Installing msata to hp envy 15 touchsmart i7

Ok i read threads and threads and threads on this, and was so confused.

then did this

As has been discussed on the dozens of threads (here and elsewhere) that I've read today, the BIOS does not recognize the mSATA as bootable, either from UEFI or legacy. So, editing out the dead ends I went down, here's what I did to get it to work:

1. Acquire new mSATA drive. Mine is a samsung 128GB.
2. Acquire a Windows 8 install DVD. (

3. Flip over the laptop, remove the battery, remove the bottom cover. Now, remove the 1TB HDD (4 screws, but slides out easily) and set it aside. Then replace the existing 32GB mSATA drive with your new, larger mSATA drive (1 screw). I have a 128GB, but it should work just as well with a 64GB or 256GB. Replace the cover and battery. At this point, both of the regular SATA slots should be empty.

4. Boot the PC, hitting F2 to go to BIOS. Insert your Windows 8 (or 7, this should work with Windows 7 as well) DVD. Go to "Advanced" and set SATA Operations from Intel Smart Response to AHCI. Go to "Boot", set Secure Boot to Disabled. Then set Load Legacy Option Run to Enabled.

5. Move CD/DVD/CD-RW-Drive above Hard Drive under the new Legacy Boot menu. Push F10 to save and exit.

6. Your PC should now boot from the Windows 8 DVD in the drive (NOTE: you should also be able to do this with a USB stick, provided it's formatted properly). Follow the on-screen installation process to install Windows 8 to the mSATA drive. Once installation is complete, you should get left at the Windows desktop. Shut down the PC. (NOTE: I tried this with the HDD still inside, but it was Disk 0 and the SSD was Disk 1, and my Windows DVD would only install to Disk 0, so I strongly recommend removing the HDD before you try installing Windows on the mSATA SSD.)

7. Once again, remove the battery and back cover. Replace the 1TB HDD drive in the primary SATA slot from which you removed it in Step 3. Replace back cover and battery.

8. Boot the PC from your Windows 8 DVD again. On the Windows 8 partition setup screen, delete all of the existing partitions (there's like six of them) on Disk 0 (the 1TB HDD). Install Windows to the newly blank drive. You should also see, as Disk 1, your mSATA SSD, ignore it for now.

9. The PC will restart and should leave you at a Windows desktop running off of the HDD. Go to Computer (just type that into the search option on the "Charms" on the right side of the screen in Windows 8), you'll see three drives, the one you're on, the system recover drive on the mSATA SSD, and the primary partition on the mSATA SSD. Note the drive letter of the primary partition on the SSD. Mine was E:\, but yours may be different. You can verify that it's the right one because of the amount of disk space available.

10. Download an install EasyBCD:

11. Launch EasyBSD. Click the "Add New Entry" icon. Set the name to "SSD" or something similar, and set the drive to the primary partition on your SSD. (Again, mine was E:\.) Click Add Entry.

12. On the left side of EasyBSD, click Edit Boot Menu. You should see two entries, one for "Windows 8" or something similar, and one for "SSD" (or whatever you named it in Step 11.) Delete the one that says "Windows 8" so that the only entry is the one you just created, "SSD" in this example. Save the settings.

13. Eject the Windows 8 DVD from your PC.

14. Restart. (If you'd like, you can push F2 to return to the BIOS and set Hard Drive above the CD/DVD/CD-RW-Drive in the Legacy Boot order.)

15. Your PC should now boot directly to the Windows 8 install on your mSATA SSD drive. To verify this, go back to Computer, you should see three drives, your OS C:\ drive with 100GB or so free (on a 128 GB drive), a "System Reserved" drive (on the HDD at 350MB), and the much larger primary partition (also on the HDD). You can go to Control Panel | System and Security | Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Disk Management and delete the primary partition on the HDD. (Always best to leave System Reserved alone, especially since it's a paltry 350MB.) Once the primary partition is removed, you can use the rest of that roomy 1TB drive for whatever you like.

That's it. You now have a single copy of Windows running on your mSATA drive which your PC will boot automatically and the main HDD for storage.

SUMMARY: Yes, this process involves installing Windows twice, first on the mSATA drive and then again on the HDD. But since the BIOS won't show the mSATA drive in the boot order, you need the boot partition on the HDD to tell the computer to boot from the mSATA SSD. With EasyBSD it's just a few clicks to tell the boot record on the HDD (which does appear in the BIOS boot options) to boot from the mSATA SSD (which does not appear in the BIOS boot options).

NOTE: I do not know that this is an optimal procedure, for speed, security or anything else. I do know that it will work. If you want a clean, no bloatware install of Windows 8 running off of the mSATA drive on this model laptop, the above should do that for you.

Note when i did this the first time i got a few errors but i think it was from a driver error, the second time I did it, i installed win8 then win8.1 then all drivers on the msata, tested restarted serveral times.... all working fine then installed on the 1tb hdd, then easy bcd.

this thanks to charlie s

 

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?