ENVY 15-jXXX / ENVY 17-jXXX Notebooks (2013)

I have a 240GB mSATA and I'm just waiting for my replacement Envy Touchsmart 17 to arrive - they forgot to install a touchscreen on my first delivery... But they're making up for it by doubling the memory to 16GB, including the recovery discs (which I'm only excited about because it could/should/might help with the mSATA installation), upgraded 2nd Day shipping, and letting me hold onto the non-touch system in the interim.

Inspecting the first (non-)Touchsmart, I'm really worried about getting Win8 installed on the mSATA. Getting to the mSATA slot seems to involve near total disassembly, at least on the 17-inch Touchsmart. Then, even if I get that far without destroying anything, I have to get Win8 installed on it somehow.

After installing the mSATA and rebuilding the computer, how do I get Win8 installed to the mSATA? I could use cloning software. But I'd rather do a fresh install. HP is sending me the recovery discs. But can they be used to install to the mSATA?

And then there's the whole issue of the bios not giving the mSATA as a boot drive option. Apparently, some folks here have figured out workarounds for that. But the workarounds seem to rely on your other hard drives never changing for reasons I'm not real clear on. I tend to swap mine out from time to time. But even if I didn't, I'd still be worried that if one of my 1TB drives died or got corrupted, the mSATA would no longer boot!

Hopefully, the situation isn't as dire as I'm making it out to be. I already have my mSATA. So, I'm certainly going to try and make it work. I just wish there was a consensus on the best approach to take. And idiot-proof instructions for me to follow.

 

My understanding is that if the mSATA has all four partitions of Win8 then you need to completely delete the 4 partitions from the HDD so that the BIOS only sees ONE drive with the additional partitions. The deleting can be done during the Win8 clean install or you can also take it to another PC and just delete them there and put back into the laptop.

 

I have the Envy TS 15 so I hope it's not like the 17 model that I would have to disassemble the whole thing because that would be a pain in the . Kilroywashere's solution seemed reasonable as in it would work I suppose.

See it like this you start up from your WIN8 disc/usb you format your old hdd and wipe it Clean and install Win8 on your mSATA drive. Upon configuring your Pc you format your HDD to NTFS and that should be it, your PC would see any other Boot drive other than the mSata drive

 

Hmm any thoughts on this?

HP ENVY 15-j007eo Notebook PC Product Specifications HP ENVY 15-j007eo Notebook PC | HP® Support

It clearly says GDDR5 (where in most if not all other models clearly say DDR3).. Do you think this information is correct? or no?

EDIT: I searched this thread and also found it mentioned a while back here (http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-17-jxxx-notebooks-2013-a-60.html#post9291284)

I wonder if this model is truly GDDR5 or they (HP) haven't fixed the "typo" yet on this model? (Because afaik they fixed the typo on the other models to DDR3)..

 

Short answer no GDDR5

 

So has anybody succeeded in installing their own mSATA drive and using it as the main Windows drive w/ this computer?

Sorry if it's already been said, but this thread is really long and I may have overlooked it.

 

Hey guys, I just wanted to pass this on.

I have an HP Envy 15-j092nr and I needed an extra AC adapter. I was finally able to find one at notebookpartsonline.com
I got the 710415-001 AC adapter and it was kinda expensive at 90 bucks, but they shipped it the same day and they upgraded my shipping to 2 day shipping.
HP Envy 15 17 Series AC Adapter Slim 120W PFC 710415-001

Take a look, I had been searching for a while and it seems like they are the only place offering the AC adapter for the new HP Envy 15 and 17 models.

 

I am getting my Envy 15t today and my 256GB mSATA SSD on Monday. I am going to try to install W8 on the mSATA after I try to install W7 first. I will let you know how it went.

I plan on using True Image 2014 to back up the HDD then attempt to recover it to the mSATA and see how that goes.

 

I've got the Envy TouchSmart 17 and a 240GB mSATA SSD. But it seems, at least on the 17" Envy, that getting to the mSATA card slot is going to require going further than just removing the bottom cover. I'm hoping someone puts together a comprehensive guide and/or YouTube video.

Also, I'd planned on buying the extra 3rd year warranty coverage. But I'm worried installing the mSATA (because of the extensive dis-assembly) will void all warranties anyway.

 

Don't worry about that. If the laptop breaks, open it up, remove the mSATA and then send it in for service. Besides, if the mSATA is user accessible (even if its tough to get to) then the warranty cannot be voided.