Question SSD with Intel Optane question

[Cheeseuk]

Hello all,

Forgive me for a possible silly questions but I'm pretty new to PC upgrades.

I bought a HP Pavilion (580-100na) last year and I've been making some incremental upgrades (RAM, PSU) and my recent was to upgrade the HDD to an SSD. The pc has a Intel Optane NVME installed which I was ready to replace with an Adata SX8200 pro...skip forward to yesterday and whoever built the pc has totally stripped the screw that holds the Intel Optane in place.

I've tried all methods save for a Dremel which I don't really want to buy for a 1 off occasion. It's also past its warranty.

Anyway my question: am I able to replace my HDD with a 2.5" Crucial MX500 1tb and still have the Intel Optane chip installed (as I can't remove it) or is it just
a) not worth it
b) would cause some issues

Thanks in advance

 

[rgd1101]

the 16gb optane drive. it just use for cache.

 

[Cheeseuk]

Thank you for your response. Am i right in assuming it being for a cache that replacing my old HDD with a new SSD will be fine - and I believe I'd have to disable the 16gb optane first?

 

[rgd1101]

Is should be disable by default. need to install some software driver to get Optane to work.

 

[Cheeseuk]

OK so I have the Optane already in the PC as it came with it, installed and running but I read if I install a new NVME i need to disable it before doing so. However as my Optane is basically stuck save for me smashing it to bits am I ok to:
Disable optane and leave it in the M.2 slot
Remove current HDD
Install new Crucial MX500 2.5" SSD
and then reinstall windows etc

Or will the fact that the Optane M.2 drive is still in its slot cause an issue with the new SSD.

This all makes sense in my head - sorry if its gibberish to you 👽 I'm sort of getting my head around all of this. Really appreciate the help.