This article covers the SSD and RAM Upgrade of my HP 15-ay045ng (X5Z22EA) Disassembly. Here are the exact specifications, but it might also apply to other models of this series.
Model: HP 15-ay045ng (X5Z22EA)
CPU: Intel Core i3-5005U (2GHz, 3MB Cache, 2 Cores)
GPU: Intel HD 5500 Graphics Card
Memory: 4GB DDR3L-1600-SDRAM

Find all details here and a notebook test here.
I upgraded the existing M.2 SATA SSD with 128GB to a 256GB M.2 SATA SSD because I needed more storage. I also added some additional memory (RAM) because I had one some DDR3L-SDRAM in stock.

To make the upgrade really easy and simple, you should clone your current SSD to the new one. Find here the guide.

Disassembly and Parts

At first please remove the battery, this is still a model with a battery which can be removed and replaced easily 🙂 After removing all the screws, it was quite tricky to remove the backcover since there were some additional hidden screws, check the picture below. If you have removed all screws from the backcover, simply use a plastic card or some plastic disassembly tool which will help you in this step.

I used this tiny space from the other side with the plastic card to start removing the backcover, just a little hint:Finally I got it removed:

After removing the backcover you can directly see the M.2 SSD as well as the memory and the cooling system:

Here is my new M.2 SATA SSD with 256GB:

Here are the memory modules:

And here the cooling system:

Summary

If you know how to open the backcover and the hidden screws the process is very simple and I highly recommend you to upgrade if you need more storage as the device is really great for the price. I can definitely recommend this laptop because cost-benefit ratio is simply amazing.

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This article covers the SSD Upgrade of my Huawei MateBook D14 Disassembly. Here are the exact specifications, but it might also apply to other models of this series.
Model: W00D-53010GXL
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2500U
GPU: AMD Radeon RX Vega 8
Memory: 8GB

Find all details and a notebook test here.
I upgraded the existing M.2 SATA SSD with 256GB to a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD because I needed more storage and there was also the chance to significantly improve performance because of the upgrade from SATA to NVMe. I replaced the existing SK Hynix SC313 HFS256G39TNF with a new Samsung 970 EVO 1TB.

As I could not find the exact details for this model before ordering the new SSD I wanted to share this information with you. The Huawei Matebook D 14 offers support for M.2 SATA as well as NVMe SSDs, both connectors are supported, so I would strongly suggest you to invest in a NVMe model due to the better performance.

To make the upgrade really easy and simple, you should clone your current SSD to the new one. Find here the guide.

Disassembly and Parts

After removing all the screws, it was quite tricky to remove the backcover. According to my experience I would suggest you to start at the corner where the screwdriver is heading to in the image below. Simply use a plastic card or some plastic disassembly tool which will help you in this step.

After removing the backcover you can directly see the M.2 SSD to the top right:

For my device I replaced it with the Samsung V-NAND SSD 970 EVO NVMe M.2 1TB as mentioned in the introduction:

Because I already had the laptop case opened, I decided to replace the Thermal Compound of the CPU and GPU under the heatpipe too. After checking the current condition of the thermal compound I noticed that it was already time to renew it. At first remove the heatpipe:

Then clean both sides, heatpipe as well as CPU/GPU:

Apply your new Thermal Compound and re-assemble the heatpipe again – finished!

In case you need to replace or clean the fan, I uploaded two photos here:

Summary

If you know which SSDs are supported and how to open the backcover the process is very simple and I highly recommend you to upgrade if you need more storage as the device is really great. Unfortunately the memory cannot be upgraded at this model because it is soldered. This is the only fact I do not really like at this model because at some time it might be the bottleneck of this system. Apart from that I can definitely recommend this laptop because cost-benefit ratio is simply amazing.

