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

Once you get back into the OS with the HDD attached to the computer. Install and run the Intel Rapid Storage Drivers from here Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver - HP ENVY 15t-j000 Quad Edition CTO Notebook PC | HP® Support and you should be good to go after the reboot.

 

Anyone try the new F.53 BIOS yet and see better results with the mSATA + HDD?

 

no changes from F.43 BIOS, still no option to select disk, otherwise no issues

 

Ordered an HP Envy 15t-j100 last week and awaiting shipment. Picked up a 256gb lite-on msata and plan on using it as the boot drive and using the 1tb as storage.

Will I be able to simply image the 1tb drive onto the msata using Acronis, then format the 1tb and be good to go or will i have to install Windows 8.1 fresh on the msata?

Also, has anyone tried installing Windows 7 on these computers? Results?

 

Has any one tried RAID 0 with a mSATA and a 2.5 SSD?

 

Had a similar issue. Had set up both drives per the OP and everything was fine until I updated the BIOS from F.43 to F.53. Only solution was to remove the HDD and boot from the msata once, then you can put the HDD back in and it should boot to Windows as normal.

Entering the BIOS for some stupid reason seems to breaks booting from msata, I don't know what HP were thinking!

I have it running perfectly now and have told my gf under no uncertain circumstances is she to press any buttons when she's booting the laptop!

 

Hi guys,
I'm new here, but I saw many threads of yours (like Acer 4820 and others) now I'm looking for a new laptop and this HP Envy 15-j is my choise. I want to know if there are some people with the new version of this notebook by HP. In Italy there is a new series the 15-j1xx with the new RAM DD3L, and for now it is the only difference I have noticed from the "old" series 15-j0xx ... Does someone know if the MOD of mSATA still work with this series? Because I want a mSATA 120gb drive in my notebook and of course space for other data and files..

Thanks a lot for your support!

 

Yes, I have, a RAID0 can be created, although it will not work. Shows no OS installed as like when people try and use the mSATA as a boot drive.

 

Hello everyone,

Do I need to format original 1TB drive and delete all partitions?

What i did:

1) Remove 1TB HDD and install Plextor 128GB mSATA
2) Disable Security Boot in BIOS
3) Install Windows from USB memory stick to mSATA drive
4) Windows startup fully from the mSATA
5) Shutdown
6) Plug HDD back
7) Power

Windows still loads from 1TB HDD and not from mSata.

Removed 1TB HDD and Windows loads from Plextor mSata.

Do I need to format / delete partitions on 1TB HDD before load Windows from mSata?

128GB mSata (with clean Windows) + 1TB HDD (with original HP Windows) and the Windows loads from 1 TB HDD only and not from mSata.

Any ideas?

 

Other posts have mentioned you can delete the boot files from your HDD and it should work. However for me, I chose a more definite option.
I first removed the HDD and plugged it into my desktop and made a backup image of the HDD, including all partitions, using Acronis True Image. Then I found a free or trial (can't remember which) program that could see and delete all partitions from the HDD. At this point it will show as one complete volume with no partitions. I formatted it to NTFS from Windows. This gave me a completely empty HDD that was ready to be used in the laptop. I kept the Acronis Image backup on my desktop in case I ever decide to revert back for whatever reason. Meanwhile I was installing Windows 8.1 on my mSATA on the laptop, which you've already accomplished. So, if you follow the steps above you should have no problem booting from the mSATA with your newly cleaned HDD back in place. Simply put, your best option is to completely remove all partitions and erase your HDD before putting it back into the laptop. There may be other ways to do this, but for me this was the simplest and most convenient.

Something to remember - if you ever go into your bios or choose the boot menu during startup then the stupid thing will want to start booting from the HDD again. Simple (but annoying) fix is to shut down, remove the HDD, boot into Windows once with the HDD removed, shut down, reinstall HDD, and boot back up - this will get you back to booting from the mSATA and having full use of the HDD.

