How to add Second Hard Drive to Dell Latitude 5580 or 5590

Author:
phil
Created:
Thursday, April 26th, 2018
Last Updated:
Sunday, February 09th, 2020

Disclaimer: Accessing the information on this page means you agree to the Sites Terms of Service

The Dell Latitude 5580 and Dell Latitude 5590 are pretty decent business laptops for the money. Out of the box, they come with one of two options for hard drives, either an M.2 SSD (SATA or NVME) option or a traditional 2.5" spindle drive.

What is unclear when you go to purchase one of these, is whether you can add a second hard drive to these laptops. The Dell service manual for both the Latitude 5580 and Latitude 5590, show how to remove and install each component separately and upon further inspection, you'll find that you in-fact, cannot have both the M.2 SSD slot AND traditional 2.5" drive bays occupied at the same time. The two drives overlap which means it's either one or the other.

That doesn't mean you can't add a second hard drive though! You actually CAN add a second hard drive as long as you get a little creative with it, but you don't have to get quite as creative as one guy on Reddit who chopped off the end of his 2.5" SSD drive. It worked for him, but I opened up a drive I had sitting around and the board was the full 2.5" length, so chopping the end of the drive would have destroyed the drive. You might have a drive lying around and get lucky with it, but seriously... There's a better way.

Prerequisite

As someone pointed out in the comments, the only prerequisite is a 4 core CPU. Apparently the 2 core CPUs won't allow you to run both the NVMe and SSD slots together... I did some quick searches to try to find out why this is, but came up empty so at this point I have to go by that comment to warn that: "If you have 2 core CPU, you'll need to upgrade it before the following will work." There might be more to it than this but keep in mind that lower end CPUs may not allow a 2-drive config to work.

Cost

Overall, you'll be looking at roughly $35 for adapter and parts and anywhere from $100 - $350 (new) for a drive.

M.2 SATA vs M.2 NVME

This section is a slight update from the original, to explain the difference between the M.2 SATA and M.2 NVME drives. I was under the impression that the laptops came with an M.2 NVME drive. I was sorely mistaken... It appears you can put either an M.2 SATA OR M.2 NVME drive in the M.2 slot and how you bought it from Dell can vary between these two drives. You might in fact have the M.2 SATA drive which is going to have to be replaced by a M.2 NVME drive.

Some folks were having problems getting two drives to work in their setup and it looks like it's all due to the types of drives being used in the M.2 slot. In order to get two drives to work, you MUST have a M.2 NVME drive in your M.2 slot, not an M.2 SATA drive. The main way you can tell if you have a M.2 SATA drive is to see if there are two notches. If you have 2 notches, you have the M.2 SATA drive. The bad news, you'll need to pick up a M.2 NVME drive (They're faster, so that's a bonus) The good news, you may have your second drive ready to go if you're happy with it's capacity and can manage to get it to fit with an adapter. (More on that in the M.2 Adapter section below)

Looking at the 5590 specs, I noticed that they apparently take both M.2 SATA and M.2 NVME drives in the M.2 slot. My past experience said that you can only use one, not the other but it looks like the 5590 has a controller that will recognize both types of drives if they are plugged into the M.2 slot. That said, if you have a M.2 SATA in the M.2 and use the adapter method described below, the M.2 slot drive will disappear because you're now sharing the same SATA slot with two SATA drives. The M.2 MUST be an M.2 NVME (pcie) drive.

Storage Specs
Dell 5580 Specs: SSD M.2 SATA / PCIe
Dell 5590 Specs: SSD M.2 2280 / M.2 2230 / PCIe NVMe

BIOS

First and foremost, I tested the BIOS on the 5590 (i assume the 5580 is the same) and the BIOS does indeed recognize both the M.2 NVME drive and a second drive also connected to the SATA port. Meaning, the BIOS fully supports both formats which lets you install a second drive. This is 90% of the battle. If the BIOS only recognized one or the other, we'd be completely out of luck. But we're in luck because it does recognize both. In the case of using M.2 SATA with an add-on SATA, you're out of luck...

Yes NVME; No Traditional 2.5"

Second, It is assumed you plan on having the M.2 NVME drive as your primary drive. You can NOT use a traditional 2.5" drive and expect it to fit "unless" you have the smaller MaH battery which will give you room for a 2.5" but you still can't secure it with the caddie because of the overlap problem. If you have the larger battery, you will have to completely do away with the traditional 2.5" drive and caddie and pick up some special hardware to make it work (discussed below). If you have the cable for the 2.5" drive, you'll still need the cable to make a second drive work. If you don't have the cable, you'll have to get one (details below).

NVME Adapter

Third, if you purchased the model with the 2.5" drive, you will have to hunt-down and source the special adapter & heat-sink in order to add the M.2 NVME drive. When you purchase the Latitude 5580 or Latitude 5590 with the regular 2.5" drive, it only comes with the 2.5" drive bay caddie and SATA cable. There's a special piece you have to pick up in order to install the NVME in the M.2 slot. Great thing is, they're available on eBay for around $20 or you can call Dell and pick it up for around $5 if you don't mind waiting 3 weeks to get it... (That's about how long it took for me to get it from Dell and they didn't send me any screws... Goobers... Make sure you ask Dell for screws!)

