Installing SSD in Optical drive bay

bwrwgamer · Feb 26, 2016

Hi.

I currently own a HP Envy 15-ae065sa laptop (http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-ENVY-15-ae000-Notebook-PC/7771345/model/8296158/document/c04759742/?sku=M3Z01EA).

The 5400rpm drive is too slow so I was thinking of replacing the main drive with an SSD (850 Evo) however I don't want to open up the laptop to replace it and I also want to retain the 1tb storage. I found out that I can remove the optical drive by simply removing one screw on the bottom of the laptop and use a caddy to insert an SSD.

I would like to know if the optical drive connector is capable of running the SSD at full speed and also will putting an SSD in the drive bay cause any problems?

Thanks for your time.

COLGeek · Feb 26, 2016

Yes, it should be able to support the full SATA capability. That is all that it is, a SATA port.

bwrwgamer · Feb 26, 2016

COLGeek :

I used HWInfo to look at the SATA speeds of the drives (http://tinypic.com/r/21e3lhj/9) and the optical drive shows a 1.5gbps link speed. Am I right in saying that if I connected an SSD, the link speed would be higher?

http://tinypic.com/r/21e3lhj/9

Thanks.

COLGeek · Feb 26, 2016

The port is likely SATA III, so the SSD will work at that speed. Most optical drives are only SATA I devices (thus the speed you saw indicated).

bwrwgamer · Feb 26, 2016

Thank you very much for your help.

COLGeek · Feb 26, 2016

You are most welcome. A couple things to consider.

You'll need to swap the boot order for the SSD to be the boot device. That is easily done in the BIOS.

Also, when you install Windows to the SSD, you want to "disconnect" the HDD first. You should be able to disable in the BIOS, as well. You want to do this so that Windows won't write any system files to the HDD. You want all Windows system files written to the SSD. There are some quirks with Windows where it will install some files to a HDD if one is found, even if you tell the installer to use the SSD.

Removing the HDD from this process keeps that from happening. Otherwise, if the HDD were to fail, Windows would not boot. Not the end of the world and easily resolved, but is unnecessary if Windows is installed optimally to the SSD.

bwrwgamer · Feb 26, 2016

I plan on using the cloning software that comes with the 850 Evo to copy the hdd then format the hdd. Windows and the programs etc should all copy over and work nicely, correct?

Also this is what I should be using right? http://goo.gl/pFOmNw

COLGeek · Feb 26, 2016

Should be fine. Good luck.

If you need help with the cloning, just start a new thread. I have successfully cloned and performed clean installs. The end result has largely been the same.

bwrwgamer · Feb 26, 2016

Thank You.

I will definitely be back here if I need any more help

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