I did not try to install other versions or copies of other operating systems on the HDD in addition to the Windows 8.1 I put on the mSATA. That didn't interest me so I can't speak to any of that.

For reference, I am using bios F.53, and this is the mSATA I'm using: Amazon.com: MyDigitalSSD 256GB (240GB) 50mm Bullet Proof 4 BP4 50mm mSATA Solid State Drive SSD SATA III 6G - MDMS-BP4-240: Computers & Accessories

Let me know if this doesn't work for you or if you have any other questions.

 

I have HP TS 15 j000...Because of msata socket option I decided to to buy this laptop. So bought crucial 256 GB msata and after taking HDD out installed windows 8.1. It was installed with nice speed and every thing. Then I installed cleaned HDD back but I don't see it anywhere. Attaching via USB outside it does get recognize but not when I attach inside. In BIOS legacy mode is disabled and secure boot enabled. One time did try to install windows 8.1 on HDD too as suggested on some other site but after del partitions on HDD was unable to boot at all so had to install again on msata without HDD as outlined above. So any suggestion regarding HDD being recognized as storage drive? I have the latest HP BIOS so not sure whether it is HP issue or what?

 

Update....Again installed windows 8.1 on msata. afterwards added clean HDD without any partitions. Then added HP assistant for drivers and other stuff. It showed me update for BIOS and other drivers so I installed. After this found inability to boot, may be due to boot stuff in presence of hard drive. Removed hard disk, let it boot from msata ,again put back HDD and viola..now HDD is there as storage drive and msata with fast boot time and without any BCD or other programs. Not sure is it due to new BIOS f.56 ( less likely in view of previous history) or addition of drivers

 

This has been the standard quo normal for over 6 months now

 

drurfan, it would have been helpful if you read more of the comments, but considering there are now 32 pages I can understand your reluctance to do this. The best solution is to NOT update your bios after you get everything working. However, since you've done that you can try these steps:

1. remove HDD and set it aside (obviously the laptop should be off)
2. boot to Windows from the mSATA drive
3. shutdown laptop completely
4. place HDD back into the laptop
5. boot back into windows being careful not to press ESC key during POST

This has worked for just about everyone else including myself, at least with bios version f.53 or newer. If you ever need to go back into your bios it will cause the system to not recognize the mSATA again, then you will have to repeat steps 1-5 again.

 

I am getting a failure to find boot device when I have both my msata and 7200rpm hdd installed. If just msata is plugged in it boots fine. The 7200 rpm hard drive is wiped and clean. I have done the suggestions here when it says to boot unplugged, shutdown, plug back in the 7200 rpm and boot back up. I have tried with secured boot both on and off. Msata drive boots fine with secured boot on and off. I am on the latest bios. Any suggestions?

 

You may have already verified this, but just because the HDD has been formatted (cleaned) doesn't mean all the partitions are gone. You can use diskpart from the CMD prompt to check this, but you should also be able to view these hidden partitions from Disk Management inside Windows. However, if you can't boot into Windows then that becomes difficult.

You can try these options:
1. plug your HDD into another computer and use Disk Management to look for hidden partitions. You should see only one partition if it is truly clean. If not, you can launch a CMD prompt in Windows and follow steps a) - h) below.
- or -
2. plug your HDD into your laptop, but instead of trying to boot into Windows, boot from a Windows install USB. Once the "Setup is Starting" screen appears or the first prompt screen press SHIFT+F10. This will launch the CMD prompt.
From there-
a) type: diskpart and press enter.
b) type: list disk and press enter. This will show you both drives in your laptop. you should be able to distinguish which is which by the size. for the next part you will need to know which drive is the HDD. should either be 0 or 1.
c) type: select disk X and press enter. (where X is either 0 or 1 based on whichever is your HDD).
d) type: list disk and press enter (again). now you should see an asterisk next to the drive you selected in part c). this means you are now ready to work on that disk.
e) type: list partition and press enter. this is where you can see how many partitions are on your HDD. if you have more than one proceed to step f). if not, then this process won't help you.
- our goal in the next steps is to remove all partitions from your HDD so it will be truly clean -
f) type: select partition X (where X is either 1, 2, 3, or 4, or more if such exists) and press enter. this activates the partition you want to delete.
g) type: delete partition override and press enter.
h) repeat steps f) and g) for each partition

This will take care of any hidden partitions and hopefully, if this was your problem, it should allow you to boot back into Windows on your laptop with both drives in place. Remember you will need to boot into Windows once with your HDD removed and then shut down, re-install the HDD, then boot up again being careful not to press ESC during the boot. Good luck!

