[SOLVED] How do I configure M.2 ssd as boot?

[swanepoellukas5]

So I plan on getting an ssd soon cause they're especially affordable nowadays, including NVMe's. The one I'm eyeballing is the HP ex900 500gb NVMe. How do I configure it as boot drive? My mobo is a ASrock b250m-hdv and my only drive is a WD 2tb hdd. What I had in mind was to use the ssd for all the software(maybe 1 or 2 games) and the hdd as silo storage for all the media(music, pictures, movies, games). Let me know if you need more info. Thanks for any help

 

[NightHawkRMX]

You would simply install the SSD and it should be detected in bios. You would have to install windows on it or clone your other drive to the SSD and return to the BIOS. In the BIOS you can then set the M.2 as a primary boot drive.

 

[Karadjgne]

The only thing you need to lookup in your user manual is exactly which ports are disabled on the motherboard when using a m.2 drive. You only have (usually 6) a certain amount usable, so plugging in a m.2 is exactly no different than plugging in a regular Sata drive, takes up at least 1 port. This is only important as far as knowing where your HDD is located, so both will show up in bios. Then use cloning software to swap the info, or just have the m.2 plugged in, install a fresh copy of windows, plug in the hdd, copy over any documents or other important data, format the hdd and reinstall any games/software so that the registry is setup correctly for both drives.

 

[swanepoellukas5]

Wait, so let me see if I have this right, unplug hdd, plug in ssd, i stall windows on ssd, configure it as main bootdrive, plug hdd back in, format it. That sound right? Another thing, do I have to reinstall ALL of the games on my hdd, or is that simply if I want them on the ssd. Also, errr, how do I format the hdd? Do I do it in windows? Is as simple as go to "this pc", right click on the hdd on say format?

 

[Karadjgne]

Right now everything you installed is on one drive, so everything is setup in the registry under C drive. Now you'll have 2 drives, with saved games, steam main files, etc on C but the actual game files, long term storage, associated other stuff will be on D (hdd). If you pdid a straight swap and only had the one drive, the clone would be best, but having 2 drives, the pc will not find anything, bunch of dead ends, missing files etc.

So yes, you'll need to reinstall all the software, you'll install anything you want on hdd, but it'll automatically link and install anything it needs (like drivers etc) on C. That way when you click on the shortcut to start the game, it does all the linking with windows, drivers, game files, steam, etc between the 2 drives.

When doing a fresh install of windows, you only want the OS drive plugged in. If you have both, windows will seperate to install partially on both, which is a pain to fix. You want windows as an OS in one spot, it'll find D all by itself later without being attached to it.

Once windows is in, you hook up the hdd and boot. Since both now contain a bootable OS, just pick the ssd when it asks. Then you can transfer anything in documents, downloads or anything else that's a loose file, like emails etc from the hdd to the same folder on the ssd.

When you've moved everything that you want to keep, and double checked, and checked again, go to windows start/search and type in hard disk partitions. Then follow the wizard to partition the hdd as a single, simple drive. This will remove everything like a format would, but will also reset the hdd so it's just storage and not a boot drive.