How to Replace or Disable SSD on HP 700-330qe

[CincyGuy]

Help for My 5-Month-Old HP! This is Killing Me!

I bought an HP 700-330qe in 2014 from Amazon, and just started getting SMART hard drive errors from Windows whenever my computer restarts, telling me that hard disk failure is imminent. It also tells me to shut down the computer immediately, back it up, contact the manufacturer, etc. Never saw this in any PC I have owned before. I naturally freaked out and did some research on the internet, discovering it is relatively easy to clone and replace a hard drive. I ordered a new Western Digital 3 TB hard drive from Amazon, a Cable Matters brand hard drive docking station from Amazon, and downloaded Macrium Reflect free disk management software.

Items from Amazon arrived in a couple of days and I got to work making a clone of my one and only hard drive. Clone was made with little problem. Shut down the computer, opened it up and replaced the old hard drive with the new one. Booted the computer back up, and got the same message about imminent hard drive failure!! So I paid more attention to it this time, and looked up the model number given in the warning message, which was: ScanDisk SDSA6DM-016G-1006. I Googled that and discovered it was the solid state drive (SSD) used as a cache to speed up certain operations. Arrgh.


I stuck my old hard drive into the hard drive docking station and was prepared to clone both the SSD partition and all of the partitions from the main hard drive onto the one hard drive, and the remove or at least unplug the SSD to get rid of this issue. The software told me the SSD is formatted as MPR (or something like that) while the main hard drive is formatted as GPT, which are different types of hard drive formatting, so you can't copy those different types of partitions onto one hard drive.

Okay, so here are my options as I see them:

1) I need to disable the SSD, but I don't know how and I don't know if the computer will still even boot up. Is Windows partially installed on the SSD? I don't know.

2) Clone and replace the SSD in much the same way as I did with the main hard drive. I can get the following SSD from Amazon for $49: Kingston Digital 60GB SSDNow V300 SATA 3 2.5 (7mm height) with Adapter Solid State Drive SV300S37A/60G. The hard drive docking station I have also works with 2.5 inch drive sizes.

For option #2 above, the only problem is that I have no idea where the OEM ScanDisk SSD is currently installed in my computer!!?!?!? Is it in the hard drive cage?? I didn't see anything else installed in there. I thought it was in the cage directly above the hard drive cage, but I think what I was looking at was the front memory card reader/USB ports. I only have one CD drive installed and I can see where that is. Help!!!

PS: I also downloaded EaseUS Partition Master 10.2 and used it to scan the SSD. While it was scanning it found 9 bad blocks (out of tens of thousands of blocks) but when it finished the scan it said there were no bad blocks. To have this happen on an SSD, which is supposed to be more reliable than regulard hard drives, make this situation so much more aggravating. At least I upgraded my hard drive from 2TB to 3TB, and now know that I can do it. Sigh.

PPS: The SSD is a ScanDisk U110 SSD, which the ScanDisk website is shown as end of life.

 

[USAFRet]

#2. That is a poor choice on an SSD. The Kingston SSDNow has had its issues, and a 60GB is right on the edge of 'too small'.

Your actual drive seems to be a hybrid. A smallish SSD portion married with a regular HDD. You cannot directly access that SSD part. And that is the reason you can't 'find' it...it does not exist as a separate 2.5" drive.

So the SSD part is dying. That means you have to replace the whole drive.

 

[CincyGuy]

#2. That is a poor choice on an SSD. The Kingston SSDNow has had its issues, and a 60GB is right on the edge of 'too small'.

Your actual drive seems to be a hybrid. A smallish SSD portion married with a regular HDD. You cannot directly access that SSD part. And that is the reason you can't 'find' it...it does not exist as a separate 2.5" drive.

So the SSD part is dying. That means you have to replace the whole drive.

Small problem though is that I removed the old hard drive. No longer connected to the computer. The only hard drive in there is the new one which as a clone of the old one (at least the GPT partitions). So how can I still be getting the errors? In fact, I can still run a scan of the SSD drive using EaseUS, so it must still be there. New hard drive is not a hybrid: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RORMF6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[CincyGuy]

#2. That is a poor choice on an SSD. The Kingston SSDNow has had its issues, and a 60GB is right on the edge of 'too small'.