If you want to learn more about diskpart you can check these links:
A Description of the Diskpart Command-Line Utility
DiskPart Commands

 

Hi,

I've added an msata samsung 120gb ssd on the laptop (envy 15 with bios F.56) and installed the OS via acronis disk cloning (unable to install using HP recovery software as it keeps popping out "Destination drive is not connected" when i tried installing with msata connected and HDD disconnected -> no options to choose during hp recovery if i were to connect both SSD and HDD as it will automatically go for HDD).

I am able to boot the msata ssd only into windows when my HDD is disconnected. When my HDD is connected, it would boot into the OS on the HDD instead of SSD. Then, I tried reformatting my HDD using my desktop such that it contains totally nothing (clean delete of all 3 partitions) but it still didn't work. Played with all the bios settings after reading on the forum but still no results --> only OS bootloader or notebook hard drive available to choose from in boot menu.

I've also tried bootice installed on my HDD (once on HDD with OS and once on HDD refomatted. I can get into the boot manager but got a black screen with a blinking cursor when i tried to boot msata SSD from there. Easybcd didn't work either. I was wondering if disk cloning be the problem since some people have experienced success using bootice on hp laptops.

I have ran out of ideas to run this laptop with msata SSD + HDD. My last resort is to use with just msata SSD or buy another SSD to replace the HDD. I'm too used to having SSD on my desktop to adapt to a HDD laptop. I've also called HP support in my country and i can't believe they actually asked me to do a raid configuration for HDD+ msata SSD!

Anyone can give some solution? ^^ Thanks

 

Can you confirm there is only partition on the HDD? You can verify this by connecting the HDD back into your desktop and looking at it in Disk Management. There should be only one partition, otherwise this is probably what is causing your problem. It is not enough to just format the partitions. They need to be totally gone. In fact I didn't even format the HDD after deleting the partitions until I reinstalled it into the laptop and was able to successfully boot into windows from the SSD while still having the HDD installed. If you need help deleting the partitions you can read my post above your comment.

You need to boot into Windows at least once with the HDD removed, then shut down, reinstall HDD and the power back on again. Also, I didn't make any BIOS changes to get this to work for me, but I am using the version of BIOS prior to F.56. If this still isn't working for you, you can try changing your BIOS settings back to default. Also, keep in mind, if any time you press the ESC button during the boot process with both drives installed it will disrupt the harmony and you will have to repeat the process of removing the HDD, booting to windows, shutting down, reinstalling HDD, powering back on.

If you've done all these things and still have the problem, then I wish you luck.

 

Hi I just ordered MyDigitalSSD 128GB 50mm Bullet Proof 4 mSATA SATA III 6G - MDMS-BP4-120 online waiting for delivery. I did a google search for mSATA and my laptop and ended up at this thread. I'm a newb with mSATA but looking to clone my current hard drive to boot from the mSATA drive. Is it possible to follow this guide How to Install an mSATA SSD Boot Drive in Your Laptop - LAPTOP with success? I tried reading through but the thread was started some time ago and now 32 pages, any help is appreciated thank you!

