Replacing current slow SSD with two M.2s

[Aaralli]

Currently I have an Adata SU655 960Gb SSD in my system. The motherboard is an MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC. I want to replace that drive with two M.2 PCIe Gen 3 drives, both 2 terabytes. I have a few questions about this. For one, how do I know which SSD slot is the best one to have as my boot drive? Second, how do I install windows to one of the new drives and keep the windows license key that I had before? I don't really care about cloning my old drive or anything. I have everything backed up and I'll just reinstall the rest as needed. Finally, how do I remove any boot sectors or windows files from my current drive so I can reuse it in my system?

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Aaralli said:

For one, how do I know which SSD slot is the best one to have as my boot drive?

Easiest way is to put one ssd in, install windows, then put the second drive in.

 

3 minutes ago, Aaralli said:

how do I install windows to one of the new drives and keep the windows license key that I had before?

Nowmally the key is tied to you board so you don't have to do anything, otherwise just use the same key again

 

4 minutes ago, Aaralli said:

Finally, how do I remove any boot sectors or windows files from my current drive so I can reuse it in my system?

Id just reformat it, but you can remove the efi partition if you don't want to reformat.

[Kavamale21]

basicaly you can do fresh install and then windows request just call to microsoft shoud solve it. if its not writen in manual probably i would be closest to cpu socket slot. best to delete windows boot sectors probably get linux booted from usb and use partitioner included. windows for awhyle put restriction on deleting system partitions or 3rd party partitioner shoud do the job

[CommanderAlex]

3 minutes ago, Aaralli said:

For one, how do I know which SSD slot is the best one to have as my boot drive?

M.2_1 (closest to the CPU socket) will be the fastest SSD slot as it will be using PCIe lanes off of the CPU. M.2_2 (furthest from the CPU socket) will be the 2nd fastest as it will be running through the chipset on your motherboard.

 

4 minutes ago, Aaralli said:

Second, how do I install windows to one of the new drives and keep the windows license key that I had before?

Just reinstall as normal and reenter the product key. The product key is assigned to the motherboard and not the drive. 

 

5 minutes ago, Aaralli said:

Finally, how do I remove any boot sectors or windows files from my current drive so I can reuse it in my system?

If you do not care about any other files on this drive, when you are in the process of reinstalling Windows, you can select which drive to use and you can format the drive, which will end up wiping the drive. I would only have the M.2_1 SSD installed first to determine which SSD is what on the system to install Windows to. Once Windows is installed, shut it down and install the 2nd SSD in M.2_1. You'll have to go into Disk Management to format and partition the 2nd drive. 

[JamesTheFolf]

4 minutes ago, Aaralli said:

Currently I have an Adata SU655 960Gb SSD in my system. The motherboard is an MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC. I want to replace that drive with two M.2 PCIe Gen 3 drives, both 2 terabytes. I have a few questions about this. For one, how do I know which SSD slot is the best one to have as my boot drive? Second, how do I install windows to one of the new drives and keep the windows license key that I had before? I don't really care about cloning my old drive or anything. I have everything backed up and I'll just reinstall the rest as needed. Finally, how do I remove any boot sectors or windows files from my current drive so I can reuse it in my system?

I'd make the top M.2 slot your boot drive cause it's closer to the cpu so it could run a little faster.

 

You can link your windows key to your windows account, and then on your new drive sign back in and it should sync, you can find more about that here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/reactivating-windows-10-after-a-hardware-change-2c0e962a-f04c-145b-6ead-fb3fc72b6665

 

Just reformat the old ssd, and it should be good.

[Aaralli]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Easiest way is to put one ssd in, install windows, then put the second drive in.

Thanks for the answer to all this, although for this particular question, I meant which physical SSD slot on the motherboard is best for the boot drive? 

[Aaralli]

3 minutes ago, Kavamale21 said:

basicaly you can do fresh install and then windows request just call to microsoft shoud solve it. if its not writen in manual probably i would be closest to cpu socket slot. best to delete windows boot sectors probably get linux booted from usb and use partitioner included. windows for awhyle put restriction on deleting system partitions or 3rd party partitioner shoud do the job

 

3 minutes ago, SpiderMan said:

M.2_1 (closest to the CPU socket) will be the fastest SSD slot as it will be using PCIe lanes off of the CPU. M.2_2 (furthest from the CPU socket) will be the 2nd fastest as it will be running through the chipset on your motherboard.

 

Just reinstall as normal and reenter the product key. The product key is assigned to the motherboard and not the drive. 

 

If you do not care about any other files on this drive, when you are in the process of reinstalling Windows, you can select which drive to use and you can format the drive, which will end up wiping the drive. I would only have the M.2_1 SSD installed first to determine which SSD is what on the system to install Windows to. Once Windows is installed, shut it down and install the 2nd SSD in M.2_1. You'll have to go into Disk Management to format and partition the 2nd drive. 

 

3 minutes ago, jrhaberland said:

I'd make the top M.2 slot your boot drive cause it's closer to the cpu so it could run a little faster.

 

You can link your windows key to your windows account, and then on your new drive sign back in and it should sync, you can find more about that here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/reactivating-windows-10-after-a-hardware-change-2c0e962a-f04c-145b-6ead-fb3fc72b6665

 

Just reformat the old ssd, and it should be good.

Thanks to all of you for the information, I now know what to do and I'm really grateful. Any other tips or tricks you can think of that would be helpful, just in case?

[JamesTheFolf]

1 minute ago, Aaralli said:

 

 

Thanks to all of you for the information, I now know what to do and I'm really grateful. Any other tips or tricks you can think of that would be helpful, just in case?

If you don't know how to use the m.2 shield, you can watch this video:

 

[CommanderAlex]

1 minute ago, Aaralli said:

Thanks to all of you for the information, I now know what to do and I'm really grateful. Any other tips or tricks you can think of that would be helpful, just in case?

The only other thing I can suggest possibly is ,which should be obvious, is to install your drivers from the motherboard's support page.