Question about a second M2 SSD socket in my laptop

kmint · 17 Dec 2021

I got this new laptop Teclast Tbolt 20 Pro and it has a M2 SSD SATA disk which is fine but I have a faster M2 NVMe Kingston A200 which reaches 2000 MB/s read/write speed while the other is Teclast brand and reaches only 500 MB/s or less.

I tried to interchange them but the SATA socket makes it impossible. However there is a second socket which says that it admits NVMe as I show in the screenshot.

My question is if I can use the second socket as my only one or primary one with W10 and take the other one out?

Thanks.

Question about a second M2 SSD socket in my laptop-sin-titulo-1.png

Samuria · 17 Dec 2021

Both thos speeds seem slow the Teclast is only running same speed as ssd drive a200 should be reaching speeds of 3500 You need to check the MB manual often a m2 kills a sata port only the manual can tell you the option for 2 drives. Have you got the right setting for the drives BIOS/UEFI Configuration for Optimizing M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs | Crucial.com

selden · 17 Dec 2021

@kmint

The laptop should be able to boot from an NVMe system disk, but please don't plug bootable disks into both the NVMe slot and the SATA slot at the same time. This can confuse Windows 10 so that it does not do what you want. In principle the computer could be made to "dual-boot" from either disk, but I don't recommend that. Many people have problems with dual-boot computers.

I suggest the following:
1. get a USB-to-NVMe/SATA M.2 adapter/enclosure, so that either one of the M.2 disks can used as an external disk.
Here's an example Sabrent USB 3.2 Type-C Tool-Free Enclosure for M.2 PCIe NVMe and SATA SSDs (EC-SNVE) | EC-SNVE
(I have no personal experience with this type of device.)
2. put the NVMe disk in the external enclosure and clone the internal SATA disk to it.
3. swap system disks: remove the internal SATA disk, insert the new internal NVMe system disk; boot your now fast system
Then, when you're sure the new configuration is working well
4. put the old SATA M.2 disk into the USB enclosure and reinitialize it to have just a single, empty, "simple" partition. Its boot blocks need to be *wiped* so the laptop won't try to boot from it.
5. put the old SATA M.2 disk back inside the laptop and use it as a data disk.

@Samuria Please note that the laptop is described as having one SATA M.2 and one NVMe M.2. Not all M.2 interfaces use NVMe. The speeds mentioned are appropriate for those interfaces: SATA 3 is limited to about 500MB/sec, while 2000MB/sec is reasonable for an inexpensive NVMe v3 disk plugged into a 4-lane socket. (An expensive disk would get somewhat over 3000 MB/sec.)

NavyLCDR · 17 Dec 2021

selden said:

@kmint

The laptop should be able to boot from an NVMe system disk, but please don't plug bootable disks into both the NVMe slot and the SATA slot at the same time. This can confuse Windows 10 so that it does not do what you want.

To be completely blunt, this is hogwash. The computer will boot from the SSD that has the EFI system partition on it. It will load the OS that the BCD contained on the EFI system partition tells it to load. My other laptop, not the one I am posting from now, has 1 M.2 NVMe slot and one 2.5" SATA port. I have an SSD connected to both. Because the EFI system partition is on the NVMe drive, and the OS partition is also on the NVMe drive, that is what the computer boots from, and the drive from which the OS operates.

Although, to be fair, you did say "bootable disks", however, booting and OS loading can still be controlled by BIOS settings and the contents of the BCD file on the EFI system partition. Windows 10 cannot be confused, only the human user can be.

The laptop I am currently posting from has 2 NVMe M.2 slots. Both SSDs are bootable. My laptop boots from the second M.2 slot normally and loads the OS from the same SSD. The bootable partition on the SSD in the first M.2 slot is a custom recovery partition and the computer only boots from it when I tell it to.

selden · 17 Dec 2021

Unfortunately I've read threads here where people have spent many days trying to determine why their computers booting from the "wrong" disks. Not everyone is as intimate with their boot partitions as you are.

NavyLCDR · 18 Dec 2021

kmint said:

My question is if I can use the second socket as my only one or primary one with W10 and take the other one out?

Thanks.

Yes, you can have both SSDs connected at the same time. Use the NVMe as your system disk. Use the SATA for data file storage and/or backup drive.

kmint · 18 Dec 2021

@Samuria @selden @NavyLCDR thank you very much!!

- - - Updated - - -

OK I installed Windows 11 in the NVMe and removed the SATA out of the laptop.

Now it runs faster and I notice it clearly.

But... how can I format the SATA without an external case?

If I install both, there will be two booting Windows, right? Can I choose to boot from the NVMe and from there to format the SATA?

NavyLCDR · 18 Dec 2021

kmint said:

@Samuria @selden @NavyLCDR thank you very much!!

- - - Updated - - -

OK I installed Windows 11 in the NVMe and removed the SATA out of the laptop.

Now it runs faster and I notice it clearly.

But... how can I format the SATA without an external case?

If I install both, there will be two booting Windows, right? Can I choose to boot from the NVMe and from there to format the SATA?

Yes.

kmint · 18 Dec 2021

NavyLCDR said:

Yes.

Thank you very much again, it went all flawless.