-15 is less than impressive in many areas. Angry at HP for this, they may own the machine they produce, but they seem to think they still own the system after I have brought the thing.

 

If HP is doing this on purpose why do they keep pulling BIOS updates from website? I think they just screwed up.

Leave both drives installed. Format both, install Windows on HDD first then on Msata. Remove all partitions on HDD except for boot partition. There will be no boot partition on Msata. It will work as long a boot partition is on Msata only. You will now boot from Msata and have HDD as data.

Not the way it should be, but works until HP releases a BIOS that does work.

I have F35.

 

Sorry, that was supposed to be It will work as long a boot partition is on HDD only.

 

This is most safe way to keep EFI partition on the HDD. Rest can be placed on mSSD.
Then you can safely upgrade/enter BIOS without problems

 

Given up on this POS laptop from HP, they pulled one of the main good features out from a very small minority. Pulled their most recent BIOS that were bricking systems. And blocked rolling back to F.24 which is actually current for a lot of models including mine, which would have allowed me to use it as I feel fit to with mSATA boot or even RAID0. Finally sold it, and good riddance to it. I still have a couple of mid 2012 models, at least these were built to a physically reasonable standard, even given locked down areas as well. Only mid 2013 model I have now is a TouchSmart 11, which is a pretty dam nice AMD A6-1450 quad core that runs on the sniff of an oily rag locked on 1.4GHz high performance (note to self, don't bother to update with any HP BIOS anymore, HP will likely force it to back down to 1GHz).

 

Indeed, there seems no way back. HP also pulled F.36 from their website. Anybody got a copy of F.36 to email me? I want to see if I can upgrade to F.36 using a USB stick.

 

I am a little confused by the last few pages of this thread. I had a Quad-j000 a few months ago and the instructions on the first page of this thread worked just fine. Unfortunately we had to send it back for unrelated reasons.

I'm getting a Select-j100 this week. It seems as though it's still possible to do the mSATA boot, but there are slightly different steps...? Can we see about updating the first page?

Are the problems on this thread specifically related to people updating their BIOS, or is it just the case that these laptops ordered now don't support the same boot configuration that they did a couple months ago due to the BIOS situation?

 

The original thread instructions still work, it's just the F.35 (sometimes) and F.36 (always) BIOS versions that seems to be screwing things up. So if you're still on F.24 then the original instructions should still work. F.35 and 36 updates have been pulled from HP's website anyway, so it seems like they know those are buggy versions.

I had a look at an Envy 14 the other day and the BIOS version says F.4 I think, planning to get this for my wife so still need to see of the mSATA boot works for that model.

 

Just got my new Select-j100 15 in and it came with F36. It won't even recognize the M500 480 GB mSSD - it shows up as '0 GB' to diskpart and Windows won't even set up partition information on it because it's 'too small.'

The Mushkin 256 GB mSSD I used on a Quad-j000 worked like a charm - shame I don't have another here to test. Checking with Crucial to see if anybody there knows anything but I suspect the BIOS is the culprit.

 

I received touchsmart 15t-J100 quad edition with F.36, had no problem installing clean 8.1 into msata SSD, just remove your HDD during install -you can format and connect back once everything works with msata.

i also got "too small" when i used HP recovery USB, but no problem when i used windows 8 or 8.1 install USB (created from iso image using Rufus ).

I always leave target disk as "unallocated" and do not format-just select disk and continue the installation.

Edit: i used GPT USB, and msata SSD is GPT

 

So perhaps it's just a bad mSSD. Any reason you can think of why it would choke on a 480 GB mSSD (rather than a 256 GB?)

 

Have you tried connecting mSATA SSD using USB to mSATA adapter? if so, and still it does not recognize then bad mSATA SSD, if it does recognize-just format, and then delete the format (leave it as "unallocated" ). HP Envy runs really fast from mSATA. You could always try re-setting your system -- removing CMOS battery and re-set bios to factory default, and connect your mSATA SSD.

 

My second HP Envy 15t-j100 Quad TouchSmart was delivered today. (My first one had a bad place in the screen)

I will write my opinions in a day or so. :thumbsup:

 

Got my replacement mSATA SSD from Crucial today and the Envy recognized it right away. That's the good news.

I unplugged the HDD and did a fresh install of Windows 8.1. It took right away and booted up with no problem.

When I connect the HDD again, though, it won't boot to the mSSD. It doesn't show up in boot options and the only way I can get it to boot from the SSD with both devices connected is to enable legacy mode, choose 'select boot device' at boot time and then 'boot from EFI file' and it will show me the SSD's ACPI path and allow me to navigate to the Win8 EFI boot file. With legacy mode off, there are no options for boot devices, even though I've set up the SSD with the correct GPT + UEFI partitions. I also formatted the factory HDD.

This was much easier with the -j000 and older BIOS. I really hope HP updates the BIOS, as the ability to boot from the mSSD is one of the strongest selling points this machine has.