Laptop won't see SSD Drive

HI, I was wondering if anyone has an idea on my issue at hand?

I wanted to do a fresh install of Windows 8 and not clone my 1TB Drive to my 120GB SSD. For some reason, I can't get my HP to even see te SSD at all. I have turned on and off Legacy in BIOS. I have tried the SSD in both slots with Original HDD unplugged. There is nothing wrong with the SSD as I can see it in other PC's, infact, I formatted it in a Windows 8 PC for troubleshooting purposes. I don't know what I am missing here... I don't see anywhere in the BIOS that even tells me it's installed. If I go to install Windows 8, (VIA Bootable USB) it wan'ts Drivers. But it don't even see the HDD at all even...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I didn't try the cloning option like everyone else here has done. I thought you can only clone 2 HDD's of same size. But I prefer to do clean installs anyway to get rid of any bloat ware that HP might have on here..

Have you tried to install drivers via "Add legacy hardware" option in device manager?

By "seeing it" do you mean in This PC? You won't see it until you initialize it in Control Panel-Administrative Tools-Disk Management.

BIOS doesn't even see it

I don't see anywhere in the BIOS that even tells me it's installed.

Click to expand...

Ztruker said:

BIOS doesn't even see it

I don't see anywhere in the BIOS that even tells me it's installed.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Never mind.

Addictive Gamer said:

Have you tried to install drivers via "Add legacy hardware" option in device manager?

Click to expand...

I was trying to find those. I'll have to look again, but using "Legacy drivers" instead of searching "ssd driver's"

Also forgot to mention, this is on an HP M7-J020DX touch smart Envy laptop.

Can someone point me in the direction to aquire these drivers? Thanks!

how old is the bios?

Have you tried a different power and different sata cable?

Brooklyn567 said:

how old is the bios?

Have you tried a different power and different sata cable?

Click to expand...

BIOS is updated to latest. Laptop is only 14 months old. Cable is brand new and confirmed working. (I put a normal Spinner HDD in and it worked) I have tried both SATA bays. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong or missing something..I just don't know what.

I have gone to HP's Website to get any missed updates and for some apparent reason, thier site won't give me any thing to download.
Hewlett-Packard HP ENVY TS m7 Notebook PC

Running Belarc Advisor:
Boot Mode: UEFI with Secure Boot disabled
Board: Hewlett-Packard 1965 KBC Version 93.52
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
UEFI: Insyde F.65 11/20/2014

Ok, I just got off with HP. Apparently, the Laptop is not upgradable to use with an SSD Drive. I find this unacceptable. Why have a 2nd HDD Bay and why Have I seen other posts with use of an SSD. I will continue my research and thank you all for you help here.

SATA is SATA, what difference could it make if it's a SSD or not. That makes no sense at all.

Definitely makes no sense and is unacceptable. Why would they somehow lock out the use of SSDs? My 3 year old Acer is working fine with two SSDs installed.
I think the only way they could prevent the use of an SSD is through BIOS which means they could and should enable SSD support.

SSDs need SATA to be in AHCI mode. Some BIOS types do not see SSDs in usual BIOS settings but deeper down where disk boot order is set.

popeye said:

Definitely makes no sense and is unacceptable. Why would they somehow lock out the use of SSDs? My 3 year old Acer is working fine with two SSDs installed.
I think the only way they could prevent the use of an SSD is through BIOS which means they could and should enable SSD support.

Click to expand...

Agreed.. I was able to finally get it to work. It looks like it was the SSD HDD itself. I went out and bought another one (newer 240GB for $80). I now have it up and running Windows 8.1 on it while using the original 1TB spinner for the data. I wasn't taking HP's word on it not being upgradeable. However, the system did crash after an update. I got the. BSOD "Critical process died" and I couldn't repair or Format it again. I was using a Windows 8 version someone gave me, on a Bootable USB drive. So that might have been that issue as well. I wound up creating my own Bootable USB drive from my original media and that worked. I thank you all for your help!

whats the actual full model number of your laptop

and what is the model of the SSD

i dont believe this is a lost cause ..

Brooklyn567 said:

whats the actual full model number of your laptop

and what is the model of the SSD

i dont believe this is a lost cause ..

Click to expand...

Is actually not a loss cause. I have it up and running! I Wouldn't take HP's word that is not upgradeable and kept troubleshooting it and trying different things and ways.

Laptop model : M7 Touchsmart ENVY (M7-J020DX)
SSD: Corsair 120GB Force SATA 3 GT