Your actual drive seems to be a hybrid. A smallish SSD portion married with a regular HDD. You cannot directly access that SSD part. And that is the reason you can't 'find' it...it does not exist as a separate 2.5" drive.

So the SSD part is dying. That means you have to replace the whole drive.

I just checked it with EaseUS, and the drive size is 16GB for the SSD. And it is an MBR partition, not what I put earlier. Again, this is being used for some sort of ExpressCache quick booting, but I can't find anything on disabling ExpressCache on the internet.

 

[USAFRet]

#2. That is a poor choice on an SSD. The Kingston SSDNow has had its issues, and a 60GB is right on the edge of 'too small'.

Your actual drive seems to be a hybrid. A smallish SSD portion married with a regular HDD. You cannot directly access that SSD part. And that is the reason you can't 'find' it...it does not exist as a separate 2.5" drive.

So the SSD part is dying. That means you have to replace the whole drive.

Small problem though is that I removed the old hard drive. No longer connected to the computer. The only hard drive in there is the new one which as a clone of the old one (at least the GPT partitions). So how can I still be getting the errors? In fact, I can still run a scan of the SSD drive using EaseUS, so it must still be there. New hard drive is not a hybrid: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RORMF6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Interesting.
Open it up and poke around inside.
What does your Disk Management window show as far as drives?

 

[CincyGuy]

#2. That is a poor choice on an SSD. The Kingston SSDNow has had its issues, and a 60GB is right on the edge of 'too small'.

Your actual drive seems to be a hybrid. A smallish SSD portion married with a regular HDD. You cannot directly access that SSD part. And that is the reason you can't 'find' it...it does not exist as a separate 2.5" drive.

So the SSD part is dying. That means you have to replace the whole drive.

Small problem though is that I removed the old hard drive. No longer connected to the computer. The only hard drive in there is the new one which as a clone of the old one (at least the GPT partitions). So how can I still be getting the errors? In fact, I can still run a scan of the SSD drive using EaseUS, so it must still be there. New hard drive is not a hybrid: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RORMF6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Interesting.
Open it up and poke around inside.
What does your Disk Management window show as far as drives?

It doesn't show up in Windows explorer - all that shows up there is my main C drive and recovery image D drive, which is actually a partition on the same hard drive.

EaseUS shows Disk 1, which is the new hard drive formatted as GPT with multiple partitions (C: Windows, D: Recovery, and a couple of un-named partitions). Disk 1 partitions have various file systems (NTFS, FAT32, and other). The column labeled "type" shows GPT for all of the partitions on Disk 1.

EaseUS also shows Disk 2, an un-named MBR partition with "other" as the file system, 14.91 GB capacity with the same amount showing as used. The column labeled "type" shows "Primary" for the one and only partition.

I poked around the PC again closely looking at everything. I did not see anything that looks like it could be an SSD. And I'm pretty sure I was able to see into every nook and cranny inside the box. Did a bit more searching and found references to Conduciv ExpressCache software for HP. I downloaded the software from HP's support site and tried installing it, but got a message stating my computer does not meet the minimum requirements. Searched for express and cache, and expresscache in the windows search on pc - to see if I could open up some controlling software and modify it or uninstall it - but the search found nothing.

Here is the link to my google search on hp conduciv expresscache:
https://www.google.com/search?q=hp+Condusiv+ExpressCache&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

[USAFRet]

It doesn't show up in Windows explorer -

Not Windows Explorer...Disk Management. That will show all physical drives and the partitions living on them.

 

[CincyGuy]

It doesn't show up in Windows explorer -

Not Windows Explorer...Disk Management. That will show all physical drives and the partitions living on them.

Ok, never did that before but googled it and figured out how to do it. Windows Disk Management shows the new hard drive as Disk 0, the status of which is shown as healthy and online. The SSD is shown as Disk 1, 14.91 GB, healthy and online. Same basic info as I got from EaseUS. However, I right-clicked on Disk 1 and a new window with tabs pops up. One of the tabs is "policies" and has a box which is checked that states: "Enable write caching on the device. Write caching improves system performance by enabling write caching on the device, but a power outage or equipment failure might result in data loss or corruption". The same tab is checked for the main hard drive on the policies tab. I think I am going to un-check the write caching tab for Disk 1 (the SSD) and see what happens.

