Replace SSD with M.2 on MSI Z170A Gaming M7

[nazareneisrael]

I am new at building PCs. I read a lot, but want to confirm. I want to replace my existing SSD with a Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe SSD on an MSI Z170 Gaming M7 motherboard. Do I ideally install the M.2 NVMe, and then run the Samsung Migration Utility to move Windows to the SSD? And then change the boot order in the BIOS? And then remove the old SSD? Is it really that simple, or are there other issues? Thanks.

 

[jay32267]

It should be that simple. Although after you clone the old drive....I would remove the old drive before you go into the BIOS to set the boot order to the new drive. There seems to be greater success doing it this way. Then, once it boots to the new drive and you know all is straight in the BIOS....add the old drive.

 

[nazareneisrael]

Perfect. Thanks.
By the way, is any particular slot best? Or no difference?

 

[jay32267]

If you mean M2 slot....I'd look at the MB manual....there can be differences between M2 slots on the same motherboard.

 

[nazareneisrael]

jay32267, good suggestion. There are 2 M.2 NVMe slots. The manual says, "The M2_1 slot (lower slot) will only run PCIe 3.0 x 2 speed when (the) PCI_E4 slot is installed with a PCIe x1 device at the same time." That PCI slot is empty (and I wouldn't put anything there because it would obstruct flow to the GPU fans), but it is very good to know.

 

[J_E_D_70]

Can I ask what the goal is? Moving from a good sata3 ssd to nvme isn’t normally noticable in general use and gaming.

I went from an 850 evo to 960 evo and am not impressed. If I could go back would get a 1tb 860 in m.2 form for the same price.

 

[nazareneisrael]

Champion, good question. The need is to run vMix, which is a PC based video switcher for capture and editing. The goal is to forestall a new build, if possible. If I can speed this mobo up then I don't need a new machine just yet. I read in several places that NVMe is much faster than SATA SSD. Maybe that's is not right? But this is the first I have heard that M.2 NVMe storage isn't noticeably faster than SATA3.

 

[J_E_D_70]

It might be faster for a specific function like that. Worth a shot!

 

[nazareneisrael]

It should be that simple. Although after you clone the old drive....I would remove the old drive before you go into the BIOS to set the boot order to the new drive. There seems to be greater success doing it this way. Then, once it boots to the new drive and you know all is straight in the BIOS....add the old drive.

I tried to follow your instructions. I inserted the new NVMe drive and installed the NVMe driver. Then I cloned the drive with Samsung Migration utility. Then I unplugged the old drive, and dragged and dropped the NVMe drive to be first in the boot order. Startup was super quick. Then I shut down, and replugged the old Samsung SATA drive, and rebooted. It came up super quick again, but Disk Management says Disk 2 (NVMe) is offline. I mouse over the Info ? and it says, "The disk (NVMe) is offline because it has a signature collision with another disk that is online." So I look, and C:\ is still the old SATA drive.

I want to format the old SSD, and repurpose it as a video capture drive. But it sounds like the new drive is offline? I am a little confused, because it came up quick like the boot drive was NVMe, but C:\ shows the size of the old SATA drive. How can I format the old SATA SSD when Disk Management considers my new drive to be offline?