 

OK guys, great thread this. Just finished reading it all and learnt lot. Big thanks.
I have a problem that's slightly off topic though, but kind of not either.
I have Envy 15t-j013 running the latest .56 bios.
I've replaced the HDD with a Samsung evo 250gb by using the Samsung migration software to copy the HDD over and that works amazingly well. Really fast and no issues what so ever.
I have a runcore 120gb msata laying around and would like to just use it as a bit of extra space plugged into the msata slot inside the laptop. Nothing as fancy as using it as a boot drive.
Now the problem is that any time the msata is plugged into the laptop it seems to have a problem that locks the computer in some sort of test routine that tells me that there is a fault with my drives. Doesn't matter if the other drive is attached or not, it just refuses to post.
My first thought was that my msata was faulty, but I plugged it into a usb adaptor and it seem to be working fine. It's formatted to NTFS, so thats good.
The problem then must be the laptop. Maybe the socket, but maybe the bios settings.
I've searched about the net for days looking for a solution, but no good. So I've decided that one of you more enlightened people here may have the solution to my problem and hopefully don't mind me crashing the thread.
On the face of it my problem is no where near as complicated as the getting the laptop to boot from the msata, but I can't seem to get it going.
Any ideas would gratefully received.

 

I don't know a solution, but I have a feeling that HP would eventually lock out the user totally from using the mSATA, if is the case, then might be in the latest BIOS.

If the BIOS is the case, try and find an older BIOS and create a recovery USB and downgrade the BIOS to earlier version.

 

Never do BIOS downgrades (if other not specified directly by HP)
In most cases BIOS downgrade cause your device become "brick"

By the way ...
I've installed OS on my msata but keept UEFI partition on sata-hdd.
Everything work as expected. You even can enter BIOS for any reason without risk to break boot

 

I have been fighting this battle in many different ways before stumbling on this thread (thanks Google!). Anyway, I have finally gotten my mSATA configured exactly how I want and I guess my next step is to wipe the HDD and toss it back in as a data only drive.

My concern is that I'm also running Ubuntu, and on both the HDD & mSATA installs I have to hit F9 to get grub to load.

My fear is that in doing so, I may be 'entering the bios' and break boot.

Anyone have an opinion on that?

 

OK so i read through most of this thread. So far i did fresh install of windows 8.1 using iso to usb (rufus GPT). (first removing HDD). currently its booting fine from mSATA (of course the HDD still not put back). I need to wipe all partitions before putting the HDD back in, however, I currently have no SATA to USB cable or SATA USB enclosure. Is there another way I could wipe all the partitions on the HDD without using the cable adapter? I'd like to get it all done before waiting on the adapter. I was considering booting to windows, put it in hibernate then pop the HDD in and see if I could do it that way but don't want to risk damaging anything, any suggestions? Thanks for all the info everyone.

 

Just an idea - boot with the usb & hdd in - go through the install to the point you can delete partitions/format drive, then cancel.

 

My update: I took the plunge last night & it was an epic fail. If the HDD is present, the notebook wants to boot off that drive, and of course there is no OS on it.

So I tried something else I found on the internet - with both drives installed, I booted off the an install USB & installed windows on the HDD. Then I rebooted, installed EasyBCD on the HDD, added the mSATA to the boot & deleted the fresh Windows install from the boot. Rebooted again & another epic fail.

 

So here's where it gets interesting: IF I leave the system in Legacy mode AND hit the F9 key during power up, I eventually (after the Intel RAID screen clears) get the option to boot from EUFI file or Notebook Hard Drive. If I pick Hard Drive It hangs saying no OS is installed. If I choose boot from EUFI file, it leads me to a drive selection (the mSATA is the only that shows up) then I get a display of various EUFI directories. If I remember correctly it's BOOT, HP, MICROSOFT and Ubuntu. Picking anything from BOOT or Ubuntu leads me to a successful boot off the mSATA, with access to the HDD. This is working for both Windows & Ubuntu. The problem is that it requires me to be quick on the fingers, and carefully monitor & participate in the boot process. In fact, it almost seems like by the time I'm finally booted all the time savings of using booting off the mSATA is lost.

 

I tried your method, in windows install i was able to delete all partitions, but in the unallocated space Format option was grayed out. Now I got it to boot with the hard drive connected but windows doesn't detect it (not in device manager or disk management). Looks like i'm going to wait for that cable, should arrive Tuesday, hopefully formatting it will do the trick.