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From time to time you might get into this situation. You either have an old laptop with a hard disk drive (HDD) or you have a newer model with a small solid state drive (SSD) like 120GB and want to perform an upgrade. Basically you can replace the hard drive of every device. But first I would recommend you to look up which drive is built-in into your device, there are in the meantime several building types like 2,5”, M.2, PCIe, NVMe. So I definitely suggest you to read into this topic, so you get an overview and buy the right hardware for your device. Another recommendation from my side is to check out iFixit. Probably you will find some useful information regarding the disassembly of your device and the hardware replacement/upgrade.
Clone HDD Macrium Reflect

Prerequisites

You will need the following things in order to clone the hard drive:

Depending on the type of hard drive, you will need one of these adapters (if it is a laptop, for a workstation you maybe have a second port to connect both simultaneously):

• 2,5” SATA to USB
• M.2 SATA to USB
• M.2 NVMe to USB

And an application for the cloning process. From my experience, the best one is Macrium Reflect Free, which is free for home use.

Cloning Process

When you installed Macrium Reflect successfully, please connect the new hard drive via your adapter to your laptop and start the application. Your screen should look like this. In my case there are now two SSDs available. The existing one with 120GB and the three partitions, and the completely empty new one with 450GB on the bottom.

Firstly, you need to click on Clone this Disk. Now another window will pop up where you need to select the partitions you want to copy. Probably you want to copy all of them.
Important: Please select them by dragging and dropping them. After dragging the main partition which you want to increase, click on Cloned Partition Properties before you drag & drop the next one.

Secondly, please edit the Partition Size or Free Space to increase the available partition size according to your needs or upgrade. I always edit the free space and keep enough for the last partitions. So in this case I left 674MB free for the last partition. Then I simply drag and drop the last one with 674MB to the new hard drive.

Finally, after hitting Next you can define the log file location and save your settings. After that you are ready to start the actual cloning process of the hard drive to the new one. In my case there were three operations (three partitions). Depending on the speed of the old hard drive, the new hard drive as well as the adapter and amount of data this will take some time to process.

Macrium Reflect Free: Cloning ProgressAs soon as the process is finished, you can safely disconnect the new hard drive and start replacing the hardware!
Clone HDD Macrium Reflect

Technology photo created by freepic.diller – www.freepik.com

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If your device (laptop or workstation) has a small hard drive, maybe because you have a 120GB solid state drive (SSD) as system drive, you might get into this situation. With such a setup you basically have your operating system (Microsoft Windows) and all your applications installed on the C:\ partition or drive. Due to this setup, if storage usage is growing you could run out of space on your system partition which could cause serious issues. I want to show you how to spot files or folders which are utilizing amounts of storage. When cleaning them up, you will get free space again. Windows Spot Disk Usage

TreeSize Free Portable

For this purpose I definitely recommend you to use the following application: TreeSize Free Portable. It is an portable application so there is no installation required, you can simply put it on your C:\ drive in a temporary folder for example. Just execute the application with administrator privileges so it has access to all of your system directories:

When the application started properly, you can select the drive to scan:

Now it will start to scan all directories located on the selected drive and list it. You can use the mouse or arrow keys to navigate through this structure and go into detail:

It is ordered size descending per default which is great. I definitely suggest you to check the whole directory structure where size is huge. Let us take an example here:

The SoftwareDistribution folder located inside Windows directory has a size of 4GB on this device. But 3,6GB of them are inside folder “old”. I would say that this one is not needed anymore – but to be sure, I always look up the functionality of these folders at Microsoft Docs for example. Do not simply delete any system folders or files without further checking!

Probably this is not the best example because in most cases, you will find some application eating up your storage space with cache or similar inside AppData directory which is straightforward to clean up.

