# Can an M.2 slot ONLY support NVME and NOT support SATA?



## hat (Dec 12, 2019)

Title pretty much says it all. I can't get my M.2 SSD (https://www.newegg.com/team-group-ms30-512gb/p/N82E16820331232?Item=N82E16820331232) to be detected by either my motherboard (ASROCK B450M/AC) or the Windows setup. After some searching and poking around in the BIOS, there doesn't seem to be an option for manually setting the M.2 port to SATA, either. There's only gen 1, 2 or 3 PCI-E options... 

If that's the case, would an adapter like this work to connect it to a standard SATA port?









						M.2 NGFF Sata3 SSD to 2.5" SATA Adapter Card Hard Disk Case Enclosure WhiteODFS  | eBay
					

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for M.2 NGFF Sata3 SSD to 2.5" SATA Adapter Card Hard Disk Case Enclosure WhiteODFS at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!



					www.ebay.com


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## newtekie1 (Dec 12, 2019)

Yes, it is possible. Though, I'll also say that I don't think any of my motherboards have an option to force the M.2 slots to SATA mode. Reading through the manual for that board it definitely makes it sound like the M.2 slot is NVMe/PCI-E only.

Yes, that adapter should work.


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## Athlonite (Dec 12, 2019)

your mobo supports SATA (NGFF) M.2 ssd's it even has the MP32 listed in the Storage QVL which is SATA so maybe it's D.O.A can you try it in another mobo


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## DeathtoGnomes (Dec 12, 2019)

pci slot adapter card too


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## newtekie1 (Dec 12, 2019)

Athlonite said:


> your mobo supports SATA (NGFF) M.2 ssd's it even has the MP32 listed in the Storage QVL which is SATA so maybe it's D.O.A can you try it in another mobo



Maybe we're looking at different QVL pages, but I don't see any SATA drives listed for the B450M/ac:









						ASRock B450M/ac
					

Supports AMD AM4 Socket Ryzen™ 2000, 3000, 4000 G-Series, 5000 and 5000 G-Series Desktop Processors; Supports DDR4 3200+ (OC); 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x16; AMD Quad CrossFireX™; Graphics Output: HDMI; 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), ELNA Audio Caps; 4 SATA3, 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe...




					www.asrock.com


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## NoJuan999 (Dec 12, 2019)

newtekie1, you are correct.
That Motherboard does NOT support m.2 SATA SSDs, only NVME m.2 SSDs:


> Storage
> - 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
> - 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s) (with Matisse, Picasso, Summit Ridge, Raven Ridge and Pinnacle Ridge) or Gen3 x2 (16 Gb/s) (with Athlon 2xxGE series APU)*
> 
> ...











						ASRock B450M/ac
					

Supports AMD AM4 Socket Ryzen™ 2000, 3000, 4000 G-Series, 5000 and 5000 G-Series Desktop Processors; Supports DDR4 3200+ (OC); 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x16; AMD Quad CrossFireX™; Graphics Output: HDMI; 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), ELNA Audio Caps; 4 SATA3, 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe...




					www.asrock.com


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## biffzinker (Dec 12, 2019)

If your board had two M.2 slots one PCIe x4 off the Ryzen SoC, and another off the B450 chipset. Then you could of used the second slot which would of likely been wired for M.2 SATA.


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## Athlonite (Dec 12, 2019)

newtekie1 said:


> Maybe we're looking at different QVL pages, but I don't see any SATA drives listed for the B450M/ac:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yes your right I was looking at a completely different mobo which duckduckgo bought up and I just stupidly clicked on without really reading which mobo it had linked to which turned out to be the B450-HDV which lists SATA M.2 ssd's as supported in it's Storage QVL


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## pbm86 (Dec 12, 2019)

That enclosure for SATA M.2 seems like a inexpensive way to make it work on your motherboard. You can also use a PCI-E adapter, but it's probably more expensive. The enclosure should suffice.


