GBAtemp.net - The Independent Video Game Community

I can't find any real discussion about replacing the eMMC because everything gets shut down by saying "it's impossible". You can desolder. Removing the eMMC is possible. Putting on a new eMMC is possible. Please let the conversation go past that bs so you can talk about figuring out what eMMCs do and don't work. It's frustrating to see useful conversations prevented like that.

And then you've got the few people that say that you'll ruin the board if you try, and that you should just get a new computer. Okay, but my eMMC corrupts every couple of days. It's already unusable and so I have nothing to lose. And as for replacing, it'd cost more to get a new laptop than it would to get a bigger and better eMMC.

I'm cheap. I don't want to fork out money for a new laptop if I can fix it.

This is the type of shit I'd expect apple fanboys to pull, then again its HP so what did I expect. Honestly that's another pet peeve of mine, when instead of trying people just say it's impossible so don't even try, especially when it comes to repairs.

The ratio of morons simply shouting shit on the internet versus hardware technicians that can is extra ordinary

They are right, but for the wrong reasons.

I'm 99% certain that there is some special data in the eMMC somewhere which you *must* somehow dump and transfer to the new one.
If you're unlucky, it's encrypted using NAND CID, and if really unlucky, it's cryptographically paired to the SoC as well (unlikely if Intel-based, but very likely if Qualcomm-based).

I'd suggest just finding a compatible SDCard (not all of them fare well with trying to be initialized as an eMMC), and just using an SD slot. A competent bootloader will have enough code to detect eMMC vs SD, and act accordingly.