Possible to fit a 2.5" SSD at all?

[DC-72]

I've been looking up this 14-dh0516sa model for upgrade instructions and it seems to be described on at least the Crucial website as being able to accommodate an NVMe up to at least 4th gen and a 2.5" SSD.

Crucial aren't normally too bad with their accuracy of what will work with a certain model and not, and I also found this post from Banhein which does seem to be about the same model if I am reading it correctly.

I'm currently wondering if the small black tab that has the white ribbon cable connect underneath for the fingerprint reader is some HP specific connection for a 2.5" drive that might require the drive holder they mentioned: "Hard drive cover for use in models with a fingerprint reader part # L51122-001"

Unfortunately none of the links including from Banhein I've found to HP's service manuals on this site appear to be working (I get a black screen with "not found" and warned the site doesn't support HTTPS, and no luck finding the specifics for this model elsewhere, only a generic manual for the Hp-Pavilion-X360-14 series that shows this:

I took my unit apart and there is a bay there from which I removed the "dummy" 2.5" drive bay filler, but there does not seem to be any connector on the motherboard to fit a real drive.

The picture above however seems to show a special case for a 2.5" drive and a right angle connector of some kind going to the clip I suspected might be a proprietary connector for an SSD in that bay.

That's the only connector that might be available I can see, and is the one obscured by the "tape" I peeled back to read the label of the drive in the M.2 slot.

Am I correct about the proprietary housing having a special ribbon cable connector to plug into the SSD controller there, and is such a thing actually available from any sources currently or do I have to scavenge the second hand market for a trashed unit to salvage one from?

Even if I could just get that adapter cable I'm sure I could use sticky foam pads and insulate the back of the drive MacGuyver style if that's my only option.

My other question is would I be able to put any NVMe drive of my choice in the M.2 slot or is there anything else I need to know about that in terms of compatibility?

Thanks for any pointers or advice that can help me get my spare SSD that's sitting unused hooked up inside the laptop and an NVMe that actually works with it un-problematically.

As said none of the links including the one in Banheins post that looks quite promising seem to be working any longer, or at least are not for me, so that page from the generic X360 14 manual is all I have to go on so far.

[tk_srq · Accepted solution]

@DC-72,

There's no service manual specifically written for your model. 

The service manual below covers all 14-dh0xxx models.

Maintenance and Service Guide HP Pavilion x360 14 Convertible PC

looking at page 52 of the manual, the cable from the fingerprint reader board appears to be connected to a connector on the bottom side of the motherboard, and an unpopulated cable connector seen on the corner of the motherboard seems to be for a 2.5" hard drive (HDD).

So, a cable connector, shown below in the circled red line, appears to be for an HDD.

As you already indicated, you need an HDD cover # L51122-001 and also an HDD cable # L51095-001 (see page 21 of the manual).

Just in case you are not aware of, the manual (on page 2) indicates your model supports M.2 NVMe 2280 SSDs which are far faster than M.2 SATA SSDs. You can remove the current M.2 SATA SSD and install an M.2 NVMe SSD of any size you want, 512 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB or more.

If you install an M.2 NVMe, you need to install Windows on it. So, this is just an option you have.

[DC-72]

So it has an M.2 SSD in there. That explains the speed isn't quite what I'm used to.  Now I have confirmation I will get on with ordering the parts. Thanks!

[tk_srq]

Your current drive is a Lite-On 128 GB M.2 SATA SSD.

You can replace it with an M.2 NVMe SSD of any size you want, 512 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB or more. For example, this is a Crucial M.2 NVMe SSD.

Amazon.com: Crucial P3 PCIe Gen3 NVMe 1TB SSD, Up to 3,500MB/s Read, Laptop & Desktop (PC) Compatibl...

I'm assuming you are trying to install a 2.5" HDD for more storage space, but again you have another option to use a faster M.2 NVMe SSD of your desired capacity.

If you still want to install a 2.5" drive, buy a 2.5" SATA3 SSD instead of a 2.5" legacy mechanical hard drive, as SATA SSDs are much faster than legacy spinning hard drives.