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## Khonjel (Dec 12, 2019)

Can I just say some OT that how cool is that AsRock very clearly lists the specs on the motherboard page. Idk about other brands but I had to download the manuals for MSI boards to see detailed spec sheet.


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## NoJuan999 (Dec 12, 2019)

Khonjel said:


> Can I just say some OT that how cool is that AsRock very clearly lists the specs on the motherboard page. Idk about other brands but I had to download the manuals for MSI boards to see detailed spec sheet.


MSI lists there specification as well, you just have to know where to look. 
Click on the Detail tab on this page: 





						B450 TOMAHAWK MAX | Motherboard  | MSI Global
					

Best AMD AM4 B450 ATX motherboard, Turbo M.2, Extended heatsink, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Mystic Light, MSI MAG




					www.msi.com


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## Khonjel (Dec 12, 2019)

NoJuan999 said:


> MSI lists there specification as well, you just have to know where to look.
> Click on the Detail tab on this page:
> 
> 
> ...


Hmmm. Maybe they added this later or it was always there and I wasn't looking at the right place (my money's on the latter) but in the end I used this list. I really should've bought the AsRock Steel Legend, but alas it was unavailable.


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## Eskimonster (Dec 12, 2019)

PCIe x4 adaptor cost 2 $ in china


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## Kissamies (Dec 13, 2019)

Eskimonster said:


> PCIe x4 adaptor cost 2 $ in china


Does that support SATA M.2? At least in the pic it reads NVMe.


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## Flaky (Dec 13, 2019)

Obviously not. To support SATA M.2 it would either have to have a sata controller, or a socket to plug sata cable.


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## erixx (Dec 13, 2019)

Surprising story, because SATA has other edge connectors, but yes, a SATA would fit in an NVMe slot but not the other way around.


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## TheLostSwede (Dec 13, 2019)

erixx said:


> Surprising story, because SATA has other edge connectors, but yes, a SATA would fit in an NVMe slot but not the other way around.


Actually, no. They really screwed up the M.2 standard, as there are no less than five difference M.2 interfaces.
For storage, you have B and M key, where all NVMe drives are M key.
However, there are PCIe based AHCI drives as well, although they're not very common, but still uses the M key.
Then you have B key for SATA SSDs, which also isn't very common because...
Then, there's the bastard M+B key SATA drives, which shouldn't exist, yet they do, simply because you have motherboards that have M+B key slots, so they can accept SATA and NVMe drives in the same slot and this sort of breaks the standard when it comes to being able to guess what goes where and being sure it'll work.

On top of this, there's also the A and E interfaces, which are sometimes PCIe x1+USB+SDIO and sometimes USB+SDIO only. As far as I can tell, no-one has made an SSD for this interface.

*Edit: *The fifth interface would be solder down modules, mainly used for Wi-Fi modules.


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## erixx (Dec 13, 2019)

It's easy to tell that you know all about this, hats off, but I was not wrong sir. It remains surprising, to me, that this standard mixing can happen as I explained.


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## TheLostSwede (Dec 13, 2019)

erixx said:


> View attachment 139249
> It's easy to tell that you know all about this, hats off, but I was not wrong sir. It remains surprising, to me, that this standard mixing can happen as I explained.


That picture...
The first one is mSATA, but ok...
The second one is B+M key...




Most boards have an M keyed slot, into a B+M keyed SSD would fit.
This is also why it's impossible to know if it's PCIe only or PCIe and SATA from just looking at the slot.
There are no B+M slots afaik.


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## Kissamies (Dec 13, 2019)

TheLostSwede said:


> There are no B+M slots afaik.


Haven't seen one, at least not yet. But yeah, that's kinda confusing if you don't research about what you're getting.


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## erixx (Dec 13, 2019)

I bought a SDD enclosure months ago and the sellers on Amazon are all going crazy with warnings regarding the differences between SATA and Nvme M.2 ! The reason is of course confused people and complaints. The image is just from one of those. Nowadays a motherboard with connectivity for all the standards on sale is a real forest of slots! Don't lose the manual  =8)


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## bonehead123 (Dec 13, 2019)

When all else fails:

R.T.F.M..

