I'm upgrading an HP Envy H8-1559, which currently runs from a hard drive and doesn't have an onboard NVMe slot. I already own a 1TB NVMe SSD and am considering installing it with a PCIe adapter, but the system apparently can't boot Windows from that adapter. My plan is to add a 128–256GB SATA SSD for Windows and use the NVMe drive for storage and applications. Would that be enough, or would it be better to buy a 512GB or 1TB SATA SSD instead?
1 Answer
If the computer has an open, compatible PCIe slot, using an adapter for the NVMe drive is still worthwhile. A 128GB SATA SSD can technically handle Windows, but 256GB is a much more comfortable minimum once updates, applications, and free space are taken into account. You can keep Windows on the SATA drive and use the 1TB NVMe as secondary storage if the firmware won’t boot from the adapter.
That’s the issue I’m trying to work around—the system doesn’t appear to support booting Windows from an NVMe drive connected through the PCIe adapter, so I’d need the SATA SSD for the operating system.