SATA Cable

Fourth, if you got the M.2 NVME SSD with the laptop, you will need the special SATA cable that attaches to the motherboard. They usually run around $12 on ebay. No idea how much they are through Dell.

SATA Adapter

Fifth, you'll have to purchase a special adapter card that will convert either convert SATA to mSATA or SATA to M.2 SATA and you can't pick up just any ol' adapter card. You have to find one that is a "half length" card. They're available if you look in the right place and they aren't that expensive. $15 on Amazon, $5 on ebay. If you go the M.2 SATA route, note that the adapter may not fit. If the M.2 SATA drive is the 2280 length, the adapter cards are every bit as long as a 2.5" drive which puts us back into the same original boat of overlapping drives. Maybe you can get it to fit? I know you can if you have the smaller battery as one guy posted in the comments.

mSATA / M.2 SATA Drive

Sixth, you'll need an mSATA drive or M.2 SATA drive. They usually range between 250GB to 1TB of storage which is probably plenty of space for most folks. If by chance your laptop already came with a M.2 SATA drive for the main drive, you can use this for your second drive and just pick up the adapter for it (assuming the adapter will fit). Also, mSATA drives are pretty well capped at 1TB on capacity due to their size. If you need more than 1TB, the M.2 SATA route might be better for you.

WWAN Port

tricon23 asked in the comments whether a M.2 SATA drive with the 2242 length will work in the WWAN slot. The WWAN port is the B Key slot, so it is possible the M.2 SATA will work. I originally thought the the WWAN port was the mSATA port spec but after looking more closely, it appears it is a B Key spec which means an M.2 SATA should in theory work.

Justin posted in the comments that he did get a chance to try it out and found that putting an M.2 SATA drive in the WWAN port, IS recognized by the BIOS so here's another potential for either an easier installation of a short M.2 SATA drive or the potential of a third drive. He only mentions that it shows up in the BIOS which should be enough for it to work properly, but if anyone wants to fully test and confirm this solution works, feel free to let us know. It is unknown if the WWAN port shares the same port as the regular SATA port, just like the primary long M.2. Usually two ports will share so it's pretty unlikely the WWAN port will share with anything else, but you never know... In other words, it needs to be tested if the M.2 SATA AND a drive in the regular SATA can both be used at the same time. Doing some additional research on using the WWAN port on various Dell laptops indicates that others have had success on this front as well. As far as length goes, I am fuzzy on the actual length of this port. I can't figure out if it's a 2242 or 2230... I'm going to lean towards the 2242, but be forewarned I have no idea. You will probably also need the screw to hold it down. One thought is to use some adhesive to hold the drive down if the port is 2242 and you end up with a 2230 drive. (Updated: 2019-07-08)

Batteries

From what I can tell, there are 3 types of batteries that can be installed in the 5590. I'm not sure about the 5580 and the 5591 has a larger 92Whr battery that is listed bringing the total up to 4 for the 5591. I have no idea if the larger 92 Whr battery can be installed in the 5590 or 5580 for that matter and this section isn't here to discuss that.

Here's a list of battery capacities:

  • 3-Cell 42Whr Battery
  • 3 Cell 51Whr Battery
  • 4 Cell 68Whr Battery
  • 6 Cell 92Whr Battery

A question was presented in the comments about using the 92Whr battery and still being able to utilize a second hard drive. I can only assume this is for the newer 5591 model. After looking at pictures of the installed 92Whr battery on a 5591, it will be tough to use the main SATA port for another hard drive, however it might still be possible if using a small adapter. I have a feeling though that the clearance won't be enough to put an adapter above the battery, next to the memory but if I were to install one that's where I would try to put it.

You'll just have to spend the money and test whether an adapter card will fit above the battery area using the traditional SATA cable and know going into it that there is a very slim chance it will fit. I honestly don't see it fitting. Maybe if you get creative enough with the adapter you might find one that will fit? I still doubt it though. See image: https://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/Dell/Latitude_5591/P10...

Regarding the 5591, "Notebook Check" mentions:

As mentioned earlier, when the notebook is equipped with the large 6-cell 92 Wh battery, there is no 2.5-inch storage bay. According to the spec sheet, however, the Latitude 5591 also accepts M.2 2230 PCIe/NVMe SSDs up to a capacity of 256GB in the WWAN slot.

This is new to me at the time of this writing (2019/07/08) but it appears that the WWAN port has been changed up on the 5591 to accept M.2 SATA and NVME drives that are 2230 length. (Do they even make a 2230 NVME drive?? haven't needed one to look...) I also find it hard to believe that it will accept an NVME drive because that means the port has to be a 5-pin M Key. It's possible though. No idea without being able to look at it in person. The pictures look like it's a B-Key which means you're limited to an M.2 SATA B+M key.

Disclaimer

I have tried the method I'm about to explain however it was not my computer, so I don't know of any issues that may arise due to longevity use.

Let's move on and dive into a bit more detail.

Dell M.2 NVME Adapter Info

The NVME adapter comes in two parts: The adapter that screws into the motherboard and the heat sink. You MUST have the adapter that connects to the motherboard, but the heat sink is optional.

