ZBook 15U G4 second SSD problems

[wny2016]

I have a ZBook G4, 15u. The primary drive is the factory-standard Toshiba 500BG SSD, which occupies the first HD slot at the top left of the chassis. This laptop has space for a second SSD, standard 2.5", physical format, lower left of the chassis, with the standard connector for a 2.5" SSD.

I had a spare M.2 SSD, 80mm PCIe3.0 x4 (Intel) which I wanted to put in the laptop as a second drive for data. I tried to put this Intel SSD in a StarTech adaptor, which physically accepts both the Intel drive, and mates perfectly in the laptop. StarTech specifies this adapter card as "M.2 NGFF SSD to 2.5in SATA Convertor."  The Intel drive has already been formatted, as I had used it in another Windows 10 PC for a few weeks as a scratch drive for Photoshop, so it's ready to go.

Yet when I reboot the laptop, it fails to see this second drive. Am I using the wrong adapter card? If so, does anyone know which one might work in this laptop?

TIA for your help!

[wny2016 · Accepted solution]

Well, I guess it's my fault for not taking a very close look at the specs.

In the tech manual for this laptop, under storage, it says under Secondary M.2 storage:

SATA: various choices, SATA drives

PCIe (not available if primary M.2 SATA drive is selected😞 various choices, NVMe drives

So there's the answer. The only drive choice for the large second drive area is a standard 2.5" SATA SSD