# UEFI, HP Recovery Discs, Windows 8 and SSD drives....?



## Obinice (Sep 7, 2004)

Good afternoon folks, this is really giving me a headache!

I just got a new laptop (*hp dv7 7338ea*), a Windows 8 machine. I ran the HP recovery disc creation burner, and it burnt a bunch of DVDs (which you can only do once), and it verified them. Ive used similar discs before on my old HP laptop when the HDD failed, and what I want to do here is apply these new Win8 restore discs to my new SSD (Samsung 840, http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/solidstate/128gbandabove/mz-7td250bw.html).

So I swapped the drives over, and booted up the first disc. It went fine, it seemed to be happily able to format and start copying files, and then it asked for restore disc 2.

However, when I put that disc in, *it just kicks it out again and continues to ask for disc 2*. I put the disc in another machine and it loads fine, I tried copying the image to another disc but it didnt like that either. Google suggests that people have been having this disc 2 issue for a few years across numerous devices, with no solution.....

SO! I thought right, it wont let me use the discs, maybe Ill just image my original hard drive and apply that image to the SSD. It took me a while to get the laptop to boot from the CD at all, and when I got Clonezilla running it couldnt even see the HDD I had connected (via USB). It could tell there was something connected to the USB but...yeah.

I managed to use a different machine to copy the HP "Recovery" partition to another drive, but couldn't boot into it.

Its one of those new UEFI computers, and its the first one Ive come across, and Ive seen stuff online suggesting that the system does all sorts of weird stuff to make life harder, but this is where Im at a loss and you, being well up on the current state of the tech world, might know some solutions I wouldnt think of!

Oh also, the BIOS has some weird legacy setting thats disabled that suggests its for pre Win8 OS, and when I try to turn it on it asks me to enter a confirmation string of numbers, and that concerns me, because that usually means whatever Im doing is pretty serious, and seeing as I dont know what it is, Im not going to touch it!

It also has something called Secure Boot, which from Googling I think I have a basic understanding of, the problem is I dont want to disable Secure Boot, as Im concerned it will wipe the keys it uses and then I wont be able to get them back for my HP Win8 system.....

Im actually strongly considering buying Windows 7, disabling this UEFI thing as much as possible and giving up all my HP software. But I dont want to, I bought Windows 8 (well, it came with this machine), and I'd really like to use it!

Do you guys and girls have any ideas? Thank you very much for your help


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

Before we actually make an attempt to start on HOW to do this

That HP has a 1TB SATA drive
the SSD is 250GB if I am not mistaken

I am not certain it is a good idea, were it to be a desktop and you could install the OS on the SSD and keep the 1TB for your various programs and personal data I would say YES
However, I think I am correct in saying that there is only the ONE hard drive bay in that notebook and 250GB these days - is not all that large

If you wish to go ahead, then the TOTAL used space of the 1TB MUST BE less than the 250GB
Use this
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/features/clone-gpt-disk-partition.htm

the free edition it is very easy to use and more or less guaranteed
DOWNLOAD for free edition
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm

LEGACY is the term for using the traditional BIOS with MBR partitioned drives as against the UEFI firmware and GPT drives
UEFI is Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
GPT is Globally Unique Identifier Partition Table and the drive that is GPT boots from a FAT32 partition that contains the Windows boot manager

DO NOT enable legacy for the purpose of cloning the drive
Secure boot is a security measure
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824987.aspx

It should not interfere with the process of the clone, as you are not booting from Easeus you are installing Easeus to use it for the cloning.


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## Obinice (Sep 7, 2004)

Thanks for the reply  I'll make a proper response tomorrow, just checking in now as I go to bed and damn I'm tired...

The machine does actually have a second bay, and I've purchased the extra drive caddy and cable to fit it (which hasn't arrived yet), so I hope to have the OS and software on the SSD, and retain the HDD for bulk storage


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

OK I am not back until about 2100 UK time
It is now 0050

Will wait to hear from you


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## Obinice (Sep 7, 2004)

I've downloaded and installed that software, looks like it might be what I need  I do have a new problem though (doh!).

I got the caddy and cable to mount the new drive in the laptop, so now I've got both the 1TB HDD and the 250GB SSD in there. The BIOS can see both of them, and a Linux boot disc can see them both fine.

Windows 8 however, can't see the SSD at all. It can't see it in the Disc Management section of the Computer Management settings, it isn't mounted in My Computer, it doesn't show up in the Device Manager under Disk Drives and there's nothing flagging as not having the right drivers/operating incorrectly in there.

So, while I'm totally ready to try to clone the drive to the SSD, Windows really doesn't seem to want me to :/


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

open a cmd prompt with admin rights
type
diskpart
press enter
type 
list disk
press enter
is it seen in diskpart


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

Do you realise please that Samsung have there own DATA MIGRATION CLONING software for use with this drive
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/c...SSD_Data_Migration_User_Manual_English_v2.pdf


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## Obinice (Sep 7, 2004)

Diskpart doesn't see the drive, only the first HDD.

