Question SSD compatibility question

[mekyle99]

Hello. I have a ASRock Z370 Pro 4 motherboard. My friend linked me an internal SSD to use for a decent price.

https://www.newegg.com/intel-1tb-67...N82E16820167474&SoldByNewegg=1&quicklink=true

Would this work on my motherboard? I do not trust myself to make these judgements, as they have always freaked me out.

Thank you.

 

[Lafong]

Below is a paste of your motherboard's storage specs.

Looks OK to me.

- 2 x Ultra M.2 Sockets (M2_1 and M2_2), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)**

*If M2_1 is occupied by a SATA-type M.2 device, SATA_5 will be disabled.
If M2_2 is occupied by a SATA-type M.2 device, SATA_0 will be disabled.

 

[mekyle99]

Below is a paste of your motherboard's storage specs.

Looks OK to me.

- 2 x Ultra M.2 Sockets (M2_1 and M2_2), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)**

*If M2_1 is occupied by a SATA-type M.2 device, SATA_5 will be disabled.
If M2_2 is occupied by a SATA-type M.2 device, SATA_0 will be disabled.

Is it just one of those things where I can plug it in and its good to go?

 

[Lafong]

Is it just one of those things where I can plug it in and its good to go?

It won't be formatted.

It won't have partitions.

You will need that tiny tiny tiny screw to tie the end of the drive down onto your motherboard. Do you have it? If not, you have a problem. Those screws are provided with the motherboard, NOT with the drive.

Note that it will disable one of your SATA ports...that may not matter at all in your case.

What you should do depends on your intentions.

Do you want to put Windows and installed applications on this drive?

Or do you simply want to use it for storage, not Windows and not installed applications?

 

[mekyle99]

It won't be formatted.

It won't have partitions.

You will need that tiny tiny tiny screw to tie the end of the drive down onto your motherboard. Do you have it? If not, you have a problem. Those screws are provided with the motherboard, NOT with the drive.

Note that it will disable one of your SATA ports...that may not matter at all in your case.

What you should do depends on your intentions.

Do you want to put Windows and installed applications on this drive?

Or do you simply want to use it for storage, not Windows and not installed applications?

Well ideally I would like to transfer my entire HDD's contents onto that drive to the point where I'd have no point in using my HDD anymore. I've had it about 8 years now and is beyond slow now. I wouldn't mind the second option if the first is far too much effort however, as the only time the load speeds are a real pain is in gaming, in which I would just install games to the SSD.

 

[Lafong]

Do you have that screw? Yes or no.

I am guessing your current HDD has Windows and installed applications on it now. Maybe not.

If it does, you can transfer "everything" from the HDD to the SSD by either cloning or imaging. Most popular application for that would be Macrium Reflect Free Edition. There are others that will work as well.

Success rate high, but not infallible. If that fails, you would have to do a clean install of Windows.

 

[mekyle99]

Do you have that screw? Yes or no.

I am guessing your current HDD has Windows and installed applications on it now. Maybe not.

If it does, you can transfer "everything" from the HDD to the SSD by either cloning or imaging. Most popular application for that would be Macrium Reflect Free Edition. There are others that will work as well.

Or you can just do a clean Windows install onto the new drive. Your choice.

Sorry, missed your screw question. I'd have to answer that a bit later today i'm afraid, currently not at my home.

If I were to clone/image it, would that be all I have to do? I'm assuming there would have to be some BIOS settings changed to get it to boot from that drive right?

 

[Lafong]

Sorry, missed your screw question. I'd have to answer that a bit later today i'm afraid, currently not at my home.

If I were to clone/image it, would that be all I have to do? I'm assuming there would have to be some BIOS settings changed to get it to boot from that drive right?

You shouldn't have to change anything in the BIOS.

If you clone.....disconnect the source drive immediately after the clone is done. Then attempt to boot with only the new drive connected. It will or it won't.

If you image....that's a two step process. 1; Make an image file and then 2 restore it. You make the image file and save it on some other drive, maybe external. You shut down, remove the old drive, install the new drive. Then boot the PC using a previously prepared USB flash drive containing Macrium recovery media. Navigate to the image file you made. Use menus to tell Macrium to restore that image file to the new drive.

I usually use imaging for the job, but cloning can work. Either can fail. Be prepared to do a clean install if you have to.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Would this work on my motherboard? I do not trust myself to make these judgements, as they have always freaked me out.

It would work.
But this is QLC drive. Has very limited write cycles. That's why it's so cheap.

Choose something better. Samsung 970 evo - for example.

 

[mekyle99]

You shouldn't have to change anything in the BIOS.

If you clone.....disconnect the source drive immediately after the clone is done. Then attempt to boot with only the new drive connected. It will or it won't.

If you image....that's a two step process. 1; Make an image file and then 2 restore it. You make the image file and save it on some other drive, maybe external. You shut down, remove the old drive, install the new drive. Then boot the PC using a previously prepared USB flash drive containing Macrium recovery media. Navigate to the image file you made. Use menus to tell Macrium to restore that image file to the new drive.

I usually use imaging for the job, but cloning can work. Either can fail. Be prepared to do a clean install if you have to.

Okay awesome, yeah it really doesn't sound too complex. Appreciate the help man.

 

[mekyle99]

It would work.
But this is QLC drive. Has very limited write cycles. That's why it's so cheap.

Choose something better. Samsung 970 evo - for example.

I see. I was wondering why it was so cheap. Thanks for your input.