HP 15 Laptop hard drive replacement or SSD upgrade 

I know this is old, but thanks for the walk-through. I can't believe HP made access to the HDD so difficult, but your video made it a pretty smooth process. One point of clarification if anyone else reads this - you need to take out the screws beneath the plastic RAM/WIFI cover or else you wont be able to take the top cover off.

My Dad has this laptop, and has had me change his hard drive several times now, and i ALWAYS go to this video to guide me through the process. Thanks so much for making this!

I simply wanted to replace my old hard drive with a new solid state drive. I started my project late at night because this usually easy to do. Not so in this case! THANK YOU SO MUCH for making this video; there is no way I could have done it without your guidance. Hard drive placement will DEFINITELY be a consideration when purchasing another laptop!

This could possibly win the award for THE DUMBEST AND GREEDIEST product design ever. HP doesn't want to make it easy for you to update your computer, they just rather you buy a new one. HP should be ashamed. Opening a laptop simply to remove a hard drive is like taking an engine out of a car just to replace the car's battery.

Thank you! I just picked up an HP 15 from Best Buy and wanted to upgrade it to a SSD drive. I followed your guide, and I am installing the OS now. Thumbs up!

All this just to remove the harddrive???? What happened to accessing the hard drive through a simple cover underneath the computer? Thanks a million for your nice guide and video, but TERRIBLE computer design...shame HP.

Your accent is excellent and made this an enjoyable watch. I had three of these models with failed hard drives come through my shop this week alone, and the only thing that had me stumped was HP's incredibly bizarre decision with the ribbon cable connectors. The fact that the black part elevates on the keyboard, but the white part elevates on all the other connectors seems like an intentionally misleading design choice. Also, you may want to note somewhere that there's *another* model of HP 15 that has a nearly identical design, except it has segmented corners near the monitor which are fastened with a screw hidden underneath the rubber feet of the base. If you don't remove those, you're liable to break the fasteners inside.

Great tutorial man, thank you! I'm in the process of setting one of these up for my mom, and mom needs an SSD and 8 gigs of RAM! And if anyone from HP is listening, you guys are a confusing bunch. Kudos on being able to upgrade the thing at all in 2020, but does it have to be this hard? Have you guys ever looked at an old ThinkPad? There's a reason people are still buying and using them today, and it's not because they're light, pretty, or "cool"... Any idiot with a pocket knife and 5 minutes could upgrade the entire system having never looked at the guts of a computer before. There's value in that!!! My T410 is 10 years old. I have $100 total into it. And it's still faster and smoother than this fairly new HP. Not to mention upgrading it to SSD required only one screw in and out...

nice tutorial, I cant get those dang screws under the dvd rom. The section for the screwdriver to fit is sooooo tiny! I guess I have to get a special screwdriver. I'm using a glasses set tool and its too big lol. Crazy , has to be the hardest part! great accent btw.

Thank you Ricardo. My operation was successful.

This video might be 5 years old, but it was very informative and 100% accurate. Since I had this exact model, everything went perfect. I replaced my HD with a SSD drive. That along with the 4 Gb memory I added a couple of years ago has breathed new life into it..

Such an excellent and very helpful video even after all these years! My parents were saying that the hard drive is being sluggish so I'm planning on upgrading it to an SSD to help it go faster. Your guide seemed the best one, well done!

Thank you so much. I bought an ssd to put on this laptop and for my surprise the little cover on the bottom didn't had access to the hard drive. I was lost but thank to your video I was able to complete the job. Bad design from hp, though. Changing hard drives is very common operation and should be as easy as changing the ram. I've change many hard drives on laptops and is first time I need to open all laptop for this.

Afraid to operate on my newer laptop, I used this vid to upgrade my old busted laptop as an experiment. This video saved my old laptop's life, thank you!

I hope this helps someone all these years later. I am currently finishing this up. They have extra screws in the wifi card/ram bay that you have to take out. I missed those the first time around. For the cd-rom drive, just give it a little force and it will come out. IT doesnt need to open to come out. On the right side of the bottom plate, I had a screw that wouldnt fully come out. It unscrewed, but it stayed in. It is fine and wont hurt your work. Go easy with the keyboard, I jacked mine up a little bit trying to pull it out from the bottom right. My screws were also color coded: red for long ones and blue for short. Short ones tend to be underneath everything and long ones are for the plates on the outside.

