Got a used HP Probook laptop. Just needs a new drive. HP specs say it has an m.2 2280 slot. So that’s what I ordered. Guess I needed to look closer.
edit: Thanks for all the info, guys. Different types of keys are explained here. Gonna have to look for a sketchy no-name brand.
The port is a B key m.2, while the ssd is an M key m.2
B keys are used in SATA m.2 ssds, while M keys are pcie nvme m.2 ssds. You bought an nvme m.2 ssd, but needed a sata m.2 ssd.
(You can tell by how there are 28 pins on that side of the port, and 29 on the ssd. That matches b and m keys, respectively)
I literally ran into this myself recently replacing the SSD inside an old Chromebox.
I was literally unaware that it was an entirely different spec based on keying.
Further, it seems I can’t find any reputable companies that make a SATA M.2 SSD in the 2242 size anymore. I can only find old Western Digitals that are more than double the cost of an equivalent NVMe simply because WD doesn’t actually make SATA M.2s in that size anymore.
The only companies that make them in that size are all weird bogus never-heard-of-them-and-the-reviews-are-terrible.
Here’s more info on the types of keys.
~~I’m going to look for an adapter. ~~
sata m.2 ssd
In your case, an adapter wouldn’t really be possible. The other way around maybe would have been, but adapting Sata to pcie just isn’t possible. Your best bet would be to return that ssd and buy a sata m.2 one.
No diss. I read that slot comment above you and went, “yep, yep, yep, makes sense. Man our standards are often dumb.”
Laughed with joy at your comment, because I totally get how foreign this shit is to so many people. It’s like if I walked up to a building engineer asking how they know that iron beam is safe for another 50 years via their skills and I’d just be like “…do what now?”
Back in the 80s & 90s you had to configure settings like IRQ and bad sectors.
SATA is the interface that was mostly used until a few years ago, most people are used to seeing the version using cables (with an L shaped connector at both ends, still seen on 2.5" and 3.5" hard drives) but at some point they started making SATA drives using the m.2 form factor (with a connection similar to the one pictured in the OP) but the m.2 form factor is also used by other interfaces and not all of them are physically the same (the “expansion card” looks similar, the connection can be different), m.2 NVME drives are the ones mostly seen for storage space these days so most people assume that if storage is the m.2 type of will be NVME but sometimes (especially for laptops) it will be SATA that’s required instead (like in OP’s case)
Picture of an m.2 storage drive can be seen here and there’s a keying section that shows the difference between B and M keys: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2
I still think of SATA as that new technology nobody has yet. I’m still used to IDE.
They said the b SATA m2 SSD key NVMe AFR actuator clusters the cache in m.2 U.2 mSATA PCIe made a SATA lata gata when she said 2.5" wasn’t big enough but 3.5" was too much and LBA LP MTTR spindles the motor with 28 pins when it lost a pin while bowling for transfer rate cause you failed to defragment your USB-connected PCIe Gen 4 pokemon with AHCI finding IOPs over 9000 so the HDD Teraflopped into the EDSFF pool and RAMmed itself 6 feet under.
/s?
You should definitely cut the edge and then jam it in there and see what happens.
B key vs M key. Laptop likely needs a SATA M.2 using B or B+M keying, you have a PCIe x4 drive with M keying.
M.2 is a form factor, there are different "key"ings for NVME vs SATA M.2
Reading up on HP ProBooks and it seems like they primarily use M2 SATA.
EDIT: Wow, trying to find in-depth tech specs on HP laptops is horrible. I know less now than when I started looking.
Story of my past couple months. There are five different products named “g4 dock”, four of which are newer than the G5 dock.
The OLD g4 dock, and then 120W/280W Thunderbolt variants that are either TAA approved or not. One of these four has a 2.5GB Intel NIC. Good luck figuring out which one because they merged the specsheet for all four of them.
I avoid HP laptops
… by listening to your physiotherapist and avoiding laptops altogether? Score!
Because they love to change the URLs of their website every year. For an old product everything a search engine gives you is an error 404.
You need the service manual, and in the service manual there’s all the detailed specs and variants and exact product numbers of supported components
Because they love to change the URLs of their website every year.
One of the universal truths is that a drunk sailor with a fistful of money could simply not buy anything on the HP site before he sobered up. That site is the hallmark of super-bad site design, and always has been.