Windows Spot Disk Usage

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Introduction

If you are living in a non-english speaking country like me, or you create a website for a customer in a country like that you probably need to translate the website to the country-specific language. When you are using the content management system WordPress for example, maybe there are some translation options shipped with the theme you are using. If there are some missing or even not available, there is a simple possibility to translate certain strings. I recently had this case with the Blog overview page and the Posts page. There you have strings like “Author”, “Post Comment”, “Log Out” and so on. WordPress Translate Strings Functions.php

Edit functions.php for Translations

In order to use that method, I strongly recommend you to create a child theme in WordPress, thus you are safe to update everything. Otherwise, when you are working without a child theme, you might lose your changes after an theme update if the file gets overwritten. For more information about WordPress child themes I suggest you to check out the documentation at WordPress.org

The code itself is very simple:

1. Add a filter
2. Create the translation function
3. Inside the translation function, you use str_ireplace with the not-translated input and the translated output for every string you need
4. You return the translated string

add_filter('gettext', 'translate_my_text' );
function translate_my_text($translated) {
    $translated = str_ireplace('Leave a comment on: “%s”', 'Kommentar zu “%s” verfassen', $translated);
    $translated = str_ireplace('Leave a Comment', 'Kommentar verfassen', $translated);
    return $translated;
}

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But let’s stay for now at the function to modify the “Price on Inquiry” text. In order to keep your changes when updating your theme, I recommend you to create a child theme in case you do not have one yet. It is a very simple process and you can look it up here:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-themes/how-to-create-a-wordpress-child-theme-video/

At the child theme you can include this code snippet in your functions.php file, which you may need to create in case you just created your new child theme. The code snippet itself is very simple, if the product price is equal to 0 or ” it will return a line of HTML which you can customize as you need it. I found the necessary information at the following site:
https://businessbloomer.com/

// Inquiry link if no price available

function add_inquiry_link_instead_price( $price, $product ) {

    if ( '' === $product->get_price() || 0 == $product->get_price() ) {

        return '<span class="price_on_inquiry">Price on Inquiry</span>';

    }

    return $price;

}

add_filter( 'woocommerce_get_price_html', 'add_inquiry_link_instead_price', 100, 2 );

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Unfortunately you can face sometimes a Bluescreen of Death (BSOD) after installing an unsupported driver or if a driver is outdated. If you have not seen a Windows Bluescreen yet, it looks like this. I want to show you how to Windows 10 Analyze Bluescreens BSOD

Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_screen_of_death#/media/File:Bsodwindows10.png

In a really bad scenario, the BSOD can even cause a boot loop of your device. Windows starts, and before the lockscreen is visible, you get the Bluescreen. It generates the log information and reboots. Then the same procedure applies again and again. In such a case, you will need to use Safe Mode from Advanced Boot Options, but I will come back to this later.

As a first step, I recommend you to update all drivers and your system’s BIOS in case you did not install any third-party application or driver. You can download them from you manufacturer’s website or if you own a business laptop, there might be a tool to download and install all of them at once (like DELL Command Update or HP Support Assistant).

BluescreenView

The first tool I recommend to get started analyzing Bluescreens is called BluescreenView which is available here for free. Simply download it, there is no installation needed. When you download the zip archive, extract it and start the .exe file:

If you are running the application, it will automatically list all of your Bluescreen Logs which are documented as Minidumps. As my current system had no bluescreens yet, this is an example found on another website to show you how it looks like:

Image Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/6292/how-to-troubleshoot-the-blue-screen-of-death/

The application shows you very important information. You will need the following for further investigation of the error:

• Bug Check String
• Bug Check Code
• Drivers found in stack

With this information available, you can start looking up the different combinations on your favourite search engine. Probably you will find the cause and update the related driver from your manufacturer’s website. If there is nothing displayed despite you got a BSOD, please make sure the Minidumps are enabled in Advanced System Settings:

1.) Open File Explorer, right-click on This PC and select Properties

2.) Open Advanced System Settings

3.) Select Settings for Start-up and Recovery

4.) Make sure that you configure Automatic Memory Dump and check the Dump File Location