If you need this adapter, I honestly suggest getting it through eBay because they most likely have the screws that go with it. If you go the cheap route like I did, you may not get the screws. I didn't think to ask for them so naturally... I didn't get them. If you go through Dell, MAKE SURE you tell them you need the screws too.

I went through a lot of channels to eventually get to the right folks at Dell, so unfortunately I don't have a good site or number to call. The invoice said it was through "Dell Outlet" and the guy I talked to on the phone was through "Dell Direct". Try Dell's outlet site and see if this gets you there quick: http://www.dell.com/us/dfb/p?cid=287780 (If the link doesn't work, just do a Google search for "Dell Outlet")

Screw Size: M2.0x3.0

Average Price USD: $20

The NVME Adapter

The Adapter part number is: 2FFR0

The adapter needs 2 screws. 1 to screw it into the motherboard casing, the second to hold down the NVME drive (and heat sink)

This part is REQUIRED in order to install the NVME drive. Otherwise, there's nothing to hold the drive down.

The NVME Heat Sink

The Heat sink part number is: X3DN4

The Heat sink requires 1 screw to fasten the metal plate to the motherboard casing.

I'm going to venture to say the heat sink is optional... You can probably get away without using it?? But... yeah. It's up to you. Seeing how you can get the bundle of both the adapter and heat sink for around $20... I just assume get the heat sink.

I probably shouldn't have, but I left the sticker on my 960 EVO I stuck in the Latitude 5590 I worked on and just let the heat sink compound sit on the sticker. If it breaks, it breaks ;-)

Dell SATA Adapter

If you purchased the laptop with the M.2 SSD already installed, then you'll probably need the SATA adapter that attaches to the motherboard.

SATA Adapter part number: 6NVFT

Average Price USD: $12

mSATA Half Length Adapter

Recommended Adapter

Alright... The next item you'll need is NOT a Dell piece. It is an aftermarket mSATA adapter. Like I mentioned before, not any ol' adapter will work. Many of the adapters are designed to fit within a 2.5" drive bay caddie, which is what we don't want because they won't fit.

Do a Google search for QNINE mSATA SSD Half Height adapter and it should pull up an Amazon listing. If that's gone, you might have to get a little creative. I've also found a bunch of them on Ebay under the search term "msata half adapter"

Average Price USD:
Amazon $15
Ebay $5

mSATA SSD Drive

Finally, you need an mSATA drive. I recommend the Samsung drives which are great drives and usually fairly priced.

Average Prices USD:
250 GB: $100 (new)
500 GB: $170 (new)
1TB: $330 (new)

You can find drives on Ebay for a pretty decent price. I've been watching older used 128GB and 256GB drives going for $30 - $60 respectively.

mSATA Adapter Size Comparison

Just to show the size difference between the adapter I recommended above and a 2.5" drive, I picked one up on Ebay for $5 and a 128GB msata drive for $30 ($35 total) so I could get a picture of how much smaller this setup is compared to a traditional 2.5" drive. As you can see, it's a HUGE size difference and will easily fit within the area of the 2.5" bay even though the NVME drive takes up part of it.

M.2 SATA Adapter

If you decide to go the M.2 SATA direction, look for the QNINE M.2 to SATA Adapter Card as a starting point. They're about $10 on Amazon but there's one catch: They're pretty long and may not fit in the 2.5" drive bay area. Since I don't have a computer to test it on, I can't say one way or the other. If your laptop came with the smaller battery, chances are pretty good that you'll have plenty of room but if you have the larger battery, you might end up with clearance problems going the M.2 SATA route.

Securing The Adapter (and drive)

Unless you secure the adapter that holds the drive, it's loose within the drive bay. Thinking about it, a person could very easily pick up some Velcro and stick it on the bottom of the adapter and the other piece to the drive bay area. Problem solved. Hook-and-loop to the rescue!

Final Thoughts

As you can see, for not a whole lot of effort you can install a second drive in a Dell Latitude 5580 or Dell Latitude 5590. Since you'll be running the mSATA format, you get the ability to grow into decent storage sizes to accommodate your setup and it's really not that hard or expensive!

I hope I gave you enough direction to go out and feel comfortable enough to tackle this on your own and as always, if it works for you, shoot me a comment and let me know :-)

Dell 5590 Second Hard Drive Working Proof

I had access to the 5590 that caused me to write this blog (It's not my computer) and took some pics as proof to debunk some of the comments I received that it "doesn't work". The one pic I thought I got, but didn't because I was in a bit of a hurry, was the BIOS with the model. Oops... Believe me if you want, move on if you don't. I really don't care.

My blog write-up works perfectly on the Dell 5590 and the following are some pics to prove it. It should equally work on the 5580, however I don't have one to test and it's possible it won't work on the 5580, but from everything I've read and seen, it should work just fine. The two laptops are pretty much identical in hardware layout.

Final thing to note, This was tested against BIOS v1.2.3. As previously noted, I was in a hurry and unable to update the BIOS to the latest as of this writing which is 1.4.2. It's possible this fix has been blocked in a more recent update, however I find it hard that the Dell engineers would go to that much work... They don't get paid enough to "pay attention to detail".

