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August 5th, 2026 16:37
Questionn about upgrading hard drive
I have a Latitude 5491, which I purchased refurbished 3 years ago. It's still solid as a rock, but it came with only a 500GB (SSD) hard drive. I'd like to get a larger drive (maybe 1TB), but am not certain what to buy. I'm assuming this is a 2.5" drive, but do I need to be concerned about other specifications? Is there anything preventing replacing it with an HDD? (HDD's can get me more space at lower cost.)
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ejn63
12 Elder
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August 5th, 2026 16:49
If it's an SSD now, it's probably an M.2 NVMe drive -- the system does support both SATA and NVMe M.2 drives, but likely shipped with the faster M.2 NVMe drive.
Note that while you can install a 2.5" drive, if there's not one there now, the mounting hardware is probably absent and you'll need that from Dell. Also realize the big downside to a hard drive vs. any SSD (SATA or NVMe): you will lose an immense amount of performance by downgrading to a spinning hard drive from a fast SATA or even faster NVMe drive SSD.
Most Dell systems will boot only from M.2 if you install both M.2 and a 2.5" drive.
HedgeFundManager
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August 5th, 2026 16:56
The Latitude 5491 is an 8th gen laptop machine. The machine supports an M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD. If the machine has a hard disk in it, the M.2 SSD is dramatically faster. I suggest 1TB SSD will be good beware pricing is elevated due to the AI bubble.