M.2 SSD + Standard HDD for hp notebook 15-ay039wm?

[S_Clary]

My friend has an hp notebook 15-ay039wm, and I would like to give them a little performance upgrade. Does their notebook have an extra M.2 port?

I have already looked at the Maintanence and Servance Guide (HP Notebook PC (Intel) * Models: 15-ay000 – 15-ay099 * Models: 15-ay100 – 15-ay199 HP 250 G5 Notebook PC HP 256 G5 Notebook PC); however, it is not clear to me if there is an extra M.2 port. I believe the guide is implying that the only M.2 ports would be 1) an adapter to replace the standard HDD and 2) an M.2 for the wireless adapter. 

I have also tired to find videos showing the inside of his notebook, but I have not found anything that's clear enough for me to get a good view of the available ports.

Again, to be clear, I want to add an M.2 SSD as a boot drive. I do not want replace the existing HDD with an M.2 SSD.

Thank you for your help.

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Can't be done as you wish. See p. 66 of the Manual. You read it correctly. The only way to have an M.2 SSD is by using a special adapter in the hard drive bay which will replace the hard drive. There is no dedicated M.2 slot on the motherboard. 

Best performance upgrade would be a 2.5 inch SATA SSD in the hard drive bay, which would mount using the existing hard drive bracket and cable. Then if you are short on storage consider a DVD drive adapter for the mechanical hard drive to use as just storage. Obviously that would be in lieu of the DVD drive but who uses those any more? Seriously, I am not a huge fan of the DVD adapter for storage but it will work. Better to just get a decent capacity (at least 500 gig) 2.5 inch SATA SSD.

Here's a screenshot from a youtube video of the inside with rear cover removed:

no dedicated M.2 slot here for storage disk 

About 3:30 into this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7vnW2cI6ZE

Post back with any more questions and please accept as solution if its the info you needed. 

[S_Clary]

Thank you for the reply. I was trying to save him some money with a cheap upgrade. He uses the notebook for audio and video work (I know, not the best machine for the job). Because of the type work he does, he needs a large amount of storage (at minimum 1 TB), and he needs the optical drive to burn physical copies of his work. That is why I was hoping for a free M.2 port.

I guess his options now are to upgrade to a smaller 2.5" SSD and carry an external around with him, or spend a good amount on a large SSD.

Thank you again for your help.