Thank you SO much for creating this video! Saved me hours of frustration when working on my daughter in laws laptop! What a terrible design HP has for this laptop.

friend wanted to upgrade his hdd to SSD thanks for this video 6+ years later it is still spot on!!

Thank you for making this video! I thought that my only option was to purchase a whole new laptop. I replaced my damaged factory drive with a new sad and added 4g of ram and it is much better now. Thank you.

thanks man my old laptop broke not to long ago and I simply wanted to get the hard drive out to put into my desktop this video helped out a great deal.

Yeah I couldn't figure out how to get the keyboard out till I watched your vid. Had no idea that I had to kind of "Brute Force" it out with prying. Thanks for sorting me right out!

Bottom line, your video was very helpful. The "guts" of my HP 15 were identical to those of your specimen laptop, and your step-by-step made the process far easier for me than it would have otherwise been. 👍

I started to try to replace hard drive, but came to a stop when I could not get fully open. Now I know why! Thank you so much for this excellent video. When I attempt to do this, I will now be able. I have two HP15s (a result of a friend who breaks her computers and gives them to me when she just buys a new one!). I ultimately did not need to replace the hard drive, as I ran into boot issues when installing Ubuntu 20.04, and ended up fixing that instead. But now I am prepared for the next event!

I wanted to say thank you, brother. Most laptops are a bit of a pain to take apart, this one was a bit more-so. Slapped an SSD in there, 8GB RAM, and it works fine for looking up car parts online.

Thank you so much! I was having quite a time getting this laptop apart and was very thankful to find you video. This is probably the most aggravating computer I've ever had to change a hard drive in.

NOW THIS IS WHAT YOU CALL A TUTORIAL.... AND I KNOW THIS VIDEO’S OLD BUT IF IT WERE UP TO DATE I KNOW IT WOULD’VE HAD BETTER LIGHTING BUT THIS VIDEO HERE IS HOW TUTORIALS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DONE

The only bright side to this design was the system was as clean as if it was brand new when opened. Even the fan. Very surprised. Thanks for the walkthrough!

5 years later still helpin folks thank ya

This is absolutely my go-to 🎉for this specific Notebook from HP and even though I have opened er up a couple of times in the past I too will only watch this video because it is simple to follow and directly to the point...Kudos on this video!!!!

Thanks for the video!!! I can't believe my PC booted up after putting in the new SSD. Runs like a new PC.

Thanks for the video. I bought one of these for $25 knowing the hd was dying but didn't know what a fun adventure replacing the hd would be. Works fine now for it's intended purpose (guitar>usb interface>reaper) but I'll probably build a desktop or mini itx for future use because laptops aren't that fun to work on, especially this one.

thanks for the Vid!! I've got a COUPLE of HP laptops that I've been stymied on how to get at the hard drive!! there were a LOT of little tricks I saw that I'll be able to put to use... thanks again!!

I thoroughly enjoyed this video. It saved me a lot of time. I have taken many apart, but they always have different designs. Thanks a lot! I would suggest to anyone doing this for the first time that they not place the battery back in until they have fully secured everything. Also, there were two screws that needed to be removed from the beneath the memory to allow the front to come off. :)

HP has intentionally made the simplest thing very difficult to do. Thanks for giving the step by step for hard drive replacement.

Thanks to your video I was able to upgrade to SSD. It's bizarre how they added a cover to facilitate memory upgrades, but didn't do the same for the HDD. Thanks.

This was a tricky setup. I wouldn't say it was the worst I've seen or that it is a bad design, but it is convoluted. I appreciate the video!

Hey man thanks so much for this video 💯🔥 I go rewatch it every time I take my laptop apart. It always comes in handy

Awesome tutorial 15 screws +3+5 +4 from the HD casing should be it to get your HD out

Excellent walk-through. Many unusual bits in this laptop! Thank you for posting.

Its crazy how difficult it is to change out a drive on this laptop. Your video is a big help. Thank you.

Thank you soooo much for making this video. I followed your instructions step by step and was done in no time!

HP was too cheap to even give this laptop a model name

i had a usb port busted on the side where the hard drive was. At first I thought it was mounted on the motherboard and had no way of fixing it with my budget. Thanks for the video

Thank you! I was worried about breaking cables, but this helped a lot. 👍

Thank you, this video helped me a ton to replace my failing HDD

thank you my friend. ps: the worst inner laptop design ever made

My HP 15 g020dx was a little different. But this was extremely helpful. Thanks.

