in Hp pavillion 15 gaming ec0101ax Can i replace my 1Tb hdd with an m.2 sata ssd.. in the hdd slot

[iviayankS]

I want to replace my hdd with a sata ssd in the place of hdd slot. . can i

[WAWood]

@iviayankS 

According to the HP specs for your model, it has a SATA hard drive.  Any SATA SSD will be the same physical size with the same connectors.  So you can swap the two.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
2) Connect the new drive to the PC using a USB-to-SSD drive adapter (like the one illustrated below)
3) Follow the instructions in this link: http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Cloning+a+disk
4) Shutdown the PC when done
5) Swap the drives and reboot the PC.

NOTE: To do this easily, the SDD has to be the same capacity as the HDD.  IF you get an SDD that is a lot smaller, then before you do the cloning, you have to shrink the largest partition on the HDD (usually the OS partition), to the size such that it, and the other partitions, fit easily on the SSD.

You should boot from the new drive without any problems.

Typical USB-to-SSD adapter:

Good Luck