I've seen that they have some software, I took a look on the CD they provided (only software and manuals, no drivers or anything like that, not that Win8 should need drivers for an SSD...). I'll give anything a go! But first Win8 needs to see the drive, lol...

My IT buddy hasn't got a clue either. It's weird how Linux can see it fine, and Win8 insists it doesn't exist....

By the way, thanks for helping  I know I'm not being much help back! :/


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

Does the Easeus see the drive please

It is one of three things
1. The port to which the drive is connected - and the Intel software needs updating
2. The firmware for the drive needs updating although Samsung do not appear to list one
3. The drive needs formatting

HOWEVER the fact that windows does not see the drive is not vitally important, as of course if Easeus sees the drive then we MAY be good to go


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## Obinice (Sep 7, 2004)

Easeus doesn't see the drive either, and I formatted the drive in Linux to NTFS, that didn't seem to help.

I can run the firmware update utility that came on the disc, but it says there's no SSD connected to update.

How would I go about updating the Intel software, as that seems to be my only choice?


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

1. Control Panel
Troubleshooting
Configure a device

2. Device Manager
disk drives right click
scan for hardware changes

3. HP site for your computer
downloads
chipset driver
intel
and uefi update

4. IF ALL NO GOOD 
DISABLE ONLY SECURE BOOT and try again to see if the drive is recognised
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...=5330546&prodTypeId=321957&objectID=c03653226


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## Obinice (Sep 7, 2004)

The "Configure a device" gave me the following apt response, but didn't seem to help: "Hardware changes might not have been detected".

I tried scanning for hardware changes, nothing.

HP have a built in driver update software that doesn't think it needs to get anything, let's check out this website *installs things and reboots*


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## Obinice (Sep 7, 2004)

I installed the intel rapid storage technology driver, and now Win8 sees the drive! I'm going to attempt to clone the drive using EaseUS. I don't pretend to know what all the partitions this HDD has are for (it has 5, only two are visible to the user, boot and recovery), seeing as some of them are EFI partitions and such I figure I need to try to copy it all.

So, I'll try the Disk Clone option with Optimize for SSD ticked because that seems like it makes sense?

P.S I'm pretty darned tired, sorry if I make little sense myself


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

1. So some success


> I installed the intel rapid storage technology driver, and now Win8 sees the drive


2. Yes you do need to clone all as on a GPT partition scheme there is the FAT partition I mentioned earlier from which windows boots and there is also a system reserved partition and of course the data partition for windows and then in your case there is a hidden partition which contains the files necessary for a recovery, as against merely the recovery partition containing the access to the hidden one
EFI system partition (ESP) 
Microsoft Reserved partition (MSR)
At least one data partition

3. I am signing off again it is 0019 - back a little earlier at 1900 I think


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

Good night

Check this before you finalise
Tips:
1. If the source disk contains the system partition, please shut down the computer after the clone.
2. To remove either the source disk or destination disk from the computer to make the computer boot normally if the source disk contains boot partition.
3. If you want to boot from the destination disk, we recommend you to replace the source disk with the destination disk.
4. If the computer fails to boot from the destination disk after the clone, we suggest you clone the source disk to another disk with the same HDD interface. THAT IS NOT OF COURSE AN OPTION FOR YOU
5. If you choose to clone a hidden partition, the cloned one will be unhidden

I think 3 is the way for you to go and then at least any repairs etc cannot possibly effect the original 1TB


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## Obinice (Sep 7, 2004)

It worked! I cloned the drive, then disconnected it and booted from the SSD, all works perfectly. I've reformatted the drive to NTFS and now I'm learning about things to disable/move to the HDD.

I've already moved the page file and redirected the temp folder, as well as telling Norton not to run idle time disk optimisations (here's hoping it listens to me!).

I tried disabling the Windows Search Indexer, but disabling Windows Search disables well...all search, and that's bad, so not sure what I'm going to do about that one.....

Final question, is there anything else I should be moving to the HDD to minimise disk writes? (and, is there any particular software you recommend to monitor SSD health?)

Thank you so much Macbootmaster, you've been such a big help!


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

1. windows 8 itself will manage the ssd for you
see this
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/optimize-hard-drive
the only partition of the drive that will not be trimmed is the FAT partition containing the windows boot manager

2. Personally I would not recommend the use of Norton but that of course is your decision
It has a rather poor reputation - not in its effectiveness as an anti-virus, but insofar as relates to its effectiveness on slowing down various aspects of windows 8
IMHO Windows defender the included AV for 8 which was on previous OS only an anti-spyware/adware but is now full AV protection is more than ample, free, regularly updated and not a resource hogger

3. I agree do not disable indexer - see here for why

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/What-happens-if-i-turn-off-windows-search
although the link is to 7 the same applies to 8
what you can do is change what is indexed to exclude as you wish
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/search-index-faq

4. Re is there anything to move, were it to be me - I would move all my personal data by way of docs, music and pictures but that is very much a matter of choice. AND perhaps if I am honest - really only because I always keep that separate from the OS system partition

5. Re drive health - I am unsure that there is any really reliable check
http://forums.hexus.net/storage/204374-ssd-health-check-2.html

*FINALLY pleased it all worked for you*


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