Windows 10 Safe Mode

Sometimes, especially in case of an endless boot loop, you will need to enter Windows 10 Safe Mode. This means, that only basic drivers and settings are loaded because they will not probably cause any bluescreen. There are several ways to get into Safe Mode. If your system still starts properly, you can simply hold Shift and click on Restart on your lockscreen. If it is not booting anymore to lockscreen, you need to manually shutdown your device. After it’s starting again, maybe you need to do this one more time. Lately after three unsuccessful starts, it should boot into the Recovery Environment. You can find the whole documentation at Microsoft Support

1.) Select Troubleshoot

2.) Select Advanced Options

3.) Select Startup Settings

4.) Confirm with Restart

At the last screen with the Safe Mode options, select Option 5: Safe Mode With Networking

Image Sources: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

If you need to uninstall an application in Safe Mode, you need a little Registry tweak, because the Windows Installer Service is not running per default. Start a Command Line Window as Administrator and copy the following command to add the following registry key:

REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Network\MSIServer" /VE /T REG_SZ /F /D "Service"

After that, type in the same CMD window this command:

net start msiserver

After that, you are able to uninstall any application via Control Panel. This is extremely useful, because BSODs are often caused by newly installed third party applications which might have installed additional drivers.
Windows 10 Analyze Bluescreens BSOD

Driver Verifier Manager

The Driver Verifier Manager is another tool to find the driver causing BSODs on your device. Please keep in mind that using this tool can result in an unexpected behaviour with new Bluescreens! Nevertheless it is a useful tool in my opinion, thus I want to show you how you can use it.

1.) Start Windows PowerShell as Administrator by right-clicking on Windows icon on the bottom left

2.) Type in verifier and hit Enter
Create Standard Settings

3.) Select driver names from a list

4.) Here I recommend you to select all non-Microsoft drivers as a first step.

After hitting Finish, you will get the message that these settings will be applied after next reboot. So, time to reboot now. Most probably, your system will be able to start normally into Windows because the faulty driver does not get loaded now. If you execute the Driver Verifier Manager now and select Display Information about the currently verified drivers, you will get a list of verified drivers and if they are loaded or not. Another thing which could happen is that Driver Verifier Manager creates new Bluescreens which contain more detailed information about the faulty driver causing the BSOD. Thus it is more easy for you to narrow down the root cause and eliminate the driver.

In most cases I am able to solve the issues with these methods – if you have any more methods or solutions, let me know in the comments 🙂
Windows 10 Analyze Bluescreens BSOD

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• Dashboard
• Orders
• Downloads
• Addresses
• Account Details
• Logout

For our modifications we just need to edit the functions.php file of your child theme. For my webshop, I wanted to rename two menu entries and hide one completely.

Remove Account Menu Item

Basically, the code to modify the menu items is very simple. Here, I just added a filter to remove the “Downloads” tab because I had nothing to download in this shop. The function itself simply unsets the specified item and returns the other items.

add_filter( 'woocommerce_account_menu_items', 'remove_downloads_my_account', 999 );
function remove_downloads_my_account( $items ) {
unset($items['downloads']);
return $items;
}

add_filter( 'woocommerce_account_menu_items', 'rename_address_my_account', 999 );
function rename_address_my_account( $items ) {
$items['edit-address'] = '<Insert your custom text here>';
return $items;
}

add_filter( 'woocommerce_account_menu_items', 'rename_edit_my_account', 999 );
function rename_edit_my_account( $items ) {
$items['edit-account'] = '<Insert your custom text here>';
return $items;
}

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Required Hardware

• Raspberry Pi
• Power Supply
• microSD card
• Screen
• HDMI cable
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Network Connection
• External hard drive

Installation and Setup of Raspberry OS

Write Image to microSD card

At first we are going to install Raspberry Pi OS (or as it was previously named Raspbian) by writing the image to the microSD card. They provide a simple Imager tool for multiple operating systems like Windows, macOS and Ubuntu. You can download it here

After downloading the Imager application, simply execute the setup and start the installation:

After the installation is completed, you can open the application on your system. Then you can select the operating system which should be written to the SD card. Now you can select the target, which is of course the microSD card of the Raspberry Pi.

