Second SSD options for Pavilion 15-cc158nr

[lab2k1]

Long story short, I need to replace my laptop in a hurry, and it's too late to order anything online, so I have to settle for what I can find in my local stores (frys, cdw, microcenter etc). I am tempted by an HP Pavilion 15-cc158nr which comes with a 256 GB M2 SSD, but I am looking to add a second SSD to it. The manuals are confusing as to the physical layout and the supported dual-drive configurations. Also, some related answers on this forum appear to indicate that the second drive would require a special bracket/assembly available from HP, only, which as I said is too late for me to order now.

My question is whether it is possible to add a second SSD to a Pavilion 15-cc158nr which can be installed without requiring any additional hardware, and what type (PCIe or SATA) would that be. Thank you.

[banhien]

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@lab2k1wrote:

.... Also, some related answers on this forum appear to indicate that the second drive would require a special bracket/assembly available from HP, only, which as I said is too late for me to order now. ...

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@lab2k1

As you mentioned above, you need more hardware to add a second HDD or SSD to the HDD bay. You have to buy a  standard 2.5" SATA HDD/SDD for notebooks/laptops.

You need kits as mentioned on the following note:

The hard drive bracket is available using spare part number 926848-001.

The hard drive cable is available using spare part number 926844-001

Regards.

[lab2k1]

Thank you for the pointers @banhien. I believe those are required for the standard 2.5'' drives. However, the specs also mention support for a PCIe/NVMe drive. Is it (not) possible to add one such next to the existing SSD, and would that require any additional mounting hardware?

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

There is a 2.5 inch bay for SATA HDD/SDD and there is a single M.2 SSD slot. Here is the Manual:

Manual

M.2 circled HDD in rectangle

There is support for a PCIe/NVME disk but it has to be inserted in the circled area above which is where you already have an M.2 type disk. So you have no way on that machine to have 2 x M.2 SSDs because only a single slot. SATA and NVME M.2 disks fit in the same kind of slot. Your laptop happens to be able to handle either SATA or NVME M.2. Many cannot.

You can put a 2.5 inch SATA SSD in the rectangled area, but it needs a hard drive/SSD 2.5 inch mounting kit as stated by @banhien. If your laptop is equipped only with an M.2 from the factory, HP will not provide you with the mounting kit to add a 2.5 inch disk. 

I hope that clarifies and if it does, please accept as solution to help others with the same issue. 

[lab2k1]

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@Huffer@  wrote:

There is support for a PCIe/NVME disk but it has to be inserted in the circled area above which is where you already have an M.2 type disk.

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Thanks for that. I had looked up the service manual before posting, but it nowhere made clear those physical locations, not in all of its 96 pages worth (the pic you posted is under the TouchPad section, go figure). Case closed, thank you.