If you’re handy at all in any way, you most likely have an assortment of screws you’ve collected over the years. M.2 screws, a relatively new addition to the menagerie of things that you have to screw into your motherboard. As the name implies, they’re screws designated to screw in M.2 drives into your motherboard. And they can be a right nuisance at times because they have a tendency to magically disappear when you actually need them. This is certainly not recommended for any serious or long-term use, but can be done for short sessions of data copying or if your screw is arriving the next day. FAQ Do You Need a Standoff for M.2 SSDs?

So if you want to buy some screws for M.2 standoffs, what you need are M2 screws. Specifically, you want to get the following M.2 screw size: “ M2x3mm“. MacGyver it (Not Recommended) So you don’t need to screw them in, but it’s such a simple and easy safety measure, there’s no point not doing it. Yes, this is a possibility, but one that should be done with utmost care, if you don’t want to loose your data or fry you parts mid-session. So give it a search and see if you can find something. You probably won’t find something perfect, but even a close enough fit is fine. If you just want to make sure the drive stays where you put it and want something that’s lowkey. This is an option.

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Get some actual M.2 screws and do it right. But in the meantime… Look for Old Small Screws in Your Home Some motherboards don’t have standoffs. Some do, and you need to install them. Some come with them pre-installed. And so on.

M.2 Drives don’t really need to be screwed down flat onto the motherboard, they temporarily (!) work perfectly fine just hovering at an angle of 30°.So there’s a non-zero chance that there might be a screw that could fit an M.2 standoff in your collection. It’ll hold your drive down just fine, to the point where you don’t even need to bother with the M.2 screws when you do find them. Though the drives might come loose If you move your PC around a lot. Skip the M.2 Screw entirely Now, sometimes, we just have to wing it and find a way to make it work. You’re missing that M.2 screw but you still want to finish setting up your PC now, and not in 3 days when the new screw arrives, right? Just make sure you don’t destroy anything by trying to jam in a screw that’s way too big. Tape the M.2 Drive Down Hopefully, that explained everything you wanted to know about what you can do if you lose an M.2 screw!