Do most modern laptops offer the option of adding an M.2 hard drive, how do you integrate it

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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My current laptop is only a few years old but its been having issues. I’m thinking of a new laptop, but I want one with a SSD.

I’ve seen ones with 128GB or 256GB SSDs, which is ok but I also like to do some gaming on my laptop and I have several hundred GB of steam games as well as another hundred or so GB in media. My graphics aren’t too intensive, and I think integrated graphics would work fine at this point (most games I play are several years old).

So if I did get a new laptop I was wanting to add a 500GB or 1TB M.2 drive. But how hard is it to install one, should I go to a shop and have them install it? I have added ram to desktops before, but not really done anything with laptops.

Do most laptops offer an open M.2 slot nowadays? Is it just going to create a second drive, so I can have my OS and important files on the main 128/256GB hard drive, then all my steam games and videos on the M.2 drive?

A long long time ago, around 20 years ago, I tried to install 2 hard drives on a desktop. one had to be set up as master and the other as slave. is stuff like that necessary nowadays or does adding an M.2 drive just integrate it into the system and create an additional drive I can put my games and videos on?

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You said you’ve added memory to desktop computers. In that case, you should be able to install an M.2 drive; the drives and the slots are very similar to what’s used for computer memory. One difference is that with the M.2 drives, there is a screw used to secure it to the motherboard.

The big question is whether your computer has an M.2 slot in addition to the other drive. I have no idea if yours does. The ones I’ve had only have an M.2 drive.

If you Google your exact computer model, you may be able to find the specifications online to show whether an M.2 drive can be added. And there may be specific instructions for opening it up and adding or changing the drive. I know that Dell, for one, is very good about documenting these things.

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Yeah, the physical act of installing the memory is very easy. The Physical act of opening the laptop may be less so. I would definitely pick up a nylon spludger or two, as many laptop cases these days are sealed too tight for fingers, but break with metal applied.

There is also the fact that many new laptops void the warranty if you do open it yourself.