M2 SSD Causing HDD to disappear

Callum85 · 13 Feb 2021 at 16:44

I got a new PC from OC last month, this one. It didn't cross my mind at the time to add an M2 SSD drive but after reading about them I thought that would be a quick and simple thing for me to add. I bought one of these - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0c-hd-56l-wd.html and I've been trying to install it today.

I installed it and the M2 drive works fine at first glance. However I noticed my HDD had disappeared. I read that M2 can/will disable SATA ports on the motherboard so I moved it around to another port. However it was the same issue - M2 is there but the HDD is not. If I remove the M2 drive then the HDD appears. I eventually moved the HDD so it was connected to the SATA port directly beside the one my SSD that Windows is installed on. This time when I booted up I couldn't even gets Windows to boot and going into the BIOS the only drive showing was the M2 drive. It almost feels like the M2 drive is following the HDD around the board!

I'm completely confused as to what is going wrong or what I've done wrong. I've added extra SSD/HDDs to PCs before without any problems but this is my first experience with M2 so I'm probably best described as a bumbling amateur(!) so any help/advice would be great appreciated.

jellybeard999 · 13 Feb 2021 at 18:08

Which motherboard are you using?

Callum85 · 14 Feb 2021 at 11:27

jellybeard999 said:
Which motherboard are you using?

Its a B450 Aorus Elite.

I'm placing the M2 drive into the M2B_SOCKET on the motherboard.

Zeeflyboy · 14 Feb 2021 at 11:34

From your manual:

Any reason you aren't using M2A? M2B only supports up to pcie x2 and disables two of the Sata ports (so you probably managed to move from one disabled port to another). M2A only knocks out ASATA (slower and slightly higher latency) sockets and doesn't have the x2 limitation.

Gunslinger · 14 Feb 2021 at 20:38

yeah i'd say Zeeflyboy has nailed that one, i've seen this so many times with clashed usage causing things to "disappear" also the incorrect selection of socket as said can cause serious losses in available speed, you have to be very careful these days with shared resources, especially on lower end boards where they sometimes seem to do more of it.

What SATA socket(s) did you have the HDD plugged into ? and which one is your windows SSD connected to?