'nuff said............


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## Kissamies (Dec 13, 2019)

bonehead123 said:


> When all else fails:
> 
> R.T.F.M..
> 
> 'nuff said............


"this crap is for women" said my relative about the manual when he bought a new printer.


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## TheLostSwede (Dec 13, 2019)

Chloe Price said:


> "this crap is for women" said my relative about the manual when he bought a new printer.


I rarely read manuals, but that's just stupid, as sometimes you have to reference them.


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## Kissamies (Dec 13, 2019)

TheLostSwede said:


> I rarely read manuals, but that's just stupid, as sometimes you have to reference them.


Only for the motherboard headers if they're cryptic. Otherwise they're untouched.


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## TheLostSwede (Dec 13, 2019)

Chloe Price said:


> Only for the motherboard headers if they're cryptic. Otherwise they're untouched.


It depends what you're trying to figure out, no? Also, motherboards is one thing, there are a lot of other things that come with manuals...
Get something obscure enough and you might just need it.


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## Flaky (Dec 13, 2019)

I agree that the M.2 connector/socket keying is mess - but usb-c seems to be a worthy competitor in regard to confusing general audience 


At least when it comes to M.2 SSDs, keys can, and should be completely ignored.
The only thing important here is what interface the SSD uses, and which interfaces are supported in the M.2 socket. 
If there is a match, it will physically fit anyway.


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## hat (Dec 14, 2019)

bonehead123 said:


> When all else fails:
> 
> R.T.F.M..
> 
> 'nuff said............


Yeah... I looked at the specs and saw something like "up to PCI-E gen 3" so I figured SATA must also work... I didn't realize you could have slots that were exclusively PCI-E until now. In the future I'll know to look out for SATA only slots, PCI-E only slots, and slots that do both.


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## agent_x007 (Dec 14, 2019)

Yes. There are both SATA only M.2 ports, and PCI-e only M.2 ports.

Here's a pretty good summary :




Both SATA version and PCI-e version depend on Motherboard/chipset/port used as well as drive itself.
You can't have a M.2 drive with B + M keys, that will work in both PCI-e only, and SATA only ports.


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## hat (Dec 22, 2019)

Figured I'd follow up. The adapter is installed and working. The system picked it up just fine.


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## dj2018 (Dec 25, 2019)

hi all,
I've just been reading all the comments in here and I have a very similar problem?
I have upgraded my mobo to the asus 970 pro gaming aura which indeed has the M.2 slot, however problem is that the M.2 is working as I have windows installed on it but only showing up as sata and not in PCI-E mode. Could it be on how I installed windows? not in UEFI but normal installation ,and as for speed performance I don't really see much of a speed increase for the money I spent? any help would be appreciated. Merry Christmas all and await for any help. Thanks


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## Flaky (Dec 25, 2019)

@dj2018 
Your board's M.2 slot supports only PCIe storage.
Tell us the SSD model.
"...but only showing up as sata and not in PCI-E mode" - what do you use to get such information?
"and as for speed performance I don't really see much of a speed increase " - what did you expect exactly? 4x higher linear speeds do not mean that everything will be 4x faster.


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## dj2018 (Dec 25, 2019)

Hi,

thanks for the reply,
I have the Kingston A2000 m.2 ssd and I checked that information out using windows devices. but anyway what I should of put was is it possible to get it to boot in the NVMe mode? or have I got to install some kind of program to get this?

Just to add... my motherboard has the latest bios update too


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## Flaky (Dec 25, 2019)

This is an NVMe drive. There is no such thing as "non-NVMe" mode for it, at most it can be indirect when using RST (but it's specific for intel platforms).
Please provide screenshot of the information you mention - I don't recall any place in windows itself that would in simple, correct and reliable way distinguish SATA and PCIe storage.