After pressing Write, you can see the progress of writing the image to the SD card on the bottom.

When the image has been written to the SD card, the image is getting verified:

If verification is completed, you can remove the SD card from the card reader or laptop and insert it into your Raspberry Pi.

Configuration of Raspberry Pi OS

When you have inserted the SD card to your raspberry, you can also connect a keyboard, a mouse, a screen and a network cable if possible. Then you can connect the power supply to boot it. At the first start, the operating system will get installed. This will take a few minutes, but not too long. After that, you can continue with the basic configuration which is pretty straightforward. You can define things like time and date, keyboard layout, WiFi Connection and so on. I would also suggest you to change the password of the default user “pi” to your personal one.

Establish a SSH/VNC connection

In the configuration of your Raspberry Pi you can also enable services. I suggest you to enable at least the following 2 services: SSH and VNC so you can remotely connect to your device from your laptop. This has also the advantage that you do not need anything attached at your Raspberry Pi (like screen, mouse or keyboard).

After activating the SSH service in the configuration, you can use your favourite SSH client. I am using MobaXterm. Simply enter the IP address of the Pi, specify the username “pi” and your personalized password. You have to use the default SSH port 22.

If you see the following output, you connected successfully to your Raspberry Pi via Secure Shell!

Another possibility is to use the VNC connection if you want the graphical user interface (GUI) of the Raspberry Pi OS. To establish a VNC connection, you need additional software like RealVNC. After installing the application, start it and enter the remote IP address of the Pi:

Then you are able to see the video output of your Raspberry Pi OS and can do everything there.

Installation of OpenMediaVault (OMV)

Now, after the setup and configuration of Raspberry Pi OS is completed, we can finally move on to the installation of our NAS software OpenMediaVault. The basic installation is truly simple, because we just need to execute one line of script in the Pi command line:

wget -O - https://github.com/OpenMediaVault-Plugin-Developers/installScript/raw/master/install | sudo bash

This line of code will directly start the install script for OMV5. Basically there is no action needed from our side. So, grab a coffee or something like that because this will take up to a hour to complete. After starting it, you will see this screen:

During the execution, you might see a lot of packages getting installed on your system:

If you were patient enough to let it finish, you will finally see this screen, where the SSH connection gets lost because of a reboot of the device. When the Pi is running again, the installation of OpenMediaVault5 NAS Raspberry Pi is completed!

OpenMediaVault Web Interface

OpenMediaVault will automatically start when your Raspberry Pi boots up. You can access the web interface by simply entering the IP address of the Pi into your web browser on your laptop e.g. in the same network. In my case it is http://192.168.8.112/
The default login is:
Username: admin
Password: openmediavault

The web interface looks like that:

So, this was the guide to get OpenMediaVault5 NAS Raspberry Pi running. I will go into detail on using it as a NAS in another article, but I need some more time to write it. Hope to see you soon again on my site.

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Basically it is a very simple script, but I will quickly go through it. Of course you need to define the UNC path to the file share or folder. Then you will loop through all the existing directories with a Foreach. At each folder you will get the permissions with Get-ACL. Then you need another Foreach to get through all the granted permissions which are inherited or directly set. Then you will add each line to your report and finally export it as a CSV file for further processing. That’s it!

$FolderPath = dir -Directory -Path "\\fileserver\fileshare"
$Report = @()
Foreach ($Folder in $FolderPath) {
$Acl = Get-Acl -Path $Folder.FullName
foreach ($Access in $acl.Access)
{
$Properties = [ordered]@{'FolderName'=$Folder.FullName;'AD
Group or
User'=$Access.IdentityReference;'Permissions'=$Access.FileSystemRights;'Inherited'=$Access.IsInherited}
$Report += New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $Properties
}
}
$Report | Export-Csv -path "C:\scripts\FolderPermissions.csv"

You can extend this script by sending the report as email message directly via PowerShell, look here. You can also create a scheduled task / cronjob for this script to Generate ACL Report FileShare periodically.

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