How many storage drives in the ProBook 650 G2 simultaneously?

[Daniol71]

Hi,

I have a ProBook 650 G2 which came with a 250GB m.2 drive. I'd like to add additional storage, and there is a 2.5-inch bay, but the m.2 drive takes up part of this bay.

1. Is it possible to put a 2.5-inch drive on top of the m.2 drive? I assume there are pressure and heat issues caused by doing that and the back cover might not even close.

2. Would a slimmer 2.5-inch drive, or an m.2 to SATA adapter (something like this) work?

3. Is there a technical reason for why the ProBook 650 G2 is designed this way? Eg. only one slot can be used at a time ( limitations with CPU PCIe lanes etc.)?

I'm aware of the speed differences between different types of drives and for my use case, I don't care right now. I'll be using cheap SSD's at SATA speeds.

4. I'm also planning to populate the disk drive bay (currently empty) with a 2.5-inch enclosure (something like this). I assume the SATA port for the disk drive bay runs at the slower SATA 2 speed and not SATA 3, is that correct?

Any help is appreciated, especially if you've tried something similar!

Cheers,

Dan

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

On this model the placement of the M.2 slot inside the 2.5 inch bay makes it an either or proposition, just as a matter of space. Either you have an M.2 or a 2.5 inch hard drive not both. I think the M.2 to SATA adapter is an interesting idea but I suspect the height of the M.2 with that adapter stacked on top is still going to be more than 7mm and prevent the cover from fitting up right but the only way to tell is to try it. Not sure how you will fasten down the M.2 adapter stacked at right angles to the other M.2 disk however. 

There is no reason both the M.2 port and the SATA port can't be used at the same time. The M.2 port can accept either a SATA type M.2 or a PCIe M.2 so must not be using the same SATA lane as the 2.5 inch bay SATA port. 

Manual

Yes you can use the optical bay port to install a 2.5 inch disk but as you suspect the SATA speed is a notch below the SATA bus used for the hard drive and it will not be bootable. We have also had some reports that on some current HP laptops the optical port will not work with a 2.5 inch adapter caddy. Not sure why and it definitely does not affect all models. 

Post back with any other questions but please accept as solution if this is the needed info. 

[Daniol71]

Thank you for a quick reply and a thorough answer. I'll try to get my hands on some hardware and report back with the results!

Thanks,

Dan