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## dj2018 (Dec 25, 2019)

hi
thanks for your reply as you will see from the screenshot added that I also am only using Microsoft drivers, but I should be able to install to correct drivers


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## Flaky (Dec 25, 2019)

...so where did you see it


dj2018 said:


> showing up as sata and not in PCI-E mode


?

There's nothing wrong with microsoft NVMe driver.
You seem to be searching for problem even though there is none.


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## dj2018 (Dec 25, 2019)

oh so everything is running and detected my M.2 ssd as it should be then?


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## EarthDog (Dec 26, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> oh so everything is running and detected my M.2 ssd as it should be then?


From what little you showed us, yes.

Run a benchmark like atto and see if you are getting nvme speeds or sata.


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## dj2018 (Dec 26, 2019)

Hi Earthdog,
thank you for your reply. I have done what you requested and my results are below.. according to kingstons website the speed of the drive is this?
*NVMe PCIe performance at a fraction of the cost*


A2000 is an affordable solution with impressive read/write speeds up to 2,200/2,000MB.

my results from atto are below In the screenshot.


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## Flaky (Dec 26, 2019)

This is way too low. Even though your motherboard supports only PCIe gen 2, it may limit the speed to somewhere around ~1.4GB/s, not SATA speeds.
Are you sure you selected the drive letter of the NVMe drive?
Can you show the screenshot from Crystal Disk Info?


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## TheLostSwede (Dec 26, 2019)

Flaky said:


> I agree that the M.2 connector/socket keying is mess - but usb-c seems to be a worthy competitor in regard to confusing general audience
> 
> 
> At least when it comes to M.2 SSDs, keys can, and should be completely ignored.
> ...


Apparently not, as in this case the slot can take an B+M keyed SSD, i.e. a SATA drive, but it won't function, as the board only does PCIe on the M.2 slot. Sorry, but your conclusion is wrong.



dj2018 said:


> Hi Earthdog,
> thank you for your reply. I have done what you requested and my results are below.. according to kingstons website the speed of the drive is this?
> *NVMe PCIe performance at a fraction of the cost*
> 
> ...


Quick question, did you install Windows using MBR or GPT? If it's MBR, you're going to have to reinstall Windows using GPT to get NVMe performance.


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## Flaky (Dec 26, 2019)

How many A+E SSDs are there, anyway?


TheLostSwede said:


> i.e. a SATA drive, but it won't function, as the board only does PCIe on the M.2 slot. Sorry, but your conclusion is wrong.


See the "if there is a match" fragment in what you just quoted.
I mean, the only important thing is the interfaces supported. If you have a mismatch, it won't work.


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## dj2018 (Dec 26, 2019)

TheLostSwede said:


> Apparently not, as in this case the slot can take an A+E keyed SSD, i.e. a SATA drive, but it won't function, as the board only does PCIe on the M.2 slot. Sorry, but your conclusion is wrong.
> 
> 
> Quick question, did you install Windows using MBR or GPT? If it's MBR, you're going to have to reinstall Windows using GPT to get NVMe performance.


hi,

I installed windows normal I think MBR, as I use a usb stick to boot windows from. how can I install using GPT? and thank you for your help


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## agent_x007 (Dec 26, 2019)

TheLostSwede said:


> Quick question, did you install Windows using MBR or GPT? *If it's MBR, you're going to have to reinstall Windows using GPT to get NVMe performance*.


Say what now ?
How does that work ?

@dj2018 If you own 256GB model you should get up to 2000/1100 MB/s on Read/Write.
Since you are getting ~500MB/s on both - it's PCIe lanes and/or PCIe version limit.


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## Flaky (Dec 26, 2019)

Do not reinstall. MBR/GPT does not affect the speed. Swede had to confuse this with something else.
Please provide mentioned Crystal disk info shot.


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## dj2018 (Dec 26, 2019)

hi,
here is the crystal disk info.. it is showing my M.2 SSD as a drive letter G when in fact it is in my computer interface as drive letter C.


