Screw size for holding down M2 Drive

[squid13]

I have a drive coming to go in the M2 slot on this computers motherboard. Since it doesn't have a screw in the hold down post I need to know what size screw to get and if it's metric or standard. The motherboard is HP model 8653 (U3E1), version A (SMVB). I imagine it might be hard to find, you think it would ship with a screw in it so you don't have to go hunting.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

I believe you need a 2mm x 3mm machine screw.

Another forum member indicates you can get the screw for $.43 for a package of two at Home Depot.

I found this kit on Amazon.  More than you need, but you would have extras.

Amazon.com: M. 2 SSD mounting Screws Kit for Laptop and Nvme m.2 ssd (Screw fit Laptop): Industrial ...

[squid13]

The drive will be here Thursday  and if I order those from Amazon I'll get them Wednesday so that is what I'll do. Thank You for your response. If they work I'll add a response.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome. 

[squid13]

I got that screw set from Amazon and they were to small. I went to Lowe's and got these instead, metric M3-.50x8and they worked.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Sorry that the kit from Amazon wasn't the right one.

Glad you found the right size screw.

[squid13]

One more question, How do I boot from the new drive that just cloned successfully in this computer. It's listed in disk management but i see no where in the bios where I can change to it.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I'm not sure how you do that when you have two drives installed and both of them have operating systems on them.

Normally when a PC comes configured from HP with a M.2 SSD and a SATA hard drive, there is nothing on the SATA hard drive, and it is used for storage.

When you have an OS on the hard drive, for some reason, the Windows boot manager always boots from the SATA hard drive first and I don't know of a way to prevent that from happening.

So, the first thing I recommend you try is to temporarily disconnect the power from the hard drive and see if the PC automatically boots from the M.2 SSD like it should.

Then connect the hard drive back up, and format it to remove all data.

Hopefully, Windows will continue to boot from the M.2 SSD and you can use the hard drive for extra storage.

[squid13]

What I did was disconnected the Sata drive and rebooted the computer and it booted to ssd drive. I shut down and rebooted 5 times and it always booted to the ssd.  I want to use the other drive for storage. I guess you right click and do a format of that drive, should I leave it at NTFS or Fat32?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Yes, you can format the drive that way.

You would want to format it NTFS.