[SOLVED] If you install an M.2 drive does it take the role of disk 0 only when windows is installed on it, or disk 0 by default?

iTRiP

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As the tread title asks, I would like to know this before I get to this point in my pc configuration and setup installation.

Or do you have to specify in the bios what role the M.2 drive is going to take?
 
Solution
This also depends on the motherboard in question. On my z370 Gaming Plus the NVMe slot (only drive installed during Windows install) is Disk 1. Later when I added my 5TB HDD it showed as Disk 0.

Note that this has no bearing on what is the first boot drive or anything - it's just a label.
D

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By making sure the nvme drive is the only one plugged in when you install windows will determine what disc zero is
 

iTRiP

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By making sure the nvme drive is the only one plugged in when you install windows will determine what disc zero is

You select the drive you want to boot Windows from in the BIOS.


Alright that makes sense, Reason I'm asking is because I got confused when I recently had two HDD's only installed and had not made any disconnected,
I removed my SSD witch was disk 0 at the time and the other two drives "remained" disk 1 and disk 2 as seen in windows setup or disk management.

Then when I installed windows on disk 1 it automatically became disk 0 and disk 2 became disk 1.

Now I'm planning on installing an M.2 and an additional SSD along with two HDD's and the result I want to achieve would be like thus: M.2= Disk 0, SSD =Disk 1, HDD's =Disk 2 & 3.

Each obviously with their own partitions. And I was hoping to do this without disconnecting any drives in order to keep track of all partitions and their respective roles when in the windows setup.
 
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To my understanding the roles of drives to determine their disk number identification remains with with the way one has them plugged into the motherboard.
Yup the mobo has the numbers printed beside the ports.

BUT you can also get into bios and change the disk order, whatever disk you put on top of the list will appear as disk 0 no matter on which port it's connected at.
 
This also depends on the motherboard in question. On my z370 Gaming Plus the NVMe slot (only drive installed during Windows install) is Disk 1. Later when I added my 5TB HDD it showed as Disk 0.

Note that this has no bearing on what is the first boot drive or anything - it's just a label.
 
Solution

adelio

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By making sure the nvme drive is the only one plugged in when you install windows will determine what disc zero is
My rule has always been when installing windows removed any other hard drives, ssd and then install windows on the single HDD, The reason is that I had issues long ago where even though i installed windows on the C drive it then also used the other hard drive for other stuff, meaning i could not remove it because windows was using it
 

iTRiP

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Feb 4, 2019
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My rule has always been when installing windows removed any other hard drives, ssd and then install windows on the single HDD, The reason is that I had issues long ago where even though i installed windows on the C drive it then also used the other hard drive for other stuff, meaning i could not remove it because windows was using it

Oh, As far as I know windows setup custom installation doesn't do that anymore, more than free to keep all drives in the pc when installing OS without running into such a problem, one just has to keep track of all partitions and disk volume numbers.