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## EarthDog (Dec 26, 2019)

How about a shot of this computer, plz... ")


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## dj2018 (Dec 26, 2019)

EarthDog said:


> How about a shot of this computer, plz... ")


hi,

here is a screenshot of my pc and as you see all my HDD's and optical drives


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## Flaky (Dec 26, 2019)

Crystal and windows do not lie - Kingston NVMe has an empty, formatted volume G. Whoever named it "samsung" got it wrong.
Your windows is on the other drive.


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## dj2018 (Dec 26, 2019)

the Samsung drive is my other SSD drive I have in my system, I also have a Samsung spin point 1TB HDD as well as the Kingston A2000 M.2 SSD drive which I am currently using as my windows drive

enclosed are two screenshots, and as you will see what for HDD's I have in my system and what are online


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## Flaky (Dec 26, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> as well as the Kingston A2000 M.2 SSD drive which I am currently using as my windows drive


No, you are not. Screens prove that you installed the OS on the other SSD, not the kingston.


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## dj2018 (Dec 26, 2019)

well I have to beg to differ as you say that I have installed windows on my Samsung ssd. that is not correct  I will give you the screenshots of both the Samsung ssd and the Kingston and let you see for yourself. now you are going to tell me after you see these screenshots that I have items  from windows on my Samsung SSD and not on my C: drive... The M.2 SSD



dj2018 said:


> well I have to beg to differ as you say that I have installed windows on my Samsung ssd. that is not correct  I will give you the screenshots of both the Samsung ssd and the Kingston and let you see for yourself. now you are going to tell me after you see these screenshots that I have items  from windows on my Samsung SSD and not on my C: drive... The M.2 SSD


if i have to i will use the samsung magician to wipe the samsung ssd drive then you will see what i mean


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## EarthDog (Dec 26, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> well I have to beg to differ as you say that I have installed windows on my Samsung ssd. that is not correct I will give you the screenshots of both the Samsung ssd and the Kingston and let you see for yourself. now you are going to tell me after you see these screenshots that I have items from windows on my Samsung SSD and not on my C: drive... The M.2 SSD


From the information provided, the ATTO result on C:\ looks to be a standard SATA drive... Your Evo 860 has speeds up to 550/520 and the ATTO result shows 520/460. The Kingston drive should be a lot faster.

If you run ATTO on the G:\ drive, what does performance look like?

It seems to me that the Samsung SSD label in 'this pc' is not correct....


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## dj2018 (Dec 26, 2019)

I will do that for you now earthdog, but honestly how can it be even possible that I have windows installed on my Samsung SSD when there are no objects recorded only on the C: drive
but i will do a screenshot with atto and on my Samsung SSD and post the results for you... many thanks in taking your time to help me


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## EarthDog (Dec 26, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> I will do that for you now earthdog, but honestly how can it be even possible that I have windows installed on my Samsung SSD when there are no objects recorded only on the C: drive
> but i will do a screenshot with atto and on my Samsung SSD and post the results for you... many thanks in taking your time to help me



Because drive letters (outside of C:\) and labels can be anything. It is possible whoever labeled the drive as Samsung simply got it wrong.

But again, look at the ATTO result... that is standard SATA speeds from (what appears to be) your EVO. Maybe the G:\ drive will show the same, I don't know... but that is what it looks like to me seeing a couple of your screenshots.


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## dj2018 (Dec 26, 2019)

hi there ,

I named the Samsung ssd Letter G as it was not displayed when in installed my M.2 SSD in my system, but anyway I will send the screenshot to you and unfortunately I will be late giving any answers as being boxing day I am out celebrating


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## EarthDog (Dec 26, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> hi there ,
> 
> I named the Samsung ssd Letter G as it was not displayed when in installed my M.2 SSD in my system, but anyway I will send the screenshot to you and unfortunately I will be late giving any answers as being boxing day I am out celebrating


Well, that answers that. Clearly this drive 'labeled' Samsung is NOT the Samsung. The speeds you are seeing there are obviously from the Kingston NVMe drive. Though they are lower than it is rated (but ok for the bus it is on), it is clearly a lot faster than the Evo 860 and SATA3 6 Gbps speeds.

