Question About Adding A 2nd SSD or A Hard drive

[ultrautoob]

My laptop is a Dell G15 5515. I am wondering what the process would be to add a new internal hard drive or a new SSD/NVMe to this specific laptop, and which ones are compatible? And does my laptop even support adding a 2nd hard drive? My current, single drive in my laptop is a OM3PDP3-AD NVMe KDI 512GB card. If I wanted to install a new hard drive or NVMe/SSD, would I just unscrew my laptop, place it in, and then seal it back up... or is it more of a process than that?

I am mainly looking for a drive with a lot of storage as I find my laptop only has enough storage to handle 2 games on my PC, ARK and Rust, which are both space-intensive games.

Any suggestions or tips? Thanks!

https://imgur.com/a/mgZg99a

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/mgZg99a

 

[Secret-Squirrel]

And does my laptop even support adding a 2nd hard drive?

Your laptop's motherboard has a free "SSD2" port, so yes, in principle it should accept a second SSD.

You'll need to get another NVMe SSD in the M.2 2230 format.

In case things don't work out as hoped, buy from a reputable source that has a good returns policy such as Amazon and that'll give you the flexibility to return it for a refund.

If I wanted to install a new hard drive or NVMe/SSD, would I just unscrew my laptop, place it in, and then seal it back up..........

Yes., although getting the bottom panel off can sometimes be tricky.

 

[SkyNetRising]

You'll need to get another NVMe SSD in the M.2 2230 format.

Larger M.2 2280 may also be supported.

 

[Secret-Squirrel]

Larger M.2 2280 may also be supported.

Do you think it'll fit in the available space shown in the photo?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Yes.
M.2 standoff screw can be relocated to a different position to support larger size M.2 drive.

 

[ultrautoob]

Yes.
M.2 standoff screw can be relocated to a different position to support larger size M.2 drive.

I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff, what exactly do you mean by relocating the standoff screw? Thanks for the responses both of you, they're a big help

 

[Secret-Squirrel]

Yes.
M.2 standoff screw can be relocated to a different position to support larger size M.2 drive.

Ah, yes, now I see. I was looking at the SSD2 port the wrong way. It will indeed accommodate a physically larger SSD.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[SkyNetRising]

what exactly do you mean by relocating the standoff screw?

This:

 

[geofelt]

Here is a link to the dell service manual that describes the process:
https://www.dell.com/support/manual...acd213-58d6-4010-a815-795d21ceb3a6&lang=en-us
Looks easy enough to add another drive for use as additional storage.
Find it in windows storage management and assign it a drive letter and format.
Moving the C drive to the new would be a bit more complicated involving a clone operation.
Most pcie m.2 ssd's will be compatible.