Thanks to you, I upgraded to a new 500gb ssd. (The one this laptop came with failed during the windows 10 upgrade.)

Thank you! Without your calming voice and clear instructions I don't think I would have persevered to the end. I was surprised how much brute strength needed to be used in removing the top panel, prising out all of those clips - whereas you wizz round with that prising tool. I was also surprised at how much the plastic can bend without snapping. Does it show I'm a first timer? I can't believe I've actually done it, and it's working, and I'm using it right now. (albeit from an OS on a thumbdrive).

I have a different hp laptop but it's the same process but I'm having trouble getting the key bored off

Couldn't have done it without your video. Thousand thumbs up!

well, this ACTUALLY helped me, thanks

Man, you saved me a lot of money. I thank you bro, this really helped I did it, took me about an hour. 👍.

Nice, you saved me a lot of grief. Doubled the memory and installed an extra Samsung SSD, it's now almost snappy, well as snappy as a laptop can be with a Celeron CPU that registers a 602 score.

I have a couple of issues with the way you presented this however I am grateful for the reference point when upgrading my mother's HDD to an SSD, along with some RAM. Just a heads up, please don't disassemble first and tell us to follow, I nearly broke one of the clips in the board as you referenced a black clip first and then said you had simply removed the next ones already -- here they were beige clips, if one attempted to pry the black it would crack the female connection to the cable.. If the reason for having done it first was for length of video time, I believe running at 5x-10x speed after you've clearly distinguished any 'points of contact' to the viewer could serve you in that regard. Thanks for the video and please continue the good work ;)

Thanks, this helped me replace my mom's hard drive when it went bad.

Thanks brother I did mine for the first time through your video directories

they really want you to buy a new one instead...

Thanks Ricardo. Great help./ I would also add, be careful when prising up the keyboard lock, as I broke (but managed to repair) the clamp. On my HP Pavilion 15-n219sa, it's the white clip that pops upward from the board. Cheers

Just a heads up to people that take it apart, when you get to releasing the keyboard, DON'T slide your finger! I've made that mistake and cut myself for it, it's my mistake. Use a small pair of Pliers to lift the keyboard up when your releasing with a flathead.

Just to echo many previous comments, what terrible build quality. So much plastic, very easy to break stuff just trying to take it apart. But thanks to Ricardo's excellent video, I was able to perform this normally simple task of changing the hard drive. Thank you Ricardo!

I also have a gaming laptop and it has stand alone covers for HD's and RAM. As all us geeks know...when it comes to technology...we all get what we pay for.

Thank you brother. What a poorly designed laptop for maintenance. They want us to all send it to them eh!? You ARE THE MAN...period!! Blessings brother.

Sure glad I tried this. After putting it back together, I had two tiny screws left over, and the laptop won't turn on. there were plastic harnesses in there falling apart to the touch.

Thank you so much for this detailed video. Was finally able to upgrade this pos laptop

Engineering at its best. Project Manager: "I want as many points of failure from the motherboard to the hard drive as possible. Make it so. I want those bastards taking the whole thing apart just to see it, damnit, keyboard included!. Have them turn that son'bitch sideways, leftways, all ways. Let's get moving!"

Helpful, definitely missed a good number of screws that resulted in cracks to my laptop but I’ll still give a thumbs up

The thing that came in there mind when making these, "the harder to take the hard drive out the richer we get and someday you might be richer then bill gates!" There just in it for the money. Plus last time I had to get my hard drive replaced I had to pay for it! Did I tell you every HP product we get we need to get the hard drive replaced? We spent so much money on our laptops and computers😑

Thanks for posting this! We never would have got into this case without your help!

i salvaged my drive from this computer which had failed keyboard and DVD drive, I could never have removed it without this video, Brute force would have damaged the drive, The HP is safely in the trash now

Thank you for this video...even 6 years later. I had a crappy HP 15series laptop that wouldn't even power on...no lights, no nothing. After wasting money on a new battery and a new AC adapter...and trying a million different troubleshooting options, I finally said "Forget this pile of crap." However I knew the hard drive was still good and I had empty SATA ports on my gaming PC, so I pulled the hard drive out of the laptop and bada-boom!....500 more gigs of storage for my CyberPowerPC. HP...good peripherals, horrible computers. (OK to be specific, I have an HP monitor which is great. My laptop however was pure trash)

Great tutorial. I downloaded it for future use and found that there's no longer any writing on the screen that gets in the way on YT. Nice one :)

Whew! That was rough, thank you for the guide! Super helpful

Thank you for this. This helped me to replace the HDD. It's ridiculous that the HDD was buried so deep!

