Okay, I promised a bit of a write up and photos of my Envy 14 optical drive/HDD transplant so here it is.
First thing to say is that the job's not difficult. I've swapped hard drives and memory in laptops before but never opened one right up, and as this was my brand new, shiny and expensive Envy I was really quite apprehensive about making some awful mistake. I needn't have been.
If, like me, you don't have much screwdriver experience inside laptop casings, just be careful and methodical, and watch out for the couple of slightly tricksy bits I'll point out later in this post, and you'll be just fine.
I'd also encourage people to consider this mod. I almost never put a cd or dvd in my last laptop but more storage would always have been useful. The combination I have now in this Envy is perfect - a 160gb SSD system disc for my OS, apps and speed critical data, and a big fat 500gb HDD for movies and music etc. Anyway, to the job itself...
Okay, although the job isn't difficult a bit of preparation will smooth things along, so gather up the bits you're going to need: small screwdrivers, pots to store removed screws, something to protect your screen etc. Also, get the HP Envy maintenance manual, it's very helpful for confirming the steps you need to follow and for showing the location of screws you need to remove (*edit* hmm, I was going to put in a url link to the maintenance manual here but HP seem to have hidden it or removed it from their website. Perhaps my search fu is just failing though, so if you can find a copy grab it, it's useful for guiding you through).
When you're ready to go, open up device manager from inside Windows and uninstall/remove your optical drive. I forgot to do this but it caused me no problems, Win 7 figured everything out as soon as I rebooted. However, best practice is probably to remove the device from Windows before you physically take it out, so you might want to do it properly.
Now, power down your machine and remove the battery and HDD from the battery compartment (I won't go into that here, it's very simple and there are plenty of other guides to show you how to do it if you're unsure).
Remove the 5 (I think) small screws from the front edge of the main compartment cover and nudge it backwards to free it. It will then lift right off, exposing the main board and other internals. Store the screws and cover somewhere safe.
A quick word on this point, most of the screws you remove are easily identified and hard to mix up, but it's worth being careful with them and putting them out of the way. I put all mine next to me and as I worked I kept putting my arms down on them, mixing them up and knocking them on the floor (clumsy oaf). You might want to avoid this.
You now need to remove the top cover and keyboard assembly. Start by removing the 8 (again, I think, working from memory here) screws which are arranged around the outer edge of the casing. You're still working from the underside of your laptop here, under the main cover which you just removed. The HP maintenance guide will show you the location of these screws, and don't forget the couple either side of the fan.
There are FOUR further smaller screws inside the battery compartment which also need to come out. Be careful here because if you're following the manual it will tell you there are three. There are two sitting under where the battery lives, and two more in the primary hard drive space.
Once these 12 screws are out flip over the laptop so it is right way up and facing you (as it would be if you were using it). At this point I'd recommend protecting your screen with a cover of some kind, just in case of mishap. I carefully wrapped an old pillow case around mine and taped it in place.
You're ready now to lift up the top cover and keyboard assembly but before you do you need to be aware of the touchpad cable. The maintenance manual tells you you need to deal with it as you lift the front edge of the top cover, but I didn't realise just how little slack you get on it. There was almost no free cable on mine and I was initially unaware that as soon as I lifted my top cover the touchpad cable was pulled out of it's zif connector. This didn't do it any harm and it went back in at the end just fine, but it's something you should watch for. I've highlighted its location in the photo below (surrounded by RED BOX):
![[IMG]](images/storyImages/Envy14Optical-HDD19Small.jpg)
The top cover is held in place by a few plastic tabs so you need to apply a little pressure to free it. Rather than lever it up from the top side and risk marking visible surfaces, I used a small screw driver to push upwards from the underside, through the holes left by removing the fixing screws. A bit of upward pressure in the front corner holes popped mine free enough so I could get my fingers under there, and I released the rest with gentle manipulation. Beware any firm resistance at this point, I found I had missed a fixing screw, and if I'd forced it I'd have cracked/damaged the top cover. It should come free quite easily, if it doesn't, double check, don't just yank on it!
As you free it, try to keep it low so you don't pull out that touchpad cable. As soon as you can lift the front edge enough to get your finger under, reach in and unclip the left hand end of the cable, which is attached to the top cover. The connector there has a tiny hinged clip, so if you can just get your finger nail to it, and pop it downwards, it should hinge free and release the cable.
The manual will now tell you to start removing other cables and connectors at the screen end of the top cover in order to remove it completely, but this isn't necessary for our purposes. You can just lift the cover up, give it a wrap around with your protective cover, and tape it to the screen to keep it out of the way and secure.