 

[USAFRet]

OK...that 14.91 GB SSD is only meant to be a cache drive. Not something directly addressable.

 

[CincyGuy]

OK...that 14.91 GB SSD is only meant to be a cache drive. Not something directly addressable.

What does that mean though? Is it a problem if it is failing, at least according to the windows SMART hard drive software? I unchecked the "enable write caching" box in the properties for that drive, in the Windows Disk Management program, and then rebooted the computer. Still got the same SMART hard drive imminent failure notice when rebooting. Sigh.

 

[USAFRet]

OK...that 14.91 GB SSD is only meant to be a cache drive. Not something directly addressable.

What does that mean though? Is it a problem if it is failing, at least according to the windows SMART hard drive software? I unchecked the "enable write caching" box in the properties for that drive, in the Windows Disk Management program, and then rebooted the computer. Still got the same SMART hard drive imminent failure notice when rebooting. Sigh.

It seems that the SMART is telling you that is actually dying.
The question is....where is it, physically? lol

Open the case. Trace all the SATA cables leading from the motherboard.
1 to your DVD drive
1 to your new HDD
Others??

EDIT: It also might be a mSATA drive. Look at the motherboard manual to see where that might be.

 

[CincyGuy]

The question is....where is it, physically? lol

Open the case. Trace all the SATA cables leading from the motherboard.
1 to your DVD drive
1 to your new HDD
Others??

EDIT: It also might be a mSATA drive. Look at the motherboard manual to see where that might be.[/quotemsg]

OMG, what is an mSATA drive? There are way too many cables in there for me to figure what goes where. The hard drive cable goes into a huge bundle of cables.

I got onto ScanDisk's website and downloaded ScanDisk SSD Dashboard. The program tells me the health of the drive is normal. But there are all kinds of other options and settings, some of which I tried, like:

- run a SMART diagnostic test. I tried that and it said "failed: error code 3". Nowhere on the ScanDisk website or in that program can I find what error code 3 is.

- on the "status" dashboard, it shows the following info: capacity 14.9 GB, used 0.0 GB, free 0.0 GB, unallocated 14.9 GB, other 0.0 GB. What the heck does it mean that 14.9 GB is unallocated? Also another window on that dashboard is labeled "volumes", but there is only a line of text in that window saying "there are no volumes on the selected drive."

- temperature is 82F. Well that is swell, it is not running a fever. Arrrgh!

 

[CincyGuy]

OK...that 14.91 GB SSD is only meant to be a cache drive. Not something directly addressable.

What does that mean though? Is it a problem if it is failing, at least according to the windows SMART hard drive software? I unchecked the "enable write caching" box in the properties for that drive, in the Windows Disk Management program, and then rebooted the computer. Still got the same SMART hard drive imminent failure notice when rebooting. Sigh.

It seems that the SMART is telling you that is actually dying.
The question is....where is it, physically? lol

Open the case. Trace all the SATA cables leading from the motherboard.
1 to your DVD drive
1 to your new HDD
Others??

EDIT: It also might be a mSATA drive. Look at the motherboard manual to see where that might be.

Okay, so I FOUND IT! Thank you for the mSATA comment. It is this thing:

One of the holes in the corner has a screw head showing, so I am assuming it is screwed into the motherboard. Now, what is the best way to replace it and transfer the stuff on there to another drive? I am fine with getting a 2.5 inch SSD and mounting it into the hard drive cage, but how do I remove the failing SSD on the motherboard and make sure the computer then goes to the new SSD during the boot up process?

 

[USAFRet]

OK. Yes, that is an mSATA drive.

There is nothing on it to 'transfer'. It is/was strictly a cache for the larger HDD.

Remove it, connect the new SSD. Install the OS to that SSD.
(again...that SSD you mentioned originally is too small and has 'issues'. I would not buy that)

 

[CincyGuy]

OK. Yes, that is an mSATA drive.

There is nothing on it to 'transfer'. It is/was strictly a cache for the larger HDD.

Remove it, connect the new SSD. Install the OS to that SSD.
(again...that SSD you mentioned originally is too small and has 'issues'. I would not buy that)

What do you mean by installing the OS to the new SSD? And how can the one I mentioned be too small, when this little mSATA is only 16GB? The Kingston is 60GB. If not the Kingston, then is there a brand you recommend? And what size? I still just want to use it as a cache. I'm sorry, but this is beyond my typical experience tinkering with a PC, so I am lost here and need everything spelled out. I appreciate your input greatly, as I at least now know what and where the failing component is.

