Solved Issues replacing Optane ssd with nvme

CornishRattler · Feb 6, 2022

Hazel123 said:
Taken the back off now :)

Worth a shot before you get the screwdrivers out

Hazel123 · Feb 6, 2022

Ok drive swapped back and booted into Windows (10). This is what is in bios under uefi HII config.

It shows the ssd and Optane separately because Optane is disabled in the app.

Hazel123 · Feb 6, 2022

CornishRattler said:
Worth a shot before you get the screwdrivers out

Yep already had the drives swapped over.

That would make sense though - if secure boot was preventing access.

However there were no issues initially on my windows media usb being recognised or the external hard drive being recognised. It was only after the image was installed it wouldn’t boot from anything.

Hazel123 · Feb 6, 2022

So uefi shows ssd and Optane drives separately (due to Optane being disabled in app). If I select the Optane drive and hit return I get this (photo).

Can’t see anything that can actually be turned off in bios.

humbird · Feb 6, 2022

Found this. Helpful?
Steps to Replace Optane with SSD in M.2 slot

Winuser · Feb 6, 2022

NavyLCDR said:
I never could understand why they would put optane memory in a system with an NVMe SSD anyway. How much difference could it possibly make?

Probably a sales gimmick to fool people into spending the extra money for the laptop.

Hazel123 · Feb 6, 2022

humbird said:
Found this. Helpful?
Steps to Replace Optane with SSD in M.2 slot

Thanks. Did all those steps. The only difference was a restored an image to the new drive rather than cloning.

humbird · Feb 6, 2022

Sorry. Deleted the link it was only about supported systems for optane. Obviously your is and it was unhelpful for what you are wanting to do.

Hazel123 · Feb 6, 2022

To clone the nvme I’d need an enclosure - which I did have somewhere in the house - got it for stepson - but it seems to have disappeared.

Anyway

1). Nothing in bios to turn off re Optane as far as I can see.
2). Might be bios dependent with different machines
3) If I could format the new nvme in an enclosure I was going to try a clean install (seeing as windows media booted initially before image installed).

But stuck back where I started at the moment.

Oh and have two screws left! They’re not from the back - all those are present. Only one for the ssd which is present. So they can only be from the battery - but as I’ve replaced 6 to the battery and can’t see where any others can go, I’m stumped. Anyway battery is secure so I’m not going to worry about it.

Winuser · Feb 6, 2022

Hazel123 said:
I had another thread on that :). It is very fast in general usage. I was actually unaware it had an Optane drive as bought used.

Re the new Samsung nvme - I am thinking it’s not faulty as the image restored to it without issue. It just then wouldn’t boot.

How did you restore the image to the NVMe drive? If you installed the NVMe drive and used an USB rescue disk, then the drive must have been recognized. I'm curious about why the Bios isn't recognizing the drive.

Hazel123 · Feb 6, 2022

Ok. Swapped the drives over so the new nvme is installed. Inserted usb with windows Iso into laptop - booted and selected to restore an image. Inserted usb external hard drive and selected image. Image restored without issue. Restarted and then it came up firstly with something about the cmos battery (presumably disconnected when internal battery was removed) and to hit return. It then attempted to boot but came up with the error that there was no bootable device.

The only thing I can think is - I removed the windows 10 usb to put the external hard drive in (only on usb a port and the external hard drive wouldn’t work from a usb hub).

But it seemed to accept that, found the image and restored it.

I have now ordered a usb c flash drive. This laptop just has one usb a and one usb c.

After that it wouldn’t boot from anything (windows usb, external hard drive or internal hard drive).

Since replacing original Optane drive it boots fine. Which is strange because it was an identical image (and Optane was disabled before the image was made and before the drives were swapped.

Hazel123 · Feb 6, 2022

I think I need to re format the new 1tb nvme and either try cloning or reinstalling. But I need a nvme enclosure to do that so ordered one.

I think it’s an hp thing as well as I found this page with that fault (and that’s for an existing pre installed Optane drive).

The two fixes it suggests aren’t helpful. Drive check is only for the pre installed drive and Legacy boot was already disabled on mine. I will check the new drive on another machine though when the enclosure arrives but don’t think there is anything wrong with it.

HP Consumer Laptop and Desktop PCs - Boot Device Not Found (3F0) or Automatic Repair Errors Reported | HP® Customer Support

The computer fails to load Windows.

support.hp.com

Hazel123 · Feb 6, 2022

So I am thinking Optane ssd is more trouble than it’s worth and will be glad to replace it! If I can. Because if it goes wrong you have difficulty replacing the drive.

