the number of years i’ve run usb->sata adapters and had (up to a dozen or so) bare drives laying around and propped up anywhere i could find a spot…

you aren’t putting a 3.5in in that slimline bay. you might be able to rig something to hold one there, though. that’s where the get ‘‘creative’’ part comes in.

you also have the 2x2.5in at the bottom but you’re missing the rails or caddies for them. should be like 5-6 bucks each or so on ebay or azn. don’t bother with those, though, unless you’re putting in hdd there. sata ssd can just be stuffed in the cage, they ain’t going anywhere.

be careful with whatever mb->sata power cables you have. make sure they’re the correct ones, as they aren’t all the same. you could get away with a 1->2 sata power splitter once on each mb power connection, as the output of each is designed for 2x3.5in hdd anyway.

edit: just looked at a similar model here. removing the slimline optical and stuffing a 3.5in hdd there will obstruct the cpu hsf a bit. might have to swap that for a lower profile cooler to put the drive there… BUT. if you take out the existing hdd (because its caddy thing gets in the way), there is just enough room along the flipout bit between that hdd bay and the 2.5in cage below to fit a 3.5in. would need a little ‘modification’ to the case there to rig a mount for it. but it fits. then the existing hdd can slide back in. (see pic, the ancient seagate hdd is placed in that space)

and, i got you paying my rent and feeding me. so, who’s the one with just a single brain cell here, buddy…

you’re talking the ‘RED’ series inspiron minitower?

iirc there’s only one 3.5in bay adjacent to the slimline optical bay, and two 2.5in bays in a cage at the bottom front.

bays use drive rails which may or may not be present if the bay was unpopulated when originally shipped.

the pc uses 12vo power supply, so the drives are powered off the motherboard. those cables may also not be present if they weren’t needed for the original configuration.

slimline optical bays can often be filled with a caddy designed fit in the form factor, connecting to the optical power and sata, and hold a 2.5in ssd drive.

you will have to get ‘‘creative’’ to securely mount more than one 3.5in hdd inside.

you can certainly mix-and-match display sizes and resolutions. the system i am typing on now has 24in 16:9 and 19in 5:4. i am constantly flipping which screen or both (or neither, for that matter–there are other things connected to other inputs on them) is active on this pc

there may be a setting in the bios to configure the mode the storage device(s) use. it may simply be expecting nvme and not even looking for ahci sata.

don’t try to power on the system, even for ‘testing’, without the m2 card properly slotted and secured.

are you certain that the slot is m-key? see this page for help identifying b and m keys.

if it is m-key, are you also certain that the system supports sata via that m2 slot? sata support via m-key m2 is system dependent and not guaranteed to be there. the usual upgrade for m-key m2 is nvme ssd.

if your slot is actually “mSATA” (not “m2” or more accurately, “m.2”) you need an entirely different ssd card.

if a specific format isn’t requested or required, and the formatted text document is not expected to be edited by the recipient–only read, possibly by computer, or printed, i would default to using a pdf.

besides these–which i occasionally use the oem option with… i just put endless on one here, it also sets up the initial user during the first boot after install.

the oem install option that is available with ubuntu and some ubuntu-based ones lets you do some initial extra package installs and stuff, though. you run a command linked on the oeminstall desktop when you’re finished with your ‘preinstall’.

the kb is almost always usb or wireless these days. just disconnect it or flip its own switch

it would have to be a territory… or territories, even it’s 50 of them. as territories only get 1 mp each. a 340+ million population province would get like 90% of the seats in parliament.

You mean they’re going to turn Androids into Chromebooks

android is getting ‘desktop’ features so it can replace chrome os, and to keep pace with apple–who’s doing similar things with ios

we’re in the “what if they didn’t” timeline…

they could have kept the skype name on the ‘consumer’ product, even if underneath it was the same piece of shit teams, just with ‘enterprise’ features hidden.

if you’ve already got something running 24/7, you could just put it there. it doesn’t need much for resources.

pihole does not need it’s own box. it can run as a container (docker instructions in the official docs) or in a small vm.

i have two small vm running dietpi and used that to install pihole. i fully expected to run a few more things on them, that’s why i chose dietpi–just have never gotten that far (it’s only been like three years now).

that’s the c2r maintenance process. main job is to set up and update the local files for office.

that bit you can turn off in edge settings… but the webview engine stays because of widgets and probably some other bullshit.

and to install ‘mandatory’ giant bloated updates faster…

and to reboot faster after crashes (which may or may not have been caused by the above updates)…

when i set up a new pc i warn the users moving from really old ones that their coffee-fetching and bagel toasting time is about to shrink to zero.

it’s been a long time but i vaguely remember an office tray icon or desktop toolbar or something that could run all the time.

nowadays, windows caching and prefetch should be more than enough… and that’s not even considering the fast ssd we have now, either.