Yes, you can install an M.2 drive as a boot drive on your HP 802E MB.
Yes, you can install an M.2 drive as a boot drive on your HP 802E MB.
My device is an HP Z240 with an i7-6700 processor and 16GB RAM. The motherboard lists an Intel C236 chipset and mentions an M.2 PCIe slot in the system slots. However, HWInfo64 indicates only four PCIe lanes available, and there’s no mention of a physical M.2 slot on the board. After checking, I couldn’t locate any hidden PCIe space. It seems the motherboard doesn’t support a dedicated M.2 drive. You might still use the existing 16x PCIe slot as a data drive, but it won’t function as a boot drive. There’s no official guidance from HP for this configuration.
Possibly hidden on the underside of the motherboard? A search on Google should clarify this detail. My thought is HP might be skimping and using a BIOS from another board that originally had it. You can find bootable M.2 PCIe cards, but if your setup can’t boot from them, it won’t work unless the card includes its own controller—those are costly (I own several for systems lacking a native M.2 port).
I didn’t locate any results matching my MB on Google. The HP site only showed details about the four PCIe slots, suggesting no M.2 slot was present. Based on that, I think it’s likely there’s no support for a micro-USB 2.0 card. Since there’s no info on a bootable PCIe interface, I’m giving up on this path. I wouldn’t invest in a special card because it wouldn’t work across different systems, and I’d risk losing my RAM and CPU if it fails. The only real reason to consider an M.2 drive would be portability—just in case the current PC breaks down later.
This Ryzen 3 3200G with a M.2 slot would set you back around $190, fixing more issues than just the current one. Keeping such an older machine alive really requires a lot of money!
It's a powerful setup! You've got a high-end dual Xeon processor and a substantial budget. Since you're not focused on gaming, this machine should handle your tasks efficiently until the components wear out.
HP service manuals generally provide solid guidance, yet this particular model appears to be an exception. There doesn’t seem to be much available information on HP SFF models from this era. The M.2 slot is typically located at the edge of the board, with the drive screws fitting into the case rather than the motherboard. I included a photo of a board showing a red circle around the M.2 slot, but when searching for images, I found that some boards only have solder pads without a slot attached.
Found it! There seems to be the m.2 standoff where the screw screws in. but before that is another type of standoff with some black plastic thing. i guess that would have to be rmoved, unless that is the m.2 screw. So this still is sketchy. What a bone-headed design! And this is reason #1,000 why we don't buy pre-built systems. This was a free PC from my wife;s company. Even for free, this is a great disappointment.
Is the M.2 slot positioned outside the mainboard? That sounds crazy...
It seems the design limits efficiency by not utilizing the full MB space before fitting into the case. The screw features a drive cage that only opens at a 45° angle, which might make installation difficult. I haven’t tested it. I wouldn’t choose an M.2 drive just for this issue. Perhaps I’ll consider it later if I find one. Since I still have some older SATA SSDs, I might save the M.2 slot for newer models. That unusual plastic screw could cause problems and I’d likely avoid it in HP BIOS.