As you do this, watch out for the cable highlighted in BLUE in the above photo. There is *just* enough slack in that cable to get the cover up out of the way without straining it, but it was close, so pay attention to yours. Don't pivot things back any further than is necessary, or you might damage it.
Once the screen and top cover assembly are taped together, you have plenty of room to attack the optical drive, but be careful as you may find the laptop is a bit "tippy" now. With the battery and HDD removed there's not much weight in the bottom to counterbalance the screen, so it might want to fall backwards. Maybe put a pile of books or similar behind it if you're worried about this.
If you are following the manual then at this point it will tell you to start removing the optical drive cable from the mainboard, but again it's not necessary. I didn't realise this and disconnected it anyway and it was a tricky little bugger to get back into place, so don't make the same mistake as me! Below is a photo showing the connector you DO NOT need to undo (indicated by my screwdriver):
![[IMG]](images/storyImages/Envy14Optical-HDD14Small.jpg)
To remove the optical drive, undo the adhesive tape securing the cable fold from the top of the drive casing, and ease it free of the glue which will be holding it down. Take out the four corner screws which secure the optical drive in place and then lift it up a little way. You'll see there is a small daughter board connector on the right hand edge, which you need to disconnect. This is held in place by a single central screw, which you'll need to remove while holding the drive up just a little (there's not a lot of cable slack here, so make sure you don't strain it, keep it as low as you can). Photo below shows the location of the screw you need to undo:
![[IMG]](images/storyImages/Envy14Optical-HDD13Small.jpg)
Once the screw is removed, the connector will just pull away from the drive and it's out:
![[IMG]](images/storyImages/Envy14Optical-HDD22Small.jpg)
You're HALF WAY!
You now need to assemble your replacement HDD into your optical/HDD adapter caddy. You'll need to buy one of these, you can't just throw the new HDD into the machine as is. Make sure you get a 9.5mm SATA model, suitable for an internal slot loading drive. You can get these from newmodeus.com and probably other suppliers.
Simply unscrew the caddy and drop the new HDD into it, putting in the securing screws as appropriate. When it's done it will look like this:
![[IMG]](images/storyImages/Envy14Optical-HDD20Small.jpg)
![[IMG]](images/storyImages/Envy14Optical-HDD21Small.jpg)
There are two side brackets on the original optical drive which you'll need to recover and fix to your new HDD caddy assembly, these will allow you to secure it properly into place. One of these two brackets is shown in this photo, laying on the desk, just about to be moved to the new caddy:
![[IMG]](images/storyImages/Envy14Optical-HDD12Small.jpg)
Drop the new HDD into the laptop, connecting the cable mini board as you go. Remember to replace the single small fixing screw to hold it in place. Secure the drive down with the four fixing screws, and fold up and tape down the slack cable.
Now you're just replacing what you've already removed, so you should be home free. The only tricky bit is getting the tight touchpad cable re-connected.
To do this, I moved the top cover assembly slightly out of position, a couple of inches to the right, to create a bit more slack in the cable. Be careful not to pinch or crimp anything as you do this. With the little extra slack this provides you can wiggle the cable into the connector and snap down the hinged securing clip.
As you drop the top cover back into it's proper place, I think it would be possible to trap a couple of the small wires etc. at the back edge, close to the screen. Perhaps just watch out for that as you position it and push it back home.
Replace all the securing screws you previously removed, fit the main cover, primary HDD and battery, and you're ready to reboot. Windows should see the new hardware, automatically allocate drive letters, and you're good to go. Here's mine, showing all the original HP partitions/names, before I formatted it to give me a single large D: drive
![[IMG]](images/storyImages/Envy14Optical-HDD17Small.jpg)
If you have any questions just ask away, I'll help where I can.
The photos in this thread I reduced in size so they wouldn't be too unwieldy here in the forum. The originals are larger and show more detail, they are all here:
Envy 14 Optical/HDD swapout photos
If you're in the UK, I have a spare optical/HDD caddy because of a mistaken double order. It's brand new, and exactly the same as the one shown in my photos. If you're planning to do the mod then I'll happily sell it to you for £20, which will give you a considerable saving (would cost you over 50 US Dollars with postage). Drop me a pm if you're interested.
I've posted this in the UK thread because a few of us here have been discussing the transplant. If the mods think it appropriate maybe one of them could put a link on the front page of the main Envy 14 thread, I think others might find this useful.
(Apologies for the length of the post, I wanted to get in as much detail as was necessary.)
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
