NVMe SDD Upgrade

[Perly-King]

I have a 255 G7 laptop (Prod I/D 1B7K2ES) fitted with a 512GB SATA SSD which is getting rather full. I ued the Crucial scanner to determine the hardware profile of the laptop and to recommend a 1TB drive to replace the originall it suggested a 2.5" SSD. I also looked at a couple of videos on YouTube which gave a run through of what looked to be a very straightforward task. Just to be sure, I also  had a look at HP's tech support web pages and noted that this machine was indeed fitted with a 2.5" SATA HDD or SSD. I therefore purchased a suiable drive and proceeded to install it only to find that the 2.5" bay was empty - not even a suitable connector! In fact there was no connector at all although it was easy to see where one would have been with a 'conventionsl' 2.5" SSD. After a couple of seconds I realised that the laptop was fitted with an ADATA NWMe drive. I used to be a UNIX techie working on very large corporate systems which used SCSI drives for internat storage but was never involved with  physical hardware upgrades, only the occasional reconfiguration of the OS. So I am completely at a loss to know what spec I should be looking for to perform this lowly upgrade. Sorry to go on at some length with this request but happy to provide any further info you might find useful. I took a photo of the existing drive which shows the drive's details but I don't see any way to upload one 😞

[banhien]

@Perly-King 

Its specs

     https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06194380

It does NOT have dual storage options and the M.2 slot supports BOTH SATA and NVMe PCIe 3x4.

>>>> this machine was indeed fitted with a 2.5" SATA HDD or SSD

The 255 G7 series has dozens of different models/products, each machine can have 2.5" HDD/SSD OR M.2 SATA/NVMe SSD but NOT BOTH. 

Your machine has M.2 storage therefore the 2.5" bay is empty. No available part for you to add anything. One option now is to upgrade existing 512GB SATA SSD to 1TB or 2TB.

Regards.

[John-noddy]

Many thanks for your very quick response. I wrote my question when I was feeling very tired after a very demanding day so I don't believe I described the problem very clearly so perhaps it would be better if I started again from the top:

Both Crucial's scan utility and HP's documentation indicated that a 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD was required so I bought one and cloned the existing C:\ drive.

I completely understand that you can't have both a NVMe AND a 2.5" SATA SSD installed together - it is very much a one or the other choice. Having purchased the 2.5" unit I thought I would like to use it and store the NVMe unit in the spares box.

The problem is that, although the space to accommodate the 2.5" unit is clearly visible, there doesn't appear to be any SATA connector or securing bracket around that void. I even removed the battery just to make sure that there wasn't anything hiding under there!

I have mulled over the possibility of purchasing the necessary parts to enable me to install the new drive - if indeed this really is a possiblity - or purchase a 1TB NVMe unit and put the 2.5" SSD in the spares box.

Sorry not to have made myself clear to begin with - I would very much appreciate your thoughts on this matter. Moral - always open the case and have a look at what's there before jumping to conclusions!

[banhien · Accepted solution]

>>> or purchase a 1TB NVMe unit and put the 2.5" SSD in the spares box.

@John-noddy 

I would follow this route. An mentioned before, no available part(s) for you tho ADD.

Regards

[John-noddy]

Accept as Solution