One thing you'll notice in the BIOS pic is the M.2 SATA and M.2 SATA2 ports. It has been confirmed that the M.2 slot can accept either an NVME OR M.2 SATA card. Why there is an M.2 SATA2 is beyond me since there is only a single M.2 port on these computers... Maybe the WWAN port shares with it? Dunno...

Post Comment

More information about text formats

Comments

Submitted by Sh_EM (not verified) on Mon, 2024/10/21 - 15:56

Hello Everyone,
has you tried this with latitude 5500?
found in some forums it ONLY works to have an NVME 2242 pcie gen3x2 (key M+B), can anyone tested a SATA 2242 ssd in WWAN slot to work?

https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/latitude/dell-latitude-5...

https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/latitude/latitude-5500-s...

also noted that my CPU is a quad core U series i5-8365u, although having 4 cores its pcie expansion options in intel site is different than HQ models and is similar to 2 cores u series, have anyone successfully done this solution with such u series 4 core 8th gen cpu?

thanks

Submitted by J.Mike (not verified) on Sun, 2024/07/21 - 05:35

From a short test it seems that the IGPU only Latitude 5490 w/ an 8350U and Bios 1.35 will behave with three drives as follows:

Drives in the regular M.2 slot will be detected either as M.2 PCIe SSD-0 or M.2 SATA as Normal
Drives in the WWAN slot will be detected either as M.2 PCIe SSD-0 or M.2 SATA2

Installing a second NVME drive leads to some weirdness in that only the WWAN drive(Samsung PM991) is listed in the System Information Page but recognizes the second NVME(Kingston NV1) as a Valid Boot Device in the Boot Sequence Menu. It is unsure whether the drives are listed in the order they were installed or if the WWAN slot takes priority in being detected in the Information Page. PCIE Lane allocation was also unchecked.

Submitted by Lahiru Upeksha (not verified) on Mon, 2024/06/10 - 12:41

I am using Dell Latitude 5590.. I have successfully added a second hard drive ( 1TB SSD) to my laptop using above informations. Thanks a lot.

Submitted by Ingar (not verified) on Mon, 2023/07/17 - 10:26

I ordered a M.2 SATA adapter and a M.2 disc, and hoped that it would fit.
Well, it doesn't really do that. I was missing about a half a millimeter space.
But wit some force I managed it to fit. :)
I have the large battery, so with the smaller one there's no problem.

Submitted by Wes (not verified) on Thu, 2023/07/06 - 22:26

There are 2 different variations that I see of 5590. One has a NVIDIA GeForce® MX130 on the board and the other just has an Intel the Intel 5590's have no problem with installing the 3 ssd's. However, the 5590 with NVIDIA can only use 1 hard drive and if you install one on the JSATA port you can only use it. The NVME won't be recognized.

Got this secondhand from local University surplus. Was really hopeful to have 3 drives available but at least one of the computers could do it so the purchases didn't go to waste.

Submitted by mar1ann8 (not verified) on Sun, 2022/06/26 - 15:47

I have the same setup with my Dell 5591 for more than 3 years now! :)
Here are those parts I installed:
M200 mSATA SSD 1TB https://shope.ee/4fIZmEPzPd (cheaper version mSATA SSD 1TB https://shope.ee/9zK67lU0xM)
Windows mSATA to 2.5inch SATA 22 Pin Converter Adapter Card https://shope.ee/6A7NYqoJSy
DELL SATA SSD Cable Interface Adapter Port 6NVFT https://shope.ee/4Uz9ajNkav

Submitted by Kevin (not verified) on Thu, 2021/11/11 - 15:40

Can the WWAN port take M.2 2230 NVMe SSDs, or is it limited to SATA only? There don't seem to be any 2230 SATA SSDs on the market

Submitted by Scott (not verified) on Wed, 2024/06/19 - 12:49

Just took a WWAN card out of my 5580. It is a 42mm long form factor so 3042 or 2242 are the correct size.

Submitted by Felix (not verified) on Sat, 2021/10/09 - 09:51

I got my tiny little M.2 SSD today. (2242)
After I opened up my laptop and disconnected the battery for safety reasons, I popped it into the WWAN-slot.
First I checked the BIOS and it got detected successfully.
Then in Windows I checked via the partitioning tool whether the drive was detected or not.
Even though it wasn't initialized immediately, I was able to initialize the drive manually.
Then, as usual, I created a so called "simple volume", formatted it and boom, 2nd SSD in my Dell Latitude 5590.
Thanks for this thread! :)

Submitted by Sven (not verified) on Sat, 2021/04/10 - 13:15

https://ibb.co/1q3Sgnm

Updated to the latest firmware and drivers and installing 3 drives with this tutorial was quite easy on my 5580.

Submitted by Pete (not verified) on Fri, 2021/02/19 - 10:01

I'm probably over complicating this, but:
I've a Vostro 5590 (i7 10th Gen) which came with a PM981a NVMe Samsung 512GB drive. I'm nearly out of space and would like to add a second drive. Going through the article, I couldn't quite figure out:
1. Can I use two NVMe drives, or do I have to settle on an M.2 SATA?
2. What adapter(s) would I need?

Many thanks for any help!

