A client asked me, a few days ago, to upgrade the existing 32GB SSD in her relatively new laptop to a SAMSUNG 256GB SSD. My first thoughts were “easy; take off a few screws, install new SSD; clone old SSD to new; ready”.
This laptop is quite easy to disassemble.
- Lay the laptop on a flat surface upside down (with the lid on the bottom)
- Unscrew all screws you see. There are 8 screws visible
- Take out the battery to reveal 2 more screws
- Remove the 2 rubber feet on each side of the battery, to reveal 4 more screws (2 under each foot)
- Turn the laptop right side up and open the lid
- Insert a plastic pry tool between the top and bottom parts of the case. I suggest starting on the right side (VGA connector on the left protrudes through the plastic case) and working your way around the case
- Lift the top part of the case, with all the electronics and display, clear of the case and set it on the table
After taking the laptop apart, I discovered that HP didn’t use a conventional connector for the built in SSD. Instead of the “normal” SATA connector they used a flat-flex cable to connect the SSD to the motherboard. A search on the internet revealed that there exists an adapter to convert from a standard SATA connector to the flat-flex connector on the motherboard, but at $60 I was not prepared to order it.
Looking at the laptop I noticed there was a slimline SATA connector on the motherboard at what looked like a place for a DVD drive, although this particular model didn’t have the relevant cut-out on the case. So I decided to use a caddy to connect the SSD to the laptop. These caddies are used to replace the DVD in a laptop with a hard drive and are quite cheap.
After that it was a simple matter of cloning Windows to the new SSD and changing the boot device. I decided to leave the original SSD in place as extra storage, as it would do no harm and I didn’t feel goo leaving an FFC flapping around in the breeze.
Links:
- HDD Caddy (Affiliate Link)