Hard drive upgrade

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  1. Posts : 11,062
    Windows 10 Pro version 22H2 0n one desktop and running Window 11 Pro 22H2 on unsupported desktop
       #1

    Hard drive upgrade


    I have an older Sandy Bridge build and currently have a Samsung 850 EVO ste as the C: drive and was wondering if anyone could advise me on whether an adaptor as in the pic would take an M2 NVMe drive that I could just bolt onto a system tray in the machine to get a little more boot speed out of it.
    Any Advice really appreciated.
    Hard drive upgrade-nvme.png
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  2. Posts : 4,480
    several
       #2

    There are 2 ways to boot from nvme with older systems.

    1. Bios upgrade that supports nvme

    2. Clover boot manager on a usb stick.

    With either of the above a pcie to nvme adapter can be used.

    My old sandy/ivybridge motherboard supports nvme boot because of a bios upgrade.


    What is the exact make and model of the motherboard?
    Last edited by SIW2; 21 Jan 2022 at 17:46.
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  3. Posts : 4,453
    Win 11 Pro 22000.708
       #3

    That appears to be an M.2 to SATA adapter. I didn't realize that they exist. I'm confused as to whether it takes PCI-E or SATA cards. M.2 - Wikipedia It has the 5 contacts of a PCI-E card, but they seem to be on the wrong side of the slot.) A SATA interface could be a bottleneck for PCI-E M.2 cards.

    It'd be normal with a PCI-E card to use a PCI-E slot adapter. Example: GLOTRENDS M.2 PCIe NVMe 4.0/3.0 Adapter with 0.12 Inch Thick M.2 Heatsink for M.2 PCIe SSD (NVMe and AHCI), PCI-E GEN4 Full Speed, Desktop PC Installation (PA09-HS) - Newegg.com

    The problem is that a PC that old probably cannot boot from an NVME drive. Nearly all M.2 PCI-E drives now available are NVME. There are work-arounds for that, like installing a hacked BIOS (with the NVME drivers added), or using a utility that ahs already been mentioned (Clover) that loads NVME drivers from a USB stick at startup. I cannot recommend either.

    The most practical solution is to get a 2.5" SATA SSD. That'll give you a good speedup for some purposes (like startup), and doesn't require you to perform any heroics to boot the PC from it.

    Better yet, get rid of that ancient Sandy Bridge system and get a newer one that accepts NVME M.2 cards natively. (It could still be a used system. NVME M.2 cards have been available for a few years.)
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  4. Posts : 4,480
    several
       #4

    The OP is already using a sata ssd on that machine.

    No "heroics" are required to boot on my lga1155 motherboard.
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  5. Posts : 11,062
    Windows 10 Pro version 22H2 0n one desktop and running Window 11 Pro 22H2 on unsupported desktop
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Yes Bob mate I cannot afford to replace the machine and I am running a Linux distro on it right now - it just takes so long to boot and SIW I will have to check the BIOS to see if it can support NVME drives as it has the old legacy type BIOS - the board being a Gigabyte GA-H67A-UD3H-B3.
    I will just Google that to see if it does.
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  6. Posts : 4,453
    Win 11 Pro 22000.708
       #6

    SIW2 said:
    The OP is already using a sata ssd on that machine.

    No "heroics" are required to boot on my lga1155 motherboard.
    A little hyperbole, perhaps. I've never used Clover. I might find it tolerable.

    If "icit2lol" already is running an SSD on the PC in question, why is this discussion occurring? For most purposes, going from a SATA SSD to an NVME one may not give a perceptible improvement (outside of benchmarks).

    The latest BIOS listed for the motherboard is here: GA-H67A-UD3H-B3 (rev. 1.1) Support | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global Version F8, from 2012. No mention of NVME support. It may be possible to hack it to add the NVME drivers, but it's outside my experience.

    I still think it'd be wrong headed to add an NVME drive using a SATA adapter. PCI-E would be much preferable, assuming that a PCI-E X4 (or X8 or X16) slot is available.
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  7. Posts : 4,480
    several
       #7

    Because he asked.
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  8. Posts : 11,062
    Windows 10 Pro version 22H2 0n one desktop and running Window 11 Pro 22H2 on unsupported desktop
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Yes I think it is because I am using Linux Mint on the machine at the moment to see what it is like and while Windows boots in just over a minute the Linux takes over two minutes and maybe something to do with the boot section of the system. Like I said I am only trying Linux for when Windows 10 goes bung in 2025?
    As for the drive I shall not bother trying out the NVME drive setup even though it would be reasonably cheap to setup.
    But thanks for your inputs folks.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 4,453
    Win 11 Pro 22000.708
       #9

    SIW2 said:
    Because he asked.
    My apologies. I missed that.

    I may have assumed that no one running a good SATA SSD as a boot drive on an old system would be trying to upgrade it further.

    Or, I may have confused it with one of the other threads from this poster.

    Incidentally, the fastest booting system I own is a cheap Lenovo laptop which I swapped a 500GB Samsung SATA SSD into. (Don't recall the model.) My two desktop PCs, one of which has a PCI-E 4.0 NVME drive (in a supported AMD X570) motherboard doesn't boot quite as quickly.
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  10. Posts : 5,048
    Windows 10/11 Pro x64, Various Linux Builds, Networking, Storage, Cybersecurity Specialty.
       #10

    Just chiming in...

    There is no NVMe to SATA adapter available to my knowledge, except for very specific electronic configurations.
    I have been looking for a M.2 NVMe to SATA-3 adapter in order to use my 2TB Toshiba cSSD-XG5-P for well over a year.

    No luck. Please prove me wrong!

      My Computer


 

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