 

update: so i popped in the usb windows, this time i instead of install i went to repair computer, then chose boot to windows, now the HDD showed up in disk manager, so i formated created volume. took out usb and it boots up perfectly off msata and also have the hdd as storage. thanks again everyone. also to save some time if you ever go into bios and your unable to boot from msata, you don't need to physically remove hdd, instead boot off windows usb and go repair, then boot to windows. when you shut down and start again it should boot off msata.

 

Awesome, I will have to try that. My boot process is so convoluted I just leave the laptop on. Query: is your boot USB 8 or 8.1? I'm only asking because I think with 8 you have to load drivers & I've not seen that on the 'repair' side anywhere.

 

8.1. download ISO then use rufus to create boot USB with GPT partition.

 

I tried downloading 8.1 from Microsoft when I started this mess, but it wouldn't let me so I just used the 8 from them. Maybe I need to check out some torrents to find an 8.1 ISO?

 

Exactly, microsoft is being a PITA with trying to download directly from them. When you download the ISO run a hash checker to make sure the ISO not altered. Make sure you download the right version that came with your computer (core vs pro, etc). you can match the hash at MSDN MSDN Subscriber Downloads

then use a generic key during install, after installing windows change product key with the one in your BIOS (use a program to retrieve your product key off the BIOS).

 

Does anyone know whether or not the new 2014 Envys can have msata boot drives?
And if they do, is the process the same as in the OP?

 

Hello guys

I think this device would solve all your problems (including boot)

Crucial MX100 CT512MX100SSD1 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
PROS:
1) FAST LIKE HELL (MUCH faster than fastest mSATA device available atm) anandtech review benchmark
2) large available space (512GB could be enough for all your files and some multimedia, use external USB/NAS storage for rest of the media)
4) cheapest on the market $ per GB (just 41 cent)
CONS:
if you need more than 512 GB for your work - you might better choose HDD + mSATA SSD or SAMSUNG 840 EVO 1TB

I consider to buy this one on top of mSATA plextor PX-256M5M I have atm

 

@hendrix: Have you solved the HDMI problem? It seems that I have the same problem.

 

There were a few updates to 8.1 which appeared to fix it. I think I might've re-installed the driver too, but I'm not sure.

 

It's been several months since I found the solution, but if you're still having that problem, check out the HP forums. IF I remember correctly, the solution was to d/l the video driver directly from Intel & NOT the HP site. Whatever it was worked for me.

 

Hello Bwillet,

I am from India. I've brought an HPENVY 15tj100 Select Edition on November 29, 2013.

My Specs are as follows -

Windows 8.1 64 4th generation Intel®Core™ i74702MQ Processor
NVIDIA GeForce GT750M Graphics with 4096MB of dedicated video memory
15.6 inch diagonal Full HD Bright View LED backlit Display (1920x1080)
16GB DDR3 System Memory (2Dimm)
750 GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
NO mSSD HardDrive Acceleration Cache

I brought a new Kingston 240GB V300 SSD HD and tried to install Win 8.1. But unfortunately the installation was not moved after the first step "Starting Setup" after this it'll show the same window for more than 40 min and restart automatically. this step repeat every time. one time i went up to selecting partition to install the OS but i was unable to format the selected partition and the installation stopped there. Also i didnt find a mSATA port.

My doubt is, is it possible to install the OS as you mentioned below ? i removed my stock HDD and installed an old normal Mechanical hard drive and i working on that now. If you have any idea kindly share, it is really valuable to me....

Thanks in Advance
VVK

 

Anyone has the idea about recent f .63 BIOS update as mine is f.56 . Is updating of any use?

 

Why would want to update if your laptop is working fine? I am still in f.24 and I have no issues.

 

Recently, I have successfully did the "Upgrade" of 15t-j001er with BIOS ver. F.64.Rev A.
I followed steps in the first message of the thread and additionaly formatted HDD (regular not quick) using my desktop. Now it works fine, so I think it's ok to update bios.

