[SOLVED] fitting bootable SSD on PCI to ASUS M5A88-V EVO motherboard

EmmaDobozi

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I would like to add a SSD for the boot partition to my older motherboard, to improve speed.
I use Win7 64, but I wish to upgrade to Win10.
My ASUS M5A88-V does not have an M.2 interface.
I am wondering if a PCIe adapter would work : SSD should be the boot partiton.

The BIOS version is 1701 (AMI) ; it seems that this has not UEFI (but I know only very few things -- I made some search, but do not fully understand the implications).
Chipset on ASUS M5A88-V is : AMD 880G/SB850

Please kindly help me !
Emma
 
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Solution
Highly unlikely.
Unless there is a specific BIOS update that adds this functionality, it will NOT work.

And there does not appear to be:

Just put in a SATA III SSD, 2.5" format. That WILL work, and on a board that old, you'll not see any actual performance difference vs an NVMe drive.

EmmaDobozi

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I already made an inquiry with ASUS, but their support gave me a non-answer.
They told : if the MB will recognize the adapter well, it might work !!

Shall I specifically ask about UEFI support (whatever this might be) ?

I am attracted to the M.2 because speed figures look like more than 5 times better than on SATA 3.
 
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USAFRet

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What size SSD?
How much space is consumed on your current C drive?


-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------
 
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EmmaDobozi

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My actual C: is 100 GB, of which about 30 GB is used. Only that C: is a boot partition on a HDD with 2 more partitions, on a HDD 640 GB.

The SSD has a size of 256 GB ; my choice was Samsung 860 PRO, as I got it at (short time) discounted price. It was expensive even so, but I do not intend to make more hardware upgrades and told myself that TBW could count. Maybe it is not a winning strategy ...

I will follow the steps you described, using Samsung soft. I am thankful for your kindness ! you really helped me a lot !
 

USAFRet

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Moderator
The warranty TBW of the 860 EVO is 150TBW
For the 860 PRO, 300TBW.

For comparison, all 7 drives in my system, some of them going back to 2014 in almost 24/7 use, add up to around 80TBW.

Unless you're running a data center off it, you'll never see that number in regular consumer use. It will age out of warranty long before it "wears out".
 
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