[SOLVED] can I disable NVMe slot?

[Kalik212]

I'm new to NVMe drives so forgive the newbie question...after an NVMe drive is installed is there any way for me to disable it without physically removing the drive?...I want the ability to boot into another SATA SSD drive independently...meaning I want to install another copy of Windows 10 onto the SATA drive and use that...is there a setting in the BIOS that disables the NVMe slot?...can I then re-enable it and get back the drive with everything installed on it intact?...I have an MSI X570 Tomahawk motherboard

with SATA SSD's (and older mechanical hard drives) it was easy to just unplug the SATA cable and plug it into a new drive

 

[Kalik212]

Install on the NVMe, no SATA connected
Leave the NVMe connected, install on the SATA
The boot partitions WILL be merged on the NVMe.
And booting from either drive, you WILL see the other as the "D drive"

follow-up question...so if I do it like this, then will Windows just consider it 1 big hard drive...meaning if I unplug the SATA drive later on will I still be able to boot with just the NVMe alone or will I have to re-install Windows on it?

 

[USAFRet]

follow-up question...so if I do it like this, then will Windows just consider it 1 big hard drive...meaning if I unplug the SATA drive later on will I still be able to boot with just the NVMe alone or will I have to re-install Windows on it?

Again...if some other drive is connected, especially if it already has an OS on it, the boot partitions WILL be merged into one.
Not the OS, just the boot partition.

No matter which you do first and second.

And it won't be "1 big hard drive"
It will still be a C and D drive.
Whichever OS you select to boot into will be the C. The 'other one' will be the D.


Your main problem is the hassle it is to disconnect/remove the NVMe when not needed.
A hassle we all face.

 

[Kalik212]

Again...if some other drive is connected, especially if it already has an OS on it, the boot partitions WILL be merged into one.
Not the OS, just the boot partition.

No matter which you do first and second.

And it won't be "1 big hard drive"
It will still be a C and D drive.
Whichever OS you select to boot into will be the C. The 'other one' will be the D.

I understand that part...so if I disconnect the SATA drive in the future, that means my NVMe will then become the C drive but the NVMe and its contents will remain intact?

 

[USAFRet]

I understand that part...so if I disconnect the SATA drive in the future, that means my NVMe will then become the C drive but the NVMe and its contents will remain intact?

If it boots from the OS on the NVMe, that will be the "C drive".
If it boots from the OS on the SATA drive, that will be the "C drive".

 

[Kalik212]

If it boots from the OS on the NVMe, that will be the "C drive".
If it boots from the OS on the SATA drive, that will be the "C drive".

I'm asking because when I removed the SATA drive my NVMe would no longer boot and needed to be repaired causing me to do a reformat on it

 

[USAFRet]

I'm asking because when I removed the SATA drive my NVMe would no longer boot and needed to be repaired causing me to do a reformat on it

Right.
And that is a result of having BOTH drives connected when you installed the second OS.

As said above, the boot partition for the second OS got merged with the boot partition of the original install.

Not something you chose or can avoid.

That would happen installing the OSs in either order.

This is why you want only ONE drive physically connected during the install. The boot partition has no option but to be on the same drive.