You installed your OS to the slower SATA based Samsung drive and have mis-labeled the Kingston drive as Samsung in This PC.

Have fun on boxing day!!!


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## TheLostSwede (Dec 26, 2019)

Flaky said:


> How many A+E SSDs are there, anyway?
> 
> See the "if there is a match" fragment in what you just quoted.
> I mean, the only important thing is the interfaces supported. If you have a mismatch, it won't work.


It is still a match, as an B+M keyed drive did in an M keyed slot, but the latter can be PCIe only, which means as in the case of the OP, the B+M keyed SATA SSD will physically fit, yet but function s it needs a SATA interface.



Flaky said:


> Do not reinstall. MBR/GPT does not affect the speed. Swede had to confuse this with something else.
> Please provide mentioned Crystal disk info shot.


It does affect speed massively, no confusion on my part. NVMe drives need to use GPT, not MBR if you want the full performance out of them.
Despite the fact there was a mixup, the Kingston NVMe drive is still at half speed, as you can see.


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## EarthDog (Dec 26, 2019)

TheLostSwede said:


> It does affect speed massively, no confusion on my part. NVMe drives need to use GPT, not MBR if you want the full performance out of them.
> Despite the fact there was a mixup, the Kingston NVMe drive is still at half speed, as you can see.


I searched but came up empty. Got any links handy to read?


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## TheLostSwede (Dec 27, 2019)

EarthDog said:


> I searched but came up empty. Got any links handy to read?


I did the mistake myself the first time I got an NVMe drive for starters, got nowhere near the full speeds of the drives until I changed to GPT. 
Others here in the forum has had the same problem too.
I can't find any actual benchmark comparisons either.
It's apparently possible to convert an MBR drive to GPT without losing data.


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## NoJuan999 (Dec 27, 2019)

When I first installed my Samsung 970 Evo nvme m.2 drive in November I formatted it as MBR by mistake and just recently converted it to GPT.
I used this guide to convert it without any data loss:








						How to convert MBR to GPT drive to switch BIOS to UEFI on Windows 10
					

A PC with UEFI is more secure and faster than the legacy one using BIOS, and here's how to switch.




					www.windowscentral.com
				




MBR Speeds:



GPT Speeds:


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## dj2018 (Dec 27, 2019)

hi,
thank you for all the information, but before I begin is It better first to unplug my Samsung SSD drive and then first of all reboot my pc to see if earthdog is correct and that there is files written on my Samsung SSD which are Hidden " hence" showing zero objects?
I will do that and post a screenshot minus the Samsung SSD

ok I have to problem solved ..however I was confused to find that windows indeed did install on the Samsung SSD and was apparently showing up as being used by the Kingston M.2, now one more thing I now since installing windows in UEFI have now 3 partitions on my Kingston, is there any way around that to delete them so its just one physical partition?. now that I have finally installed windows on my M.2 will I notice any speed performance?



dj2018 said:


> hi,
> thank you for all the information, but before I begin is It better first to unplug my Samsung SSD drive and then first of all reboot my pc to see if earthdog is correct and that there is files written on my Samsung SSD which are Hidden " hence" showing zero objects?
> I will do that and post a screenshot minus the Samsung SSD
> 
> ok I have to problem solved ..however I was confused to find that windows indeed did install on the Samsung SSD and was apparently showing up as being used by the Kingston M.2, now one more thing I now since installing windows in UEFI have now 3 partitions on my Kingston, is there any way around that to delete them so its just one physical partition?. now that I have finally installed windows on my M.2 will I notice any speed performance?



and just to add, to achieve this I unplugged both my Samsung SSD and my Samsung 1tb hdd before installing


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## EarthDog (Dec 27, 2019)

TheLostSwede said:


> I did the mistake myself the first time I got an NVMe drive for starters, got nowhere near the full speeds of the drives until I changed to GPT.
> Others here in the forum has had the same problem too.
> I can't find any actual benchmark comparisons either.
> It's apparently possible to convert an MBR drive to GPT without losing data.