I have tried to unscew my laptop and pop the base off on my HP Pavillion 15 Notebook PC, but there is a scew where the diskdrive goes that has a flathead scew which needs the tinest of screws to unscrew it. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as I dont want to go to the shops 😣😊

Great tutorial! Bummer that the processor is soldered in though...

Many of you posting how difficult this is... this is actually quite common. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that they started making the HD accessible through the RAM bay, because replacing the HD was rare in laptops back then. There is a grey zone of laptops not having SSD's now days, so if yours doesnt, be prepared for something like this because it is common to replace the drive like this in many types of laptops. If you buy a new laptop, you will have a much easier time accessing the drive bay since there are more options for drives now days including SSD's.

Another thank you for this video! Definitely helped replacing my fiance's dying hard drive! Now just to figure out the steps needed for a fresh windows install...

Good video thanks. It's crazy how complicated they made changing a hard drive in this model. Worst I've ever seen so far.

Very helpful! I made a mistake and disassembled the hard drive before ordering replacement parts. Now, 2 weeks later, I don't remember which screws went where! Any chance you have photos of which screws go where? Thanks!

Respect bro, mi finally find somebody weh mi understand well. Keep it up genna, mi appreciate the help

Thank you so much for the video I was wondering is this a standard laptop HDD my father's HP started having trouble and system check confirms its the HDD and I want to make sure it's a standard laptop drive before opening it and buying one.

Holy crap that is a lot of work just for the hard drive. I have 3 of these laptops now and I am glad I didn't pay for them.

#Protip - Check your keyboard connection before putting it all back together, the ribbon cable comes out very easy when you reinstall everything and if this isn't in place correctly, your keyboard will not work. I highly recommend after you connect it, to set the keyboard down with installing it yet and power it up to verify your keyboard works as it should. Once you verify the keyboard is working, then press it down and continue reinstallation. Otherwise have fun tearing it all back apart because your ribbon cable wasnt seated properly.

Thank you for a fantastic easy to follow video. I got the hard drive out and I am copying the data from it. Unfortunately on this computer the screen went out and those are are not worth replacing on this laptop. I will just get a new one.

I agree, crappy/greedy/stupid design meant to make more money, but awesome video. It helped me fix my neighbor's laptop. Thank you for this! I don't think I would have known to remove the keyboard and probably would have started to strip some screws. Thanks again!

Excellent, easy to follow video. Helped me out replace my HDD on a Hp Pavilion 15 i just picked up second-hand! Thanks!!

Thanks for the video, eventually I want to put an SSD in my HP 15 which is a very slow PC, I only bought it as my main PC was down and needed something to do my work. Mine doesn't have easy access to the RAM like yours so I would like to max that out when I install the SSD. Most other laptops I ever owned had easy access compartments for the ram and HDD, HP could have done the same but I guess you get what you pay for.

Hi, Unless I missed something the main part how to transfer system and the data you had on you disk was kept out of your advisory. The technical part concerning the screws was fine.

How do you get those 3 screws out that are under the optical drive. It feels impossible to get out

I love when you cover 1/3rd of the screen with you're subscribe bullshit. Definitely want more of that action.

Thanks for the help. I just installed an ssd into mine.

Thanks for your video, couldn't find the info somewhere else.

Thanks for this informative video. This saved me a lot of time trying to figure out how to do it!

Thanks so much, you really help me so much to change my disk, HP is now my last option to buy next laptop.

Thanks! Very clear instructions and appreciate the step-by-step even through reassembly. Was able to fix my HP15's bad harddrive!

Thank you for this. Helped me find a couple screws I missed!

Yes. Definitely work (and experience helps), but this dude is bad ass on teaching.

This has been so helpful so far. What type of tool did you use to remove the laptop part surrounding the keyboard? I can’t get that off. Thank you.

Thanks for making this video, I was able to upgrade the ram and hdd to SSD.

Thank you for this. Very helpful! With x 2 8 GB RAM and SSD hard drive, it's a new machine!