17-by3003cy - SSD Upgrade

[Dell-is-better]

OK, another question about this laptop, and part of what sparked my journey into disassembly/repair.

The laptop has a 256gb M.2 NVMe.

Mom wants more space.  NVMe's are expensive, and replacement would require me to either clone the existing drive (not an impossible task, by any means), or my preference, a clean re-install as she's running a years old originally Windows 10 but upgraded to Windows 11 installation.

The former would have to be the path chosen, of those two options, since, if she ever had recovery media, she doesn't today, and, per my other post, there are no drivers available from HP, and I'm not going to wipe a (mostly) functional system and reinstall without the native drivers at hand - I have little desire to chase down an "Unknown Device" in Device Manager.

I then realized, I have a spare 2.5TB 2.5" SATA drive, and her laptop has a 2.5" bay.

So, I purchased an L22526-001 SATA cable (failing to also purchase the L22534-001 cover/caddy job), and when I popped the case to install, the only ZIF socket that matched the cable appears to be oriented in the opposite of the needed direction - without a longer SATA cable and bending the thing in multiple places (and essentially folding it over the ZIF socket that it connects into), I can't get the drive-end of the cable where I need it.

The pre-folded cable couple with the only apparent fitting ZIF socket seems designed to orient the cable so that it drops into the optical drive bay.

Am I missing something completely obvious?

[tk_srq]

@Dell-is-better,

The parts list for your model indicates that your motherboard's part number is L87451-601.

HP PartSurfer

The picture of an eBay listing of the motherboard shows that the ZIF connector for a hard drive cable, as you mention, is situated in the opposite of the correct direction (a white locking bar of the ZIF connector should be located at the edge of the motherboard, not away from it).

L87451-001 L87451-601 for HP 7-BY 17-BY3613DX (AE58) motherboard INTEL I5-1035G1 | eBay

A solution to your problem seems to be to buy a long unfolded hard drive cable like this and fold it multiple times to reach the ZIF connector so that the 10-pin part of the cable goes into the connector face down.

see pages 42-43 of the service manual.

HP 17 Laptop PC Maintenance and Service Guide

[Dell-is-better]

I appreciate the respons!

That's not the same motherboard as what's in the laptop - somewhat different layout, the SSD ZIF socket on "mine"  is located more along the lines of where the empty ZIF solder pad is to the left of "BATT", but, it is oriented the same (cable-side-towards-motherboard).  The L22526-001 cable I bought for it would be PERFECT with it's single 45° pre-bend if the socket was oriented 180° .

Do you know of a longer cable than the one you linked at Amazon?  The listing says 3.7", the cable I have (L22526-001) is reportedly 4.7" (I don't have it with me here at the moment, I left it with the laptop and parts).

Something even ~1" longer would probably suffice (5.7" - 6") but I wouldn't begrudge something even a tad longer.

I should have taken a photo of the board, I'll do that when I'm futzing with it next.

Thank you!