I'm really struggling to figure out why that would be. It has nothing to do with alignment so I am at a loss as to how that works....


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## dj2018 (Dec 27, 2019)

me too anyway now I have that figured out how fast should it be at installing windows from usb to the M.2 drive?


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## newtekie1 (Dec 27, 2019)

EarthDog said:


> I'm really struggling to figure out why that would be. It has nothing to do with alignment so I am at a loss as to how that works....



The only thing I can think of is that GPT is more efficient at random requests, so it gives higher IOPs. But I doubt the difference would actually be noticeable.


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## EarthDog (Dec 27, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> me too anyway now I have that figured out how fast should it be at installing windows from usb to the M.2 drive?


Dont worry about the minutia. Just get windows installed on the proper drive and get them labeled properly moving forward.

As far as install time from usb 3.0 to nvme drive... takes me around 20 mins...but that is also using pcie 3.0 x4 slot and your system neuters that drive... so 20 mins+...


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## dj2018 (Dec 27, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> me too anyway now I have that figured out how fast should it be at installing windows from usb to the M.2 drive?



here is a screen shot as you see now that my C: drive is now the Kingston as I unplugged my other two hdd's before installing, now as you see I have now 3 partitions? is there a way of deleting these so I can have the M.2 SSD as a whole windows C: drive


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## EarthDog (Dec 27, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> here is a screen shot as you see now that my C: drive is now the Kingston as I unplugged my other two hdd's before installing, now as you see I have now 3 partitions? is there a way of deleting these so I can have the M.2 SSD as a whole windows C: drive


Leave them. Windows does this for a reason.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 27, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> is there a way of deleting these so I can have the M.2 SSD as a whole windows C: drive



No. Those partitions are required to boot Windows in UEFI mode.


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## dj2018 (Dec 27, 2019)

ok thank you both, so now officially I am actually using my M.2 SSD as my boot drive?


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## EarthDog (Dec 27, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> ok thank you both, so now officially I am actually using my M.2 SSD as my boot drive?


You're asking us? Lol, you should know, friend! Do you know how to figure it out? If so, post screenshots, if not, look back at what we asked of you previously and how it should perform...(to spell it out, run atto on c:\ and see if it performs as it should on your system). 

We obviously cannot tell from you last image....


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## dj2018 (Dec 27, 2019)

here are  my results . thank you all for the help.. appreciated


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## newtekie1 (Dec 27, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> ok thank you both, so now officially I am actually using my M.2 SSD as my boot drive?



The best way to make sure Windows is getting installed on the right drive is to take every other drive out of the computer or disconnect them when you install Windows.  This can be hard for M.2 drives, but some BIOS let you disable them, so that helps.


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## dj2018 (Dec 27, 2019)

that's exactly what I did, dis-connected my other HDD's and let windows install on my M.2 in UEFI


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## EarthDog (Dec 27, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> here are  my results . thank you all for the help.. appreciated


Thinking about what we found previously, what do those results tell you? 

(Sorry, I'm a teach a man to fish person, lol)


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## dj2018 (Dec 27, 2019)

that I am now using my M.2 as the results are a lot higher than my s.ata 6 ssd drive


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## EarthDog (Dec 27, 2019)

dj2018 said:


> that I am now using my M.2 as the results are a lot higher than my s.ata 6 ssd drive


W00t! Agreed. Looks good to me.


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## dj2018 (Dec 27, 2019)

thank you kindly earthdog and all the other fellow members here.... i'm now as happy as pig in **** and knowing that I didn't waste money on something that I will get to use and enjoy... hope you all have a blast in 2020... thanks once again. appreciated


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## Tatty_One (Dec 27, 2019)

And on that happy note, after one of the biggest thread hijacks in TPU history, thread closed...…... I am glad that the problem was resolved!  (both peoples problems)


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