The storage specifications at https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-15-3542-laptop_reference%20guide_en-us.pdf only state a hard drive and optical drive. Does that indicate there is no provision for replacing the HDD with an SSD ?

@bacillus1- Thanks - do you know if Dell officially support that SSD please ?  Or, as these laptops didn't have an SSD when purchased, will the specifications of the laptop support an SSD ? BIOS, interfaces,etc.

Any 2.5" SATA SSD can be used in place of a 2.5" hard drive.

Just to add suggestion, you can also use optical bay adapter as a second drive.  It can be used with either HDD or SSD.  If you decide to get one, be sure it's a 9.5 mm size.

@ejn63and @Chino de Oro , great, thanks for your replies. It may be convenient to use the optical bay idea, as that will give me the HDD and the SDD.

I only need 1Tb , so this one at https://www.mwave.com.au/product/crucial-mx500-1tb-25-3d-nand-sata-iii-ssd-with-95mm-adapter-ac11048 should suffice.

The mx500 is a good choice.  

I am glad you like the suggestion and will be using optical bay for your HDD.

This is the optical drive caddy for your laptop https://www.mwave.com.au/product/orico-l95ss-aluminium-internal-hard-drive-caddy-for-laptop-cdrom-drive-silver-ac39702

If you're going to try that setup, note that the ssd must replace the hard drive, while the hard drive goes into the adapter in the optical bay.

You cannot use a drive mounted in the optical bay as  a boot device.

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@ejn63 wrote:

If you're going to try that setup, note that the ssd must replace the hard drive, while the hard drive goes into the adapter in the optical bay.

You cannot use a drive mounted in the optical bay as  a boot device.

 

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Isn't that simply a boot setting, which specifies what device is used to boot from ?  This will be for a Kubuntu/Linux based system.

thanks @Chino de Oro for that caddy link.