Pete

Submitted by Sven (not verified) on Sat, 2021/04/10 - 13:23

1. Can I use two NVMe drives, or do I have to settle on an M.2 SATA?

No primairy is NVMe drive
Secondary has to be M.2 SATA

2. What adapter(s) would I need?

https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B08WLQ3S6J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o...
https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B07P2HC1G8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o...

Can also be found on Aliexpress.

Worked for me, probably will work for you, but no guarantees are given.

Submitted by Kris (not verified) on Thu, 2020/12/10 - 22:03

Thank you for post. It is very helpful.
I managed to fit two 2280 SSDs into my DELL Latitude 5580 (i7, 68Wh). It originally came with the SATA SSD, so I put it into the M.2 SATA Adapter, attached it to the case using electrical tape and connected via the SATA Adapter. The second drive just connected to the NVME slot. There is some space underneath the NVME drive, so the M.2 SATA fits into that gap without touching it.
https://postimg.cc/nC7hx6zJ
https://postimg.cc/rzyV5mMZ
Piece of paper can easily move between the drive and the adapter. There was a black sticker on the SATA SSD which work as isolator. Just in case.
https://postimg.cc/z3dJ7rfz

Submitted by Moose (not verified) on Mon, 2020/11/09 - 22:47

I have a Latitude 5480, (Service Tag: C294HM2) it had a Hynix NAND SATA 256 in the M2 and it now has an A DATA 128 MSATA installed in the M2 socket. Replaced before I got it.
Processor is i5 7300U 2.6
HD Grphics 620. It has a POS screen (1366 X 768), I understand a screen swap to true HD at 120hz is the killer upgrade, Intel 8245 WLAN, 16gb, ddr4, 2400, Ram (two Modules).
Windows 10 Pro

I also have a redheaded stepchild in the form of a 5470 with the same components so I gutted the 5570 of ram and M2Sata.

With a few basic bios commands, I have managed to get the 5580 to accept the spare M2 sata drive in the WWAN slot and then to be able to boot from it in the WAN socket.

My goal...2 hard drives I am good with 500gb more or less 128 and whatever or a a 256 in AN and a ? in the M2 or a ssd. I havea couple of 500gb 7200's laying around.

What I need is the most budget friendly method to give it as much storage as I can for as cheap as possible. I found OEM 256gb NVMe that sounded interesting but I am confused as to hat my options are.

I want to put a full HD screen in but if a 4K comes along, I ,ay put my lab on budget food. Joking

Can someone hold my hand and get this replacement rig for my D830 up to speed? I just ant to make this 5580 is as bulletproof as my D820's and 830 were.

Submitted by tony adams (not verified) on Thu, 2020/10/29 - 04:18

firstly - a very interesting and informative article - much room for thought

there is another option to adding a 2.5 ssd - i used a 2.5 WD Blue 250gb - the circuit board is short when removed from the housing so fits in the space available - the case acts as a heat sink so i shortened it by about 20mm and the drive fitted with a Nvme drive installed - velcro - sticky pads or in my case 2 small homemade brackets to hold it in and it works perfectly

WD do other sizes in the blue range 500GB and 1tb? have not investigated those s dont know if they also have short circuit boards - other makes may but thats to find out

Submitted by phil on Tue, 2020/11/03 - 03:14

This might work with some drives, but not others. Some drives use the full size of the case to house the board. If you get lucky enough to find a drive where the board only partially takes up the size of the case then yes, it's possible to use a regular 2.5" drive guts to make this work.

I never really thought about it, but I suppose someone might be able to remove the case, add some electric tape or something to protect the circuitry and stuff it in somewhere...

Submitted by turli (not verified) on Fri, 2020/09/11 - 13:50

Excellent article, simple idea, detailed explanation,
thanks.

Here is my Lattitude 5590 with three different drives (signed in three colors)
- M.2 NVME drive with the 2280 length (oryginal)
- mSATA connected as SATA (by mSATA Half Length Adapter and Dell SATA Adapter)
- M.2 SATA drive with the 2242 length (by WWAN socket)
https://i.postimg.cc/g0xX1vLG/DELL-Lattitude-5590-3-disks.png

Here is BIOS
https://i.postimg.cc/kGT7npLz/bios-DELL-Lattitude-5590-3-disks.png

Here are Disk Manager after initialization of disks
https://i.postimg.cc/G2Mf9nhF/win10-DELL-Lattitude-5590-3-disks.png

installing M.2 mSATA drive in WWAN port seems to be simplest way ( if you have the appropriate screw for securing drive)

Submitted by Peter (not verified) on Fri, 2022/11/25 - 03:24

"installing M.2 mSATA drive in WWAN port seems to be simplest way..."

This is wrong and pretty confusing. There is only ONE mSATA hard drive in this story, and that's the one you put in the SATA to mSATA adapter: drive #2.

The drive you put in the WWAN port is an M.2 SATA (which should not be confused with mSATA). Your setup includes all three different types of SSD:
1) M.2 2280 NVMe SSD (M.2 physical interface)
2) mSATA SSD (via mSATA adapter card) (mini PCI-e interface)
3) M.2 2242 SATA SSD (M.2 physical interface)

No mSATA drives could be connected to either M.2 slot because such connections are impossible.
mSATA uses the mini PCI-e slot type and it's physically incompatible with M.2.

