Upgrade SSD Storage

[Rick-Retired]

After many hours spent shopping for a Win 11 compatible desktop, this 75 year old, non-gaming carcass just ordered the HP Slim Desktop - S01-pF1016 All in One with an Intel i3 10100 & a 256 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD.  I could not believe that $349.99 could buy a loaded computer with those super fast components and so much more!!

My understanding from HP's support document c06638240  is that this unit has:

• Two M.2 expansion slots (1 x PCIe x16 and 1 x PCIe x1)
  • One M.2 socket 1, Key A
  • One M.2 socket 3, Key M, (2280/2242)

So from further reading about sockets I am making the assumption that Key A holds the NVMe SSD, and that a Key M is specifically used for SATA SSDs.  Using this assumption my questions being new to NVMe SSDs are:

1.  Can I simply clone (i.e.. Macrium Software) my 256G NVMe SSD to a 500G SSD(i.e.. no unallocated) via a USB enclosure and then literally plug and play from this new bootable 500G as if factory configured?

2.  Also can I just add a SATA SSD of my choosing to the Key M socket as a 2nd SSA for data storage?

I appreciate any thoughts or guidance from anyone who has attempted any of these visions on the S01-pF1016

Thanks,

Rick 🤔

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The other M.2 slot only supports the wifi adapter, and according to the specs, the wifi slot is filled with the Realtek RTL8821CE wifi adapter.

HP Slim Desktop - S01-pF1016 Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

You would have to open up the case and see what connectors are there for a SATA hard drive.

You can clone the 256 GB SSD to a larger one but you would need to remove the 256 GB SSD.

[Rick-Retired]

Thank you Paul.

If I understand you correctly then I do not have any available m.2 sockets open for a spare SATA SSD .  And without SATA ports which I've seen no mention of, then my extra storage for data would have to be internal or external  USB devices, correct?

And yes, changing out the 256G to a 500G is exactly what I wish to do after cloning the 256 as a bootable SSD and then resizing the partition on the 500G either in Windows 10 or Macrium.  A second 500G NVMe SSD can be a backup periodic clone.

I wish I had the computer and new parts now.  Do you know what physical size the 256G SSD is and does the 500G need to be the same size to fit in the socket?

Thanks again, I just want to be always prepared for rapid and stress free system and data recoveries.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Unfortunately, HP does not show any picture of the motherboard to see if there are sata ports available for a standard sata drive.  None are mentioned in the description.

You understood me correctly.  No spare M.2 slots to add additional M.2 SSD's.

The SSD size will be M.2 2280.

I use Macrium Reflect (Free edition) as well to create monthly system images of my PC's just in case.

I once cloned a 250 GB SATA SSD to a 500 GB SSD using Macrium Reflect , and it worked great except for one minor issue.

I ended up with 250 GB of unallocated space on the 500 GB SSD, and it was not adjacent to the OS partition, so I could not simply merge/extend the OS partition into the unallocated space.

I found the free AOMEI software which allowed me to pretty easily merge the two non-adjacent partitions in to one.

AOMEI Partition Assistant | Partition Manager Software for Windows PC and Server (diskpart.com)

I suppose after you are done swapping out the M.2 SSD's, you can put the 256 GB SSD in your USB NVMe caddy and use it for storage.

[Rick-Retired]

Very helpful Paul and I'm glad you were here.  I've learned two new things.  One was that in my new free home version (latest) of Macrium you have a super utility for changing and arranging any partitions as you clone.  Basically you drag the Windows partition, if that's the one you want to enlarge, down last, click on Cloned Partition Properties and just select Maximum size.  I found an excellent You Tube video named "UPDATE: Using Macrium Reflect Free to Clone Windows to a Bootable M.2 SSD" that should be required viewing.  However, Win 10 Dsk Mgmt will work too after making non-enlarged clones.

The second thing I realized is that 256G is enough to last me forever lol.  This is what happens when you get old.  I thought I had 195.1G of data on my existing C: SSD but was reading the current partition size instead of the 74G actual usage.  So that saves me a bunch of Social Security cause all I will get now is one more NVMe 256G and be quite happy to always have a up to date clone ready to go.  I already love this forum and so glad I met you first Paul.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance, and thanks for letting me know about that nice feature in Macrium Reflect.

It certainly is a wonderful utility for creating system images and restoring from them.

I have used that image restore feature several times after 'experimenting' with different operating systems on my PC's.

I usually just clean install the operating systems on new drives, and then reinstall my programs and files.

I don't have a lot of programs or files, so usually it only takes me a couple of hours to set up a new drive.

Enjoy your new PC.

You are certainly right that it is packed full of features for the price.

Cheers,

Paul