I'm dealing with a situation where the SSD in my HP Omen has become corrupted. In my haste to replace it, I bought a WD Passport SSD, which connects via USB-A to USB-C. I want to know if I can use this Passport SSD with my computer, especially since it's not an internal SSD like the one on the motherboard. Are there any specifics I should consider?
3 Answers
Basically, yes, you can use an external SSD instead of an internal one. Just keep in mind that the speed will be much slower when using USB compared to direct connections. If you can, try removing the internal SSD and connecting it to another computer to format it and do a fresh Windows install. Using an external drive as a main one isn't ideal, though.
If you want to use the WD Passport SSD as your main drive, replacing the internal SSD is your best bet. Using the external drive means you'd have to ensure it's bootable and select it every time you boot up your laptop. By the way, when you say corrupted, what do you mean? Is it not booting, or are files missing? We need more details here because 'corrupted' can mean a lot of things and it really matters for troubleshooting. You could also create a bootable USB on another computer, wipe the corrupted SSD, and reinstall Windows fresh if needed.
I understand what you mean. I tried to make a bootable USB too, but I messed up and left BitLocker on the original drive, so now I can't access it. Sounds like I'm in a tough spot.
If I remove the SS internal drive, would it default to the external one? I don't want to mess things up.
Hey! I'm a bit lost on how this all happened. What caused the original drive to become corrupted? I noticed you mentioned BitLocker, which needs a recovery key to decrypt, and that can take a while. But we need to understand what led to this situation to help figure it out. What were you trying to do before this?
Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it for primary use. It’s definitely slower, which could be a hassle.