I recently tried to upgrade my laptop's storage by replacing the old SSD with a new 1TB SSD, hoping to prevent any future failures. However, now my laptop just flashes the Caps Lock key and won't turn on. I'm unsure if I did something wrong or if the SSD is unsuitable for my device. Has anyone dealt with a similar issue? What should I check or do next?
5 Answers
If you made a Linux USB boot disk earlier, try booting from that. Installing the OS on the new SSD might help. You should see an error if it can't find the boot device, rather than a blank screen with just the Caps Lock light flashing. So that could help check if the issue lies elsewhere.
Since you mentioned the SSD is an internal one for an HP 15, they typically should work together without issues. Just confirm whether it's a SATA or M.2 drive. If it's the latter, check your laptop model's specs to see which types of M.2 drives it supports. That could be the root of your problem.
Go through the installation instructions again. Make sure everything is connected snugly, especially the SSD and RAM. Sometimes just reseating the RAM sticks can fix boot issues if they got jostled during the installation.
Have you done any basic troubleshooting? Try removing the new SSD and powering on without it; your laptop should still show some activity, like going into the BIOS. Also, check if it works with your old SSD—this can help pinpoint the problem.
It won’t turn on with the new SSD at all, but it works fine with the old one.
To start, make sure you've cloned your old SSD onto the new one. Just copying files won't work; you'll need to use specific software to clone your operating system and data properly. If you're unfamiliar with that process, you might need some tools like a USB dock for your old SSD to do the cloning.
I don't have the tools for that right now. Is there an easy way to do this?
Yeah, it’s an internal SSD for my older HP model.