Question Moving OS drive to a new M.2 slot?

[tyler53121]

Hi, I have an ASUS B550-F Gaming (which has 2 M.2 slots, slot 1 one is PCIe 4.0 compatible, slot 2 is PCIe 3.0 compatible). I currently have my OS (windows 11) saved on a locked SSD in on slot 1 its a SATA M.2-2280. The drive is only 120 GBs and I use it for the OS only and I had it in slot 1, slot 2 is currently empty. I am buying a 2 TB m.2 NVME Samsung pro to put games on but, its PCIe 4.0 so I need to move the 120gb SSD with the OS on it from M.2 slot 1 to M.2 slot 2 and put the new PCIe 4.0 SSD into slot 1. Do I need to take anything into consideration in doing this or will my machine automatically recognize that the hard drive with the OS on it has been moved to a new slot? (Do I need to change the boot order in the BIOS and how would I do this if I don't know what the drive is going to be before moving it?) I will note that I have 3 other drives, a SATA SSD thats only 240 GB, and two HDDs that total about 5 TB. Any help would be appreciated. Do I need to do anything with my windows activation?
I will be making a system restore backup, and I lose 2 SATA lines (5 and 6) by running both M.2 slots so I will need to make sure the 240GB drive is not on those (but, I will probably just ditch it).
link to build
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Philadoggo/saved/#view=mWBfpg

 

[Aeacus]

Relocate the OS drive.
After that, smash Del during POST to enter BIOS.
Take a look at boot priority. Might need to change that, whereby making your OS drive as #1 priority.

But overall, when MoBo tries to boot from a drive that doesn't have boot manager on it, MoBo moves on to the next in line in boot priority, until drive with boot manager is detected. So, you may not to change boot order at all.

Win activation doesn't care in which slot the OS drive is installed into.

 

[zinkles]

I am buying a 2 TB m.2 NVME Samsung pro to put games on but, its PCIe 4.0 so I need to move the 120gb SSD with the OS on it from M.2 slot 1 to M.2 slot 2 and put the new PCIe 4.0 SSD into slot 1.

FYI, just because its PCIe 4.0, doesn't mean you need to put it into a PCIe 4.0 slot for it to work. A 3.0 slot will also work, but with slower performance. Also, games wont see any performance difference between PCIe 3.0 & 4.0 speeds.

 

[Moonstick2]

If you're keeping the OS on the 120 GB drive and just want to move it, probably the safest thing to do is:
- Back up everything
- Shut down the computer and remove all drives except the OS.
- Reboot and check it works (at least as much as it can without the other drives).
- Shut down the computer and relocated the OS drive.
- Reboot and check it works. If there's a problem, use BIOS and inspect the boot menu.
- Once you can get it safely booting in the new location, shut down and reattach all the other drives.
- Reboot and check everything is okay. You might need to reassign drive letters using Disk Management maybe.