How can I add two M.2 NVMe SSD drives to an Erica6 motherboard?

[Dan-Koh]

I just acquired an HP Pavilion TP01-2234, with an Erica6 motherboard and AMD Ryzen 7 5700G processor (B550a). The board has one NVMe M.2 SSD drive (1TB) mounted as the system drive. I want to add two additional M.2 drives (500 GB and 1 TB) internally. A Geek Squad techie told me it can't be done, that I'd have to use an external docking station. Well, I tried that and it got too hot (poor design), and it seems it can only handle one SSD (the second slot is for cloning). (Plus I'm fed up with Geek Squad right now.) So I'm looking at dual PCIe adapters on Amazon, and it looks like one might work, but I would appreciate some advice on whether that's so and more details on what I need to look for. (For example, I can't tell if this motherboard supports bifurcation, though some adapters don't need it.)

Thanks,

Dan

[Prométhée]

hi

sorry but

One M.2 socket 3, Key M, (2280/2242)

https://support.hp.com/rs-en/document/c07929809

cloning, I don't see what you're talking about, you only have an SSD port and a wifi port

One PCI Express Gen 3 x16

it would be a shame to use a port for graphics card ..
but anyway, difficult to confirm, users have tried with certain models, and it was a failure

utility point of view, you have no great interest in having several M2
You could just try with a sata SSD, if there are connectors!

[Dan-Koh]

HI -

Thanks for the reply. The doc you linked to says "2 M.2; 1 PCIe x16; 1 PCIe x1" so I'm a little confused why you say there is only one M.2 socket. (I haven't found the other one yet, anyway.)

The part about cloning has to do with trying to mount both drives in an external enclosure using the USB-C port. Although there are several devices that say the CPU can see both drives, the one I tried would only recognize the second drive for cloning purposes.

On the other hand, if the motherboard does have "PCI Express Gen 3 x16" slot, then I should be able to use that for an internal dual SSD card, right? This one, for example:  GLOTRENDS Dual M.2 PCIe 3.0 Adapter, Support M.2 PCIe RAID Setup Under 2 x M.2 PCIe 3.0 SSD (NVMe/AHCI Key M) , Motherboard no PCIe Bifurcation Required, PCI Express 3.0 X4 Card (PA20)

I use the computer for photo editing (stills, not video) and not for playing games, so I don't need the extra-powerful graphics. Phtoshop is doing well enough with the onboard graphics.

Thanks,

Dan

[Prométhée]

I told you, you have an m2 SSD slot
and the other is an m2 slot but for a wifi card it is already used most certainly, why you probably didn't find it!

So for the pci, although I don't think you need this, I can't tell you it will work!
I know users have tested it, and it didn't work for some
For Photoshop, so much the better, I don't know what the graphics chip is worth, my wife did a lot of photo processing, and it wasn't always on top, that said, it's evolved a bit since then!
But so, if you do just that, I don't see the point of a 500 m2 and an extra 1 tb, what is it for exactly?
The utility of M2 faster, for windows, and for applications no problem
but then, for storage, a simple sata SSD may be suitable, that's what I currently have

[Dan-Koh]

OK, that helped. Thanks,