swift 3 SF314-54-59LJ m.2 or older 2.5" sata ssd

hi i bought the cheapie 128gb ssd model. looking on amazon for ssd upgrade.
question 1) 2 styles: m.2 and 2.5" will either fit in this machine? looking to go 1T.
question 2) looking at other posts im guessing it only has one slot for ssd so will i need to copy windows externally then swap the ssd?
question 3) theres mSATA / NAND sata / sata 3 .....does any of this matter?
question 4) samsung/ wd blue/ adata ......whats good? highly subjective i know but i dont wanna drop 300$ on garbage. better question than whos good... whos ****?

thanks for the help
never taken apart a machine before so best of luck
praying for electrostatic goodness

Accepted answers

brummyfan2

Hi,
You have 1 M2 SSD slot and a HDD bay, as you have bought a 128GB SSD model, I assume it's a M.2 SSD but you have to confirm whether it's a M.2 SSD or a normal 2.5" SSD, go to Device manager, expand Disk drives and post the name of the drive in your laptop,
1. One M2 slot and a HDD bay for 2.5" SSD.
2.Yes, you need to backup the original image to an external HDD, create a recovery USB, after installing the new SSD boot with the recovery USB disk and recover the image, you can do this task with Macrium Reflect free.
3. No, you have to concentrate only on two types of M.2 SSD, NVMe/PCIe SSD or M.2 SATA SSD, both types are compatible with your model, so it's up to you to choose, there's not much difference in speed between them except in benchmarks.
4. I like many others prefer Samsung, mainly for it's reliability, as you intend to purchase from amazon, you don't have to worry too much as they have a very good returns policy.

brummyfan2

charliemany said:

hfs128g39tnd-n210a is the ssd. thanks for telling me where to find it in device manager. im not computer literate.

Hi,
Yes, it's a M2.SATA SSD in your laptop, you can upgrade it with a M2 SATA SSD or a NVMe SSD up to 512GB, as for the 2.5" HDD, you can install a drive up to 2TB maximum.

All comments

brummyfan2

Hi,
You have 1 M2 SSD slot and a HDD bay, as you have bought a 128GB SSD model, I assume it's a M.2 SSD but you have to confirm whether it's a M.2 SSD or a normal 2.5" SSD, go to Device manager, expand Disk drives and post the name of the drive in your laptop,
1. One M2 slot and a HDD bay for 2.5" SSD.
2.Yes, you need to backup the original image to an external HDD, create a recovery USB, after installing the new SSD boot with the recovery USB disk and recover the image, you can do this task with Macrium Reflect free.
3. No, you have to concentrate only on two types of M.2 SSD, NVMe/PCIe SSD or M.2 SATA SSD, both types are compatible with your model, so it's up to you to choose, there's not much difference in speed between them except in benchmarks.
4. I like many others prefer Samsung, mainly for it's reliability, as you intend to purchase from amazon, you don't have to worry too much as they have a very good returns policy.

charliemany

hfs128g39tnd-n210a is the ssd. thanks for telling me where to find it in device manager. im not computer literate.

charliemany

the chipset says intel premium controller SATA/PLCe RST so i guess im good for all m.2

brummyfan2

charliemany said:

hfs128g39tnd-n210a is the ssd. thanks for telling me where to find it in device manager. im not computer literate.

Hi,
Yes, it's a M2.SATA SSD in your laptop, you can upgrade it with a M2 SATA SSD or a NVMe SSD up to 512GB, as for the 2.5" HDD, you can install a drive up to 2TB maximum.

charliemany

so if theres a bay for 2.5 does that mean i could put in a 2.5" ssd if i wanted to save money? i dont game so the gains from a m.2 dont really mean much to me. could i leave my 128gb the way it is and add the 2.5 ssd or is it one or the other? im at 50gb space left and have a few more apps id like to install. would it be better to go hybrid, a friend suggested that if i cant add an extra 2.5 ssd. or is that a dumb idea?
thanks for the replies brum.... much appreciated

charliemany

Just to follow up. I bought a Samsung 860 evo m.2 1t ssd. I cloned the old drive with Samsung’s data migration, had zero issues. If you’re looking to do a storage upgrade, it was pretty simple to open and do. It’s been great so far.

brummyfan2

charliemany said:

Just to follow up. I bought a Samsung 860 evo m.2 1t ssd. I cloned the old drive with Samsung’s data migration, had zero issues. If you’re looking to do a storage upgrade, it was pretty simple to open and do. It’s been great so far.