Question Adding a second M.2 SSD to HP ENVY Laptop - 15t-ep100

[vij255]

I ordered my notebook with a 512GB M.2 SSD. Looking at the manual, it has another slot for a second M.2 SSD, and I have a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO plus from my old laptop and am thinking about the possibility of adding that to the second slot. and use it as a secondary storage. Keep the OS on the 512 GB it came with to avoid cloning.

1. Not sure whether the second SSD slot is enabled and works without any additional configuration or change.
2. other main question is whether I need to purchase any thermal pads or tape for the second SSD installation. I believe the first one comes with a thermal pad installed and a black adhesive shield on the top. If so, what type of pad should I purchase?

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-envy-laptop-15t-ep100-31f21av-1

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06634821.pdf

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGUwMHjtRmk


Images

https://imgur.com/a/1hQKLts

View: https://imgur.com/a/1hQKLts

https://laptopmedia.com/review/hp-envy-15-15-ep1000/

The QA on the product page was answered by HP as

As a follow-up question on the second m.2 slot within the Envy 15t-ep100, if I were to purchase a second PCIe 3.1X4 m.2 2280 SSD and install it in the second m.2 slot, would the Envy 15t utilize both the additional SSD and the factory installed one?

Thanks for your question! Yes, both hard drives would be recognized in the Windows Operating System and the system BIOS as well.

Let me know whether its possible. Thanks for your time and appreciate your help

 

[punkncat]

Check here:

HP ENVY Laptop 15t-ep100 CTO Manuals | HP® Customer Support

Click "Maintenance and Service Guide" Pages 29-31

 

[vij255]

Thanks It states

Each time one of the solid-state drives is removed, thoroughly inspect the thermal pad locations on the system board. Thermal pads are used on the system board (1) and the solid-state drive (2). If the thermal pads need to be replaced, thoroughly clean the thermal pad material from the solid-state drive and the system board and replace the thermal pads in the locations shown in the following illustration.

This means I can add another SSD to the empty slot. Also, it mentions thermal pads. What type of thermal pad should I purchase or use? . if possible I am planning to keep OS in the oem drive that comes with the system and add this 2TB evo plus as a storage for my VM hard drives and files Thanks for your time and I appreciate your response

https://imgur.com/a/HNDh2ZW

View: https://imgur.com/a/HNDh2ZW

 

[donmeek]

I ordered my notebook with a 512GB M.2 SSD. Looking at the manual, it has another slot for a second M.2 SSD, and I have a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO plus from my old laptop and am thinking about the possibility of adding that to the second slot. and use it as a secondary storage. Keep the OS on the 512 GB it came with to avoid cloning.

1. Not sure whether the second SSD slot is enabled and works without any additional configuration or change.
2. other main question is whether I need to purchase any thermal pads or tape for the second SSD installation. I believe the first one comes with a thermal pad installed and a black adhesive shield on the top. If so, what type of pad should I purchase?

I have the same 15t-ep100 laptop and the second M.2 slot works fine - the second slot runs on a PCIE 3.0 bus so it's a little slower than the first PCIE 4.0 slot which is connected directly to the processor instead of running through the Intel HM570 PCH which is pretty standard - although it does make the Intel RST 'second step' listed below mandatory. For a Samsung 970 EVO plus it won't matter anyway because that is a PCIE 3.0 NVMe drive and wouldn't benefit from a faster bus.

You'll need to do three things to use the second M.2 drive - first go into the BIOS (F10) and ensure RAID/RST support is active but no RAID 0/1 configuration is enabled - in my BIOS HP intuitively calls the setting "UEFI HII Configuration". While you're at it, you might want to update the BIOS to the latest version from HP which is F.11 as of the time of this writing. Download all the other drivers from the HP support site as well - there were a lot of updates in March 2022 which will bring you to the latest version of most of the key drivers - but this is optional.

Intel has implemented VMD (Volume Management Device) with their Tiger Lake processors and you won't be able to access the second M.2 slot as an NVMe drive unless you download the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver - series 18.6 or 19 will work - HP has an older version (18.6) on their driver support site if you don't want to search but the latest version as of now is 19.2.1. Installing the Intel RST Driver (and rebooting) is the second step in making the second M.2 slot visible to the operating system.

Next (and last) thing you need to do is run the Disk Management Console from the control panel (or just search for it) and create a new GPT partition for the newly installed drive if it has not previously been initialized. You'll need to format the new drive as a NTFS volume of course and you can assign it a volume name and drive letter.

As to the thermal pad, HP installs a pretty cheap thermal tape over their first drive which is what needs replacing from time to time if you keep removing and installing the first drive. For your new drive, any of the thinner 1mm SSD/NVMe thermal pads should work in the laptop and they are wildly available for $10 or less - although the Samsung sticker on the 970 EVO Plus acts as a thermal pad and seems to work well for most users so you might just want to skip this step! You'll also need an appropriately sized m2 screw if you don't have one - there isn't a spare sitting in the empty second M.2 slot.

Good luck - if you have all the parts (and both a T5 Torx and P0 Phillips screwdriver!) - it should take you about 10 minutes to install a second NVMe drive in an 15t-ep100 laptop following the instructions here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGUwMHjtRmk

 

[vij255]

I have the same 15t-ep100 laptop and the second M.2 slot works fine - the second slot runs on a PCIE 3.0 bus so it's a little slower than the first PCIE 4.0 slot which is connected directly to the processor instead of running through the Intel HM570 PCH which is pretty standard - although it does make the Intel RST 'second step' listed below mandatory. For a Samsung 970 EVO plus it won't matter anyway because that is a PCIE 3.0 NVMe drive and wouldn't benefit from a faster bus.