Submitted by sebus (not verified) on Thu, 2020/08/06 - 13:17

5580 BIOS 1.16 or 1.17 (only two tested), NVMe, mSATA Dell 96JYY (with Dell caddy converter 0FCN4M in SATA port), M.2 SATA 2242 in WWAN port
All 3 work fine with i5-7300U processor

Submitted by Fantom3l (not verified) on Mon, 2020/07/27 - 07:39

First of all i want to thank you for this great arcticle. You inspired me to do some tests on one of my systems, Dell Latitude 5480 with an I5 CPU.
So, without more things, WWAN port M2 drive SATA 2230 + in regular sata port one half size adapter + msata drive + 1x NVME M2 drive 2280.
As you can see from the pictures below, all are there and all are working like a charm on Windows 7 , not w10, without any drivers modding.
BIOS WITH 3DRIVES - M2 2280 NVME:
https://i.postimg.cc/gkq9Nj9k/Dell-Latitude-5480-Bios.jpg

AIDA64 READ:
https://i.ibb.co/Mh2PKtF/Dell-Latitude-5480-aida.jpg

HARD DISK SENTINEL READ:
https://i.postimg.cc/h4L3qY22/Dell-Latitude-5480-hdd.jpg

HARDWARE ON THE PCB VERSION 2280 M2 NVME
https://i.postimg.cc/C5wygpkV/3drives-3.jpg

HARDWARE ON THE PCB VERSION 2280 M2 SATA
https://i.ibb.co/8g9X27X/3drives-8.jpg

WINDOWS7+AIDA WITH 3DRIVES - M2 2280 SATA
https://i.postimg.cc/Vv0tm28D/3drives-13.jpg

Sorry i did not have some bigger m2 sata to make the tests since almost all of my drives are M2 NVME.
I hope this will help others make an interesting system with 3 drives inside.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2020/07/14 - 10:14

Just wanted to confirm that the Wwan slot supports an m.2 Sata SSD. I just took my 256gb Sata ssd that came with this system and flipped it around to the Wwan port. The card is of course too long for use of the hold down screw. I simply used the bottom cover to hold it down to test. It booted up with no qualms whatsoever. I plan on 3d printing a hold at the 2242 screw location that the 2280 will simply press down and snap into. I will also have to Dremel out a ridge of plastic just past the screw hole for lower profile fitment. Also a piece of tape will need to go over the housing of the cat network cable port. It fits though! And boots!

I have a 5580 which unfortunately has the i5 6300u and thanks to this thread I know I can't add a second drive being limited by 2 cores. I may pick up a cheap internal HDD along with the cable listed above to test a 2.5" drive at the same time as my sata ssd in the Wwan port as I've described although I doubt it will allow me to use both Sata drives.
All this is in hopes of using the m.2 nvme slot to connect an egpu at 4x pcie lanes for 32gb/s speeds(faster than TB3 which my unit also is not equipped with). For inquiring minds and based on my research, it requires an r43sg to plug into the port normally for your nvme ssd, a full size graphics card of your choosing, and power supply. Modifications are made to the case for ease of access or removal of case while docked is easy enough. Builds like this can be found at egpu.io/forums for more info.

Submitted by Przemek (not verified) on Fri, 2020/07/10 - 06:38

Hi,
I've been able to install 2nd ssd disk on Latitude 5480 with dual core Intel i5-7200U CPU on wwan port, next to Sandisk X400 M.2 2280 256GB (factory mounted) disk. On WWAN port I installed Transcend 512 GB m2.SATA disk (TS512GMTS430S).

Cheers,
Przemek

Submitted by Larry (not verified) on Fri, 2020/07/17 - 13:21

Thanks for reporting this here. It gives me hope to get a 2nd drive in my 5580. I'm also hoping will mention if they've successfully used a SATA SSD in the WWAN AND a 2.5 internal drive. I likely would modify the caddy or not use it at all to be able to still have access to the NVME location.

Submitted by Jerry Garcia (not verified) on Sat, 2020/04/18 - 19:27

First of all, much thanks to the Wichita Computer Guy. Great article! I have a Dell Latitude 5590 with 256GB M.2 SSD and a 4 core Intel i7 CPU. However, my previous Dell Latitude 5570 had the M.2 drive die in Jan 2020 (literally the black screen of death -- "No HDD found"...FUDGE!), thus my newer laptop. So for peace of mind, I want a RAID 1 configuration for a complete operational backup of my primary drive. All the parts are on order and should be here in a week.

But I wanted to share Dell's very detailed page on how to setup RAID on a Dell PC (desktop or laptop -- minor various in BIOS settings) here:
https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln155274/how-to-configure-ra...

Will let you know how it goes.

Cheers,
"JG" ;-)

Submitted by Carlos Adriano ... (not verified) on Tue, 2020/02/11 - 13:01

I am here to contribute to this article. I was not able to use WWAN port on Latitude 5590. I tried a M.2 NVME 2242 240GB and a M.2 SATA 2242 240GB, neither of them was recognized.

Toshiba SSD (NVME)
https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/4000039185806.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist....

KingSpec SSD (SATA)
https://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-1338012632-ssd-m2-sata-ngff-2242...

