Troubleshooting a Hard Drive Replacement for the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3

Last year, I was assigned a Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 as my work laptop, and recently, I encountered a challenge while trying to clear the hard drive of work-related programs. Unfortunately, the drive is encrypted, and the company no longer possesses the BitLocker key necessary to decrypt it.

Being relatively new to hardware repairs, I decided to attempt a hard drive swap, as I have an additional drive available. However, I’ve hit a wall. Before I proceed with anything that could potentially damage my laptop, I am reaching out to the community for advice.

My primary struggle lies in locating the hard drive within the device, and I could really use some guidance on the replacement process. I’ve attached a photo to showcase the current state of the laptop for reference. While I’m more than willing to take it to a professional repair shop, I thought I would give this a shot first.

If anyone has experience with the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 or can provide insights on this type of hard drive replacement, your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your assistance!