Editing Laptop (section)

===Internal storage===
As of 2025, virtually all laptops use [[NVM Express|NVME]] [[solid-state drive]]s for storage, most usually in one or more [[M.2]] slots on non-[[Mac (computer)|MacOS]] laptops.  Macs have consistently used soldered NVME storage (integrated with the motherboard) since 2018, and non-removable SSDs are uncommon but not unknown on other manufacturers' laptops.

The earliest laptops most often used [[floppy disk]]s for storage, although a few used either RAM disk or tape. By the late 1980s [[hard disk drive]]s had become the standard form of storage.

Between 1990 and 2009, almost all laptops typically had a [[hard disk drive]] (HDD) for storage; since then, [[solid-state drive]]s (SSD) have gradually come to replace hard drives in virtually all cases. Solid-state drives are faster and more power-efficient, as well as eliminating the hazard of damage or data corruption caused by a laptop's physical impacts, as they use no moving/mechanical parts.<ref name="PCW-SSD">{{cite web|last1=Edwards|first1=Benj|title=Evolution of the Solid-State Drive|url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/246617/evolution_of_the_solid_state_drive.html|website=PCWorld.com|access-date=1 October 2014|date=17 January 2012|archive-date=1 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121001152519/http://www.pcworld.com/article/246617/evolution_of_the_solid_state_drive.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In many cases, they are more compact as well. Initially, in the late 2000s, SSDs were substantially more expensive than HDDs, but prices converged for smaller drives in the late 2010s, and as of 2025, HDDs are essentially extinct in new laptops – although very large capacity drives remain common in desktops and used externally.

Since around 1990, where a hard drive is present it will typically be a 2.5-inch drive; some very compact laptops support even smaller 1.8-inch HDDs, and a very small number used 1" [[Microdrive]]s. Between their initial introduction around 2008 and the mid-2010s, most SSDs matched the size/shape of a laptop hard drive, but starting around 2014 they have been increasingly replaced with smaller [[mSATA]] or [[M.2]] cards. SSDs intended for laptop use which are compatible with the newer and much faster [[NVM Express]] standard are only available as cards.

{{As of|2025|post=,}} very few laptops contain space for a 2.5" drive, accepting only M.2 cards; Macs and a few ultraportable non-Mac laptops have storage soldered to the motherboard. For those that can, they can typically contain a single 2.5-inch drive; in the past, some of the largest laptops could house two drives.

A variety of [[Hard disk drive#External hard disk drives|external HDDs]] or [[Network-attached storage|NAS]] data storage servers with support of [[RAID]] technology can be attached to virtually any laptop over such interfaces as [[USB]], [[FireWire]], [[eSATA]], or [[Thunderbolt (interface)|Thunderbolt]], or over a wired or wireless network to further increase space for the storage of data. Laptops may also incorporate a [[Secure Digital|SD]] or [[microSD]] card slot. This enables users to download digital pictures from an SD card onto a laptop, thus enabling them to delete the SD card's contents to free up space for taking new pictures.