You'll need to do three things to use the second M.2 drive - first go into the BIOS (F10) and ensure RAID/RST support is active but no RAID 0/1 configuration is enabled - in my BIOS HP intuitively calls the setting "UEFI HII Configuration". While you're at it, you might want to update the BIOS to the latest version from HP which is F.11 as of the time of this writing. Download all the other drivers from the HP support site as well - there were a lot of updates in March 2022 which will bring you to the latest version of most of the key drivers - but this is optional.

Intel has implemented VMD (Volume Management Device) with their Tiger Lake processors and you won't be able to access the second M.2 slot as an NVMe drive unless you download the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver - series 18.6 or 19 will work - HP has an older version (18.6) on their driver support site if you don't want to search but the latest version as of now is 19.2.1. Installing the Intel RST Driver (and rebooting) is the second step in making the second M.2 slot visible to the operating system.

Next (and last) thing you need to do is run the Disk Management Console from the control panel (or just search for it) and create a new GPT partition for the newly installed drive if it has not previously been initialized. You'll need to format the new drive as a NTFS volume of course and you can assign it a volume name and drive letter.

As to the thermal pad, HP installs a pretty cheap thermal tape over their first drive which is what needs replacing from time to time if you keep removing and installing the first drive. For your new drive, any of the thinner 1mm SSD/NVMe thermal pads should work in the laptop and they are wildly available for $10 or less - although the Samsung sticker on the 970 EVO Plus acts as a thermal pad and seems to work well for most users so you might just want to skip this step! You'll also need an appropriately sized m2 screw if you don't have one - there isn't a spare sitting in the empty second M.2 slot.

Good luck - if you have all the parts (and both a T5 Torx and P0 Phillips screwdriver!) - it should take you about 10 minutes to install a second NVMe drive in an 15t-ep100 laptop following the instructions here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGUwMHjtRmk

Thanks . I haven't received the product yet. Got the screws and SSD ready. Also i have 2*16 gb ddr4 Gskill ram from my other laptop. plannign to add ssd and upgrade ram to 32gb. will follow your instructions Thanks for your time and help

 

[vij255]

I have the same 15t-ep100 laptop and the second M.2 slot works fine - the second slot runs on a PCIE 3.0 bus so it's a little slower than the first PCIE 4.0 slot which is connected directly to the processor instead of running through the Intel HM570 PCH which is pretty standard - although it does make the Intel RST 'second step' listed below mandatory. For a Samsung 970 EVO plus it won't matter anyway because that is a PCIE 3.0 NVMe drive and wouldn't benefit from a faster bus.

You'll need to do three things to use the second M.2 drive - first go into the BIOS (F10) and ensure RAID/RST support is active but no RAID 0/1 configuration is enabled - in my BIOS HP intuitively calls the setting "UEFI HII Configuration". While you're at it, you might want to update the BIOS to the latest version from HP which is F.11 as of the time of this writing. Download all the other drivers from the HP support site as well - there were a lot of updates in March 2022 which will bring you to the latest version of most of the key drivers - but this is optional.

Intel has implemented VMD (Volume Management Device) with their Tiger Lake processors and you won't be able to access the second M.2 slot as an NVMe drive unless you download the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver - series 18.6 or 19 will work - HP has an older version (18.6) on their driver support site if you don't want to search but the latest version as of now is 19.2.1. Installing the Intel RST Driver (and rebooting) is the second step in making the second M.2 slot visible to the operating system.

Next (and last) thing you need to do is run the Disk Management Console from the control panel (or just search for it) and create a new GPT partition for the newly installed drive if it has not previously been initialized. You'll need to format the new drive as a NTFS volume of course and you can assign it a volume name and drive letter.

As to the thermal pad, HP installs a pretty cheap thermal tape over their first drive which is what needs replacing from time to time if you keep removing and installing the first drive. For your new drive, any of the thinner 1mm SSD/NVMe thermal pads should work in the laptop and they are wildly available for $10 or less - although the Samsung sticker on the 970 EVO Plus acts as a thermal pad and seems to work well for most users so you might just want to skip this step! You'll also need an appropriately sized m2 screw if you don't have one - there isn't a spare sitting in the empty second M.2 slot.

Good luck - if you have all the parts (and both a T5 Torx and P0 Phillips screwdriver!) - it should take you about 10 minutes to install a second NVMe drive in an 15t-ep100 laptop following the instructions here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGUwMHjtRmk

Received my Notebook today . This is what I see in the BIOS options. Not seeing any settings as you suggested. Thinking of first adding second SSD and upgrade RAM and go from there. May be see what happens whether it shows up without any additional steps. let me know Thanks for your time

https://imgur.com/a/N4GzYjU

View: https://imgur.com/a/N4GzYjU

 

[SaSa85]

I have the same issue and I can't read it on bios or windows

 

[George Spiggot]

I just had the same problem. Added a 2nd SSD and wasn't showing up in BIOS. No option for RAID in the BIOS under UEFI HII Configuration. Already was running on BIOS F12 A.

About to give up, I booted up with both drives in, original Samsung 980 1TB and a Silicon Power PCIe Gen 3 X 4 M.2 2280 SSD in the 2nd slot.

Booted into Windows and updated the BIOS even though already had the latest version.

Computer restarted, tried to open BIOS yet it must have still been updating as the screen was just blank for a few seconds then the fans turned off and then back on again.

This time I could enter BIOS and under UEFI HII Configuration I now have both SSD's showing.