I tried changing BIOS from AHCI to RAID as I saw in some internet articles but it did not work. I tried with BIOS WWAN module enabled and disabled but it did not work either.

If someone was able to make it work on Latitude 5590 with one of the two configurations above using WWAN port please tell me how you did it.

Submitted by phil on Thu, 2020/02/13 - 11:17

Hi Carlos,
Sorry you weren't able to get it going. What CPU model do you have?

Submitted by Carlos Adriano ... (not verified) on Thu, 2020/02/13 - 11:44

I have an Intel® Core™ i7-8650U (https://ark.intel.com/content/www/br/pt/ark/products/124968/intel-core-i...).

Submitted by tetsu (not verified) on Sun, 2020/02/09 - 04:12

It turns out that this is only possible with the 4-core model. Motherboard is different. The screen display is different even for the same BIOS file. Only 4 core model motherboard can control multiple storage. For example, i5 7300u is useless. i5 7440hq is OK.

Submitted by phil on Sun, 2020/02/09 - 10:41

@tetsu thanks for posting! This would explain why some folks are able to make it work and others aren't. I did some research to see if there was an indicator as to "why" some cpus would work and others wouldn't, but I can't find anything that stands out. I find it odd that a 2 core won't allow this but a 4 core will however it's Intel and there's no telling...

Submitted by Ricardo (not verified) on Thu, 2019/11/21 - 09:16

Hello everyone, use the recommendations on this site to add a second ssd disk to my Dell 5580 and it worked perfectly. My Notebook came from the factory with a SATA SSD disk in the M.2 socket on board. I bought an nVME SSD to place in the M.2 socket and an M.2 -SATA adapter to place the SATA SSD as explained on this site and it worked perfectly. I have a small battery so the adapter fits smoothly. Thank you very much for the information provided.

Submitted by tetsu (not verified) on Fri, 2020/01/17 - 08:59

4-core cpu model ??

Submitted by Kev (not verified) on Mon, 2019/07/08 - 11:46

Hey! Great work on this page!! :)

I'm awaiting delivery of my new 5590, with the larger 6 cell battery, which takes up the area for the HDD.
My question is - can this be worked-around at all, for a secondary storage option?

Thanks!
Kev

Submitted by phil on Mon, 2019/07/08 - 15:37

From what I can tell, the WWAN port will be your only solution unless you're using that port. You "might" be able to get an adapter to work using the traditional SATA port, but I highly doubt there will be enough room above the battery.

Submitted by Kev (not verified) on Thu, 2019/07/11 - 12:09

Thanks for the feedback - I think that the WLAN/BlueTooth card will occupy the WWAN port... I'll have to see what's what once I get a hold of the laptop! :)

Submitted by Walker (not verified) on Mon, 2019/06/10 - 19:44

If I am reading the above information correctly, to use 2 drives in a 5580 or a 5590 you must.
1/ Use a M.2 NVME drive in the main M.2 slot. ( Samsung 970 )
2/ Use a M.2 to SATA Adapter Card with a SATA adapter connected to the motherboard using a M.2 drive. ( Samsung 860 M.2 )
3/ Or use a mSATA SSD Half Height adapter with a SATA adapter connected to the motherboard using a mSATA drive. ( Samsung 860 mSATA )
Correct?

Submitted by Diane (not verified) on Wed, 2022/06/22 - 18:32

I have a Latitude 5580 which was ordered with a SATA HDD, can I add an SSD to the system? If so, can you provide steps and show me where inside the laptop?

I have read so many things I don't know what to believe any more!! Also, so many computer insides shown that are supposedly the same model but laid out completely different.

Submitted by Walker (not verified) on Tue, 2019/06/18 - 16:21

The only problem that I see is that the Samsung 970 EVO Plus PCIe 3.0 4 NVMe model runs a lot hotter that the 860 EVO V-NAND SATA III 6Gb/s M.2 2280.
I discovered this when I was cloning the 860 to the 970 as right after the clone was finished Crystal Disk Mark showing 166 degrees on the 970 and the 860 was 120 degrees.
Anyway I called Samsung and they said that 166 degrees was a little high but their range was 32 - 158 F (0 - 70 C)
I checked the specs on all the 860, 960, and 970's and they use that same range on all of them, which is probably to cover their tails.
Has anybody had any issues using the 970 Plus model running hot?
I just found out that on eBay you can order a Copper Heatsink Thermal Conductive Adhesive For M.2 NGFF 2280 PCI-E NVME SSD which might help on the Samsung 970.
You don't have a lot of space to add a heatsink and pad as the bottom cover is really close to the top of the drive but they do sell them in 2, 3 and 4 mm thickness.
Think I will order some and see if they help with the heat issue before I start using the Samsung 970 Plus and add the second drive in the Dell 5580.
Just wonder if there was big increase in heat when they went from the 860 to the 960, 970 and 970 Plus models?
My way of thinking is each time a new faster model comes out the heat range goes up just like a processor.
If the heatsink doesn't show much improvement I will stick with the Samsung 860 in the Dell 5580.
The 970 is the way to go in a desktop as laptops don't have the cooling system that laptops have.

Submitted by phil on Sat, 2019/06/15 - 13:22

@Walker you are reading it right.

