M.2 expansion slots

[CR4SH20]

According to the specifications on HP.com, my computer has (2) M.2 expansion slots (one for SSD and one for WLAN). What is the size of the M.2 connection? I would like to buy a second hard drive (or maybe remove the SATA and just use M.2) but it appears that M.2 come in different sizes (with 2280 being the most common). Can I use both SATA and M.2 at the same time, use M.2 instead of SATA, and is the M.2 a standard 2280 or is it different?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

This similar model sold in Germany that has the same MonkD motherboard, with a similar AMD processor, came with a 256 GB NVMe M.2 SSD.

HP All-in-One - 22-df0001ng Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

So, yes you can install a M.2 2280 SSD and it can even be of the faster NVMe type instead of SATA.

Your PC's motherboard specs are below:

HP Desktop PCs - Motherboard Specifications, MonkD | HP® Customer Support

M.2 2280 is the most common form factor.

A few PC"s use M.2 2260 or 2242 SSD's.

I have a PC where I can move the mounting screw on the motherboard to any of those sizes.

Recommended NVMe SSDs would be the Samsung 980 (not 980 Pro, or the Western Digital Blue SN570.

Here's the deal with retaining the 2.5" drive...

Yes, you can do that, but normally the PC will always want to boot from the 2.5" drive first instead of the SSD.

What I recommend you do is after you clone the 2.5" drive's contents to the SSD or use the cloud recovery tool to install Windows on the SSD, temporarily disconnect the 2.5" drive so the Windows boot manager switches to the SSD.

Run the PC off the SSD a bit, restart, shut down, make sure everything works fine.

Then you can connect the 2.5" drive back up. 

If the PC switches back to the 2.5" drive to boot from, I recommend that you use the Diskpart command to clean the disk.  Then you can format it and use it for storage only.

When using Diskpart, make sure you clean the right disk.

If it were me, I would buy a M.2 SSD with a storage capacity that meets my needs, and I would remove the 2.5" drive.

Below is the link to the service teardown video where you can find the SSD removal and replacement procedure.

Removing & Replacing Parts | HP 22-c0000/24-f0000 AiO PC Series | HP Computer Service | @HPSupport -...