CornishRattler · Feb 6, 2022

Does changing for bios to AHCI make any difference or have you tried that already?

Hazel123 said:
So I am thinking Optane ssd is more trouble than it’s worth and will be glad to replace it! If I can. Because if it goes wrong you have difficulty replacing the drive.

I’d never buy a machine with it

Winuser · Feb 6, 2022

Have you tried doing a clean install to the NVME drive? If you can and it works, you can try restoring the old C partition image over the new C partition.

NavyLCDR · Feb 6, 2022

Nothing that anyone is talking about - drivers, secure boot on/off, AHCI v. Raid, Intel VMD enabled/disabled, IRST drivers, UEFI v. CSM - will affect whether the physical drive is shown as connected in the BIOS. Those would only affect if and how Windows would recognize/interface with the drive. The possibilities for the drive not showing up on the drives list in BIOS:

- Corrupt BIOS - not likely since it works with the Intel Optane (assuming H20) SSD installed
- Motherboard failure - again not likely
- Incorrect installation - was the NVMe inserted all the way into the slot? Was the hold down screw installed? Probably installed correctly - if the hold down screw was installed and not cocked.
- Incompatible SSD - Hewlett Packard used to have hotlists embedded in their BIOS (especially for network cards). Only those components allowed by HP would be recognized by the BIOS. There used to be BIOS hacks available to disable their hotlists. I think HP dropped this practice years ago. You can download the service manual for your specific computer from HP and see if it mentions something like that. You can also see the SSD options available from HP for that computer.
- Finally, defective SSD - I had two brand new SSDs (both ADATA brand) that behaved the same way in my Asus motherboard. Sometimes the computer would boot from them, sometimes not. I then discovered when they did not boot, they were not recognized and on the list of drives in BIOS. The third replacement I ordered was a Samsung and had zero problems with it.

The plan to get an NVMe to USB enclosure is a good one, it will allow you to use the removed SSD, and it will also allow you to test the new SSD, if you don't have another computer to install it in to test it.

Hazel123 · Feb 6, 2022

I think I need to change the title of this thread to: issues replacing Optane ssd with nvme.

Hazel123 · Feb 6, 2022

NavyLCDR said:
Nothing that anyone is talking about - drivers, secure boot on/off, AHCI v. Raid, Intel VMD enabled/disabled, IRST drivers, UEFI v. CSM - will affect whether the physical drive is shown as connected in the BIOS. Those would only affect if and how Windows would recognize/interface with the drive. The possibilities for the drive not showing up on the drives list in BIOS:

- Corrupt BIOS - not likely since it works with the Intel Optane (assuming H20) SSD installed
- Motherboard failure - again not likely
- Incorrect installation - was the NVMe inserted all the way into the slot? Was the hold down screw installed? Probably installed correctly - if the hold down screw was installed and not cocked.
- Incompatible SSD - Hewlett Packard used to have hotlists embedded in their BIOS (especially for network cards). Only those components allowed by HP would be recognized by the BIOS. There used to be BIOS hacks available to disable their hotlists. I think HP dropped this practice years ago. You can download the service manual for your specific computer from HP and see if it mentions something like that. You can also see the SSD options available from HP for that computer.
- Finally, defective SSD - I had two brand new SSDs (both ADATA brand) that behaved the same way in my Asus motherboard. Sometimes the computer would boot from them, sometimes not. I then discovered when they did not boot, they were not recognized and on the list of drives in BIOS. The third replacement I ordered was a Samsung and had zero problems with it.

The plan to get an NVMe to USB enclosure is a good one, it will allow you to use the removed SSD, and it will also allow you to test the new SSD, if you don't have another computer to install it in to test it.

Agree with all the above. Except it would not boot from anything at all once the nvme had the image installed on it. It wouldn’t boot from usb windows iso media or external dvd drive either.

Which it did - before the image was installed on the nvme. Which is what has me head scratching. If it was a corrupt image then why would that prevent any other usb booting? Possible I guess.

Enclosure will be here tomorrow.

NavyLCDR · Feb 6, 2022

Do you have a USB flash drive created directly from Microsoft's own Media Creation Tool?

Hazel123 · Feb 6, 2022

Crazy isn’t it? When you just want more storage! Should be a straight swap. It does seem to be a known issue with hp though - and that’s without changing the drive. See link above. If Optane chip goes wrong or fails it creates the same non boot error.