Is an SSD drive already installed

[John463]

I want to add an SSD drive to my computer. I opened the computer and found that there is already a card installed where I should put the SSD.  It is attached by a ribbon cable plugged in.  Is this the recovery disk or a dummy card?  Is it ok to remove and install a SSD drive? 

[Grzwacz]

Greetings,

Welcome back to the forum.

I am not a HP employee.

Please provide the complete product number. 290-p0xxx could be many different PCs with different motherboards.

I don't know what a ribbon cable means. M.2 SSDs plug into a M.2 socket on the motherboard. No cables.

SATA SSDs don't use a ribbon cable. Ribbon cables remind me of Legacy IDE data connections.

There should be no dummy cards in HP PCs. Every component has a purpose.

Regards

[John463]

It is a 290-p0014.  The SSD card does not plug into a motherboard.  The service manual for the computer shows exactly as it is with a ribbon cable (many parallel wires fused next to each other in a "ribbon") plugged in.  I'm sure that a dummy card could be a placeholder or terminator for the cable.  

[Grzwacz]

Hi John463,

Thanks for the product number.

Your PC's  motherboard has two SATA connections and one M.2 2280 PCIe socket. This is the motherboard's limit with respect to storage options.

The two SATA connections are occupied by an optical drive and a 1 TB HDD.

You should have an open M.2 socket which can be used to install a M.2 NVME PCIe 3.0x4 SSD.

Regards

[John463]

Perfect.  The description of the new SSD drive that I purchased is M.2 2280 PCIe, exactly what the computer will accept. According to the Service Manual for this computer, it should be installed via a ribbon connector plugged in to the drive, but there is already a card plugged in to that ribbon cable.  I have not opened up the enclosure that holds the SSD drive, maybe the ribbon cable plugs into the motherboard on the other end.  So far, I have not opened it up enough to see the motherboard.  My question now is what is the card that is already plugged in? I have not opened the enclosure enough to see more that the ribbon cable connector.  

[Grzwacz]

Hi,

I am not following what is happening.

A 2280 drive looks like a piece of gum. This device plugs directly into a M.2 socket on the motherboard.

There are no ribbon cables required to use a 2280 M.2 drive. This drive gets power and transfers data directly through the motherboard.

A 2.5 inch SATA SSD requires a SATA cable connection to transfer data. It also requires a SATA power connection to power the drive.

Regards

[John463]

Yes it does look like a piece of gum, only larger.  Please refer to the service manual for my computer, maybe the situation will become clearer.  I just want to know before I open it up more, what is the card that is already there and can it be removed and replaced, or is necessary for the operation of the computer.  

[Grzwacz]

Hi,

See image below.

The 2280 M.2 socket should be open.

Regards

[John463]

I'm sorry, but please refer to the service manual for my computer, whether it has the same motherboard as you have shown or not, there is a ribbon cable connecting to a card under a housing, it seems to be an SSD drive.  The manual says it is an SSD drive.  But there is no other drive showing up in widows explorer, only the hard drive and a recovery drive, which I take to be a partition of the hard drive.  I'm sure that every component of the computer has a purpose, I would just like to know what the purpose of this SSD is.  

[Grzwacz]

Hi,

Very sorry, can't assist you.

The image in my previous post is your motherboard.

Maybe a different forum member can help.

Regards