The price of storage media is so cheap that there is now no reason not to buy better and faster storage media. best SSD for your laptop. If you’ve never opened a laptop before, reaching and removing a working drive might seem daunting, but don’t worry. Upgrading your SSD is a quick and easy process. Please follow these steps:
Before purchasing a new drive, you need to determine what kind of drive you will be using in your laptop and whether it can be upgraded. If your laptop was manufactured in the last few years, it has at least one of his M.2 slots for NVMe (or SATA) drives. However, it may also come with his 2.5″ SATA drive and an extra slot that can be used for a second drive.
Every laptop review talks about upgradeability, but the easiest way to find out is Important advisor toollists nearly every laptop ever made and the types of storage drives it supports.
It is recommended to create a backup before working on the drive. If you want to migrate your installation from the old drive to the new drive, You have to clone the old to the new.
To safely get inside your laptop, you need the right tools.
At a basic level, you usually need a Phillips headed screwdriver. A plastic pry tool and a “spudger” are useful when removing the plastic clip and laptop chassis. We also use Lego block separators for their sharp thin edges and overall strength.
Replacing M.2 NVMe and M.2 SATA SSDs
M.2 drives look like bars of RAM and are usually 80mm long (known as 2280), but there are shorter ones like 2260, 2242 and 2230. Usually an NVMe interface, but can also use SATA. Get the right one before you upgrade your laptop.
1. Make sure the laptop is turned off and not connected to AC power.
2. Disable or remove the battery. If the laptop has a removable battery, turn it off, unlock it, and remove the battery. For the internal battery, enter BIOS and disable the internal battery. My Lenovo X390 has a BIOS entry for turning off the battery.
3. Remove the bottom panel of the laptop (or hatch). Some laptops have a hatch/panel for the drives, while others require the entire panel to be removed.
image 1 of 2
Four. Locate the SSD and remove the screws.
image 1 of 2
Five. Carefully remove the drive. It should lift slightly off the board and have very little friction. There may be glue holding the drive in place. Remove it carefully.
image 1 of 2
6. Insert the replacement drive at an angle and Gently push it into place.
7. Install the screw to lock the drive in place.
image 1 of 2
8. replace the hatch/panel, Make sure the SSD is not touching the hatch/panel.
9. Turn on your laptop. Lenovo users with a built-in battery must do this with the power connected to activate the battery.
Replacing a 2.5 inch SATA SSD
1. Make sure your laptop is powered off and Not connected to AC power.
2. Remove the battery. If the laptop has a removable battery, turn it off, unlock it, and remove the battery. For the internal battery, enter BIOS and disable the internal battery.
3. Locate the SSD hatch/panel and remove the screws. Some laptops have a hatch/panel for the drives, while others require the entire panel to be removed.
Four. Carefully remove the drive. It should slide out of your laptop with little friction.You may have to remove screws or interposers before this is possible. Note the orientation of the SATA data and power ports.
Five. If you have a drive rail/caddy, remove it from the SSD. Rails and caddies are commonly used to protect drives from collisions.
6. Insert the replacement drive, noting the orientation of the SATA port, and gently press it into place. Replace drive rails/caddies (if present).
7. Replace the hatch/panel and replace the screws.
8. Turn on your laptop.
If you have cloned your boot drive but haven’t used it yet SSD enclosure You may need to restore the data to the new drive at this point to copy the data.