As another person suggested, you might also be able to get a M.2 SATA card to work in the WWAN port as well, which technically would give you 3 possible drive configurations. I personally haven't tried it, so take it with a grain of salt, but in theory it should be fine as long as the primary M.2 is an NVME drive.

Submitted by Jamie (not verified) on Tue, 2019/04/02 - 09:12

Thanks for this page! I'm looking to do this with a 5490 (not 5590). Assuming it's a similar process, but we shall see when I get it.

With that said, can you enable RAID 1 through the BIOS or Windows 10 via the IRST driver/app?

Thanks!

Submitted by phil on Tue, 2019/04/02 - 11:38

That's a good question Jamie. Inside windows, you should totally be able to setup a RAID, but it's not really recommended due to the software implications of RAID. I'm honestly not sure if the firmware (BIOS) RAID will work, though I don't see why it wouldn't as long as the BIOS recognizes multiple hard drives. I've never seen RST become picky about where or what the HD is, it only cares that multiple drives are in the system. Assuming the WWAN port does indeed work for a M.2 SATA drive as suggested in a comment below, it should be possible to use the M.2 SATA with a drive hooked to the traditional SATA port and either RAID 0 or RAID 1 them. I wouldn't recommend doing RAID 0 against the nVME drive though and I would be cautious against even doing a RAID 1 with the nVME drvie due to speed differences between the protocols. Since RST is a firmware RAID which essentially is just "Software on a Chip", I have a feeling the bottle neck would become the slowest link. I don't have any real world speed testing under my belt so it's worth trying out.

Submitted by Jamie (not verified) on Tue, 2019/04/02 - 13:07

Thanks. I'll just have to test it out when I get things connected. I currently have an E6440 with a SATA SSD (950 pro) & mSATA (Evo 960) on the WWAN port setup for RAID 1 'on request' mode (not continuous). I'd like to do the same on my 5490 with an nVME Evo 970 and maybe use my existing Evo 960 on the WWAN port (if possible - not a 2240 drive).

Submitted by Takács Béla (not verified) on Tue, 2019/03/05 - 01:27

It is easier to remove a 2,5" SATA SSD from its housing and fix it with self adhesive felt pads. A Samsung EVO 860 512G works fine in my 5591.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UqharWQMeBZk5rox9

Submitted by phil on Tue, 2019/03/05 - 02:07

Thanks for the share @Takács Béla

If a normal 2.5" drive can be taken apart and used like this, I agree, it's probably the best way to go. Not all 2.5" drives have that small of a footprint though. Maybe some other folks will run across your comment and be inspired to take their 860's apart for confirmation.

Submitted by Michael Lacey (not verified) on Thu, 2019/01/31 - 22:03

Hi,
Posted a comment a few days ago. Just thought i would post an update. In the above you explicitly state that M.2 SATA != mSATA. The M.2 in my Dell 5590 is actually a SATA drive. it is a Micron 1100 SATA 512Gb. Which is a M.2 SATA chip. So when we did your above fix to get two drives it would not work, as i believe the laptop cannot handle two SATA drives.
So as another fix; we have found a QNINE M.2 NGFF SSD Adapter (amazon), which we should be able to use the same cable to plug the existing M.2 SATA into the JSATA port, and get a new M.2 NVMe drive to plug into the slot we just relieved. We should hopefully be able to then move the boot sequence to the old drive and be happy days. Will keep you posted.

Submitted by tricon23 (not verified) on Wed, 2019/02/20 - 16:25

I'm interested if anyone has any experience with an m.2 ssd in the 2242 position since it's open? Does this mean that if the WWAN slot can be used as a second drive (SATA) the primary would need to be an M.2 NVME.

Submitted by phil on Thu, 2019/02/28 - 01:08

I honestly have no experience with the WWAN ports on the laptops. It is quite possible that "yes", it will work but in all honesty, it's one of those things that you might have to pick up a super cheap drive and give it a go.

Check this for some better reference: https://superuser.com/questions/743040/will-a-sata-ssd-drive-work-in-wwa...

Submitted by Justin (not verified) on Thu, 2019/03/21 - 19:37

Just confirmed it myself. I picked up a cheap Ssd on amazon, plugged it in, and after enabling the wireless port in BIOS it was recognized.

Submitted by Hervé (not verified) on Mon, 2019/04/15 - 17:12

I take it it was a Key B model, right? I have a Latitude E7490 fitted with an M.2 2280 SATA SSD (Key M+B) and I tried it in the WWAN slot. Of course it was not fitting flat and I had to leave the cover away but on power on the laptop, the SSD was not detected in BIOS.

Can you tell us how the SSD in WWAN slot registers in BIOS? Mine 7490 reports 2 x SSD slots by default: M.2 SATA and M.2 PCIe SSD-0. DO you see a 3rd entry?

Thanks,

Submitted by Larry (not verified) on Tue, 2020/07/14 - 10:27

In bios on my 5580 it lists and has check mark boxes for
SATA0
SATA1
SATA2
M.2 PCIe SSD-0
Including the Wwan port I only count 3 ports though.

Submitted by phil on Tue, 2019/04/02 - 11:32

That's awesome Justin! I'll get the article updated to mention the WWAN port.