 

[USAFRet]

OK. Yes, that is an mSATA drive.

There is nothing on it to 'transfer'. It is/was strictly a cache for the larger HDD.

Remove it, connect the new SSD. Install the OS to that SSD.
(again...that SSD you mentioned originally is too small and has 'issues'. I would not buy that)

What do you mean by installing the OS to the new SSD? And how can the one I mentioned be too small, when this little mSATA is only 16GB? The Kingston is 60GB. If not the Kingston, then is there a brand you recommend? And what size? I still just want to use it as a cache. I'm sorry, but this is beyond my typical experience tinkering with a PC, so I am lost here and need everything spelled out. I appreciate your input greatly, as I at least now know what and where the failing component is.

The 16GB mSATA drive was 'enough', because it never held the whole OS, or the whole 'anything'. It was simply cache space for the larger HDD. It held whatever files it thinks you use most often.

Since this is a desktop, and you are not space constrained as in a laptop....I would just get a regular SSD, and use the larger HDD for other stuff. OS and applications on the SSD, HDD for other stuff.

Using a 60GB SSD as a cache drive brings performance better than just a HDD on its own, but nowhere near as fast as a regular SSD.

 

[USAFRet]

The SSD cache concept came about because SSD's used to be REALLY expensive. It was a way to ease the user community into the whole SSD concept.
Today, not so much.

Samsung 840 EVO, 120GB
$80 at Newegg - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W01AZ5378&cm_re=840_evo-_-20-147-247-_-Product

$30 more than your selected drive. Twice the space, and far faster overall operation. And a far more reliable drive.

 

[CincyGuy]

The SSD cache concept came about because SSD's used to be REALLY expensive. It was a way to ease the user community into the whole SSD concept.
Today, not so much.

Samsung 840 EVO, 120GB
$80 at Newegg - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W01AZ5378&cm_re=840_evo-_-20-147-247-_-Product

$30 more than your selected drive. Twice the space, and far faster overall operation. And a far more reliable drive.

To wrap up this story, I purchased a $35, 32GB Bullet Proof brand SSD from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B3X72U4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I installed this into the slot, and at least stopped getting the errors. I never noticed a decrease in computer performance when I removed the old SSD or installed the new one. What a pain in my rear for nothing. I also learned how terrible HPs customer service is. After HOURS spent online or telephone chatting about this with customer service reps (all with Indian accents), they sent me the wrong part (the laptop hybrid hard drive). I finally got connected with an American customer service rep after posting some messages in an HP user forum on the HP website. The thing that got me special notice was posting pictures of the defective part and the wrong part they sent me, all of which had HP part #'s and serial numbers. They don't like people doing that, so tried to get my problem solved by escalating my issue.

Here is the kicker. The American HP person I spoke to really didn't know what an MSATA drive was, because as she stated, "I'm really not that much of a techie." Okay then. She also said the HP part number I read (from the OEM original MSATA drive that had failed in my computer) did not even exist in the computer system, so she couldn't send me the correct part. I told her I planned to sell the laptop hybrid on ebay (sold for $54) they sent me to help pay for the replacement MSATA I had to buy on my own. She said she didn't hear me say that, but was closing my case.

Fast forward about 4 months, and one day in the mail I get a little envelope from HP. I open it up to find a replacement MSATA drive, along with return instructions to send back the defective within 3 days or dire consequences would ensue! That envelope and replacement drive will sit on my shelf for a few more months, waiting to see if they contact me again. If they do not, I am going to pitch it.

The moral of the story for me is that HP is not the company it once was. Not only has it continued an obsolete and stupid design in one of its mainstream computer lines, but quality control is not there and customer service is a nightmare. I had several conversations throughout this ordeal with someone in our IT department (I work at a 1,000+ employee company), and he told me this is why they buy only Dell. Easier to fix and upgrade, and no goofy design issues like still including MSATA cache drives. Lesson learned, and my next computer will likely be a Dell. It most certainly will not be an HP.

Thanks for your help USAFRet! I never would have figured this out if it wasn't for your tip on the MSATA thing!