 

Because of same very issue. If I go to BIOS then have to remove hard disk in order for msata to work. Was wondering if this issue has been fixed in new update or not

 

One of those epiphanal moments lead me to try the following: I created an EUFI partition on the original hard drive, then booted off a LIVE CD stick (Ubuntu) and during the install process selected a custom install & used the EUFI partition for the Grub2 install. Problem solved, no issues going into the BIOS any more.

 

Possible Solution

I have a HP Envy M6 which came with just a 750GB spindle drive. I wanted to add a samsung 840 evo msata to the mix. Same thing as everyone here experienced, it wouldn't look for the boot loader on the msata even when the sata drive was completely empty. Got a workaround via this thread: ssd - Windows 8 EFI boot issue - Super User

Long story short, created a 100MB Fat32 partition on the 750GB sata drive (call it whatever you want) then booted into the windows 8 installer via a usb key, launched command prompt with SHIFT + F10 (i think) and ran the following:

Code:

bcdboot c:\Windows /l en-en /s b: /f UEFI

B: is the drive letter for the 100MB partition (it could be any drive letter).
Note: the drive letter with windows could be different, so either poke around command prompt to find out or launch DISKPART and run show volumes to find the partition.

The only downside to this solution is that if the sata drive fails you lose boot capabilities. To get around this you could create a ISO of the 100mb boot drive and upload it for safe keeping and burn it to a usb flash disk in case of emergencies. I've tried and was able to get the system to boot by placing the boot loader on a USB flash drive.

Hope this helps someone

 

Plasmos : I'm in same boat as you, and it's pretty confusing among HP Envy model numbers and several plus, minus, defects and positive and negatives, just with a chnage of model numbers after ENVY tag. trust me on this as each model has it's own MB layout and some has proper cooling and some don't as each ENVY series is comming from different ODM (my Guess only).

Coming to my query, in this forum, does any one knew about 2014 HP Envy models with the sort of following specs , WITH m2SATA for 2nd Drive
i7 i7-4712HQ Quad
Graphics 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M Graphics
Screen 15.6 Full HD WLED-backlit Display (1920x1080)
RAM 16GB DDR3L System Memory (2 Dimm)
HDD 1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
mSATA ?????????
Battery 6-cell 47WHr Lithium-ion Battery
Keyboard Backlit Keyboard
WebCam HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Dual Digital Microphone
Wireless 802.11b/g/n WLAN [1x1]
Battery time 8 Hours

or any 2015 Models in ENVY series has the option of m2Sata port empty????

 

Plasmos : I'm in same boat as you, and it's pretty confusing among HP Envy model numbers and several plus, minus, defects and positive and negatives, just with a chnage of model numbers after ENVY tag. trust me on this as each model has it's own MB layout and some has proper cooling and some don't as each ENVY series is comming from different ODM (my Guess only).

Coming to my query, in this forum, does any one knew about 2014 HP Envy models with the sort of following specs , WITH m2SATA for 2nd Drive
i7 i7-4712HQ Quad
Graphics 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M Graphics
Screen 15.6 Full HD WLED-backlit Display (1920x1080)
RAM 16GB DDR3L System Memory (2 Dimm)
HDD 1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
mSATA ?????????
Battery 6-cell 47WHr Lithium-ion Battery
Keyboard Backlit Keyboard
WebCam HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Dual Digital Microphone
Wireless 802.11b/g/n WLAN [1x1]
Battery time 8 Hours

or any 2015 Models in ENVY series has the option of m2Sata port empty????

 

Any one around with knowledge over HP Envy?

 

Wow, seems HP Envy thread is such a boring and low activity? looks like all gone HP to dust?

 

As far as I remember from others threads - new models equipped with GF GTX 850M doesn't have mSATA slot.
The older models (Geforce 740 and 750) - have mSATA slot (as well the option for SSD cache during "custom order" on HP website)