Why isn’t my M.2 SSD being recognized, and which PCIe adapter should I get?

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Asked By TechySteve42 On

Hey everyone, I recently upgraded my storage and got an M.2 SSD (Lexar NM790) since my motherboard's M.2 slot was unused. However, my MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX motherboard isn't recognizing the SSD at all. I've tried some troubleshooting steps but nothing seems to work. Instead of buying a new motherboard, I heard about PCIe adapters that might be a cheaper solution.

I know I need an NVMe-supported adapter, not SATA, but I'm a bit confused about my motherboard's PCIe specifications. It claims to support PCIe 2.0 x16, and I'm unsure if that will work well enough with the SSD.

So, what should I look for in a PCIe SSD adapter, and do you think my motherboard can handle it? Thanks for your help!

2 Answers

Answered By StorageWhiz99 On

If you're seriously considering an adapter, just make sure it's NVMe compatible! Your MSI motherboard does support PCIe 2.0 x16, but if you can get an adapter that uses a faster PCIe bus (like Gen3 or Gen4), that would be ideal for achieving better speeds. However, if your M.2 slot isn’t detecting the SSD, you might still have an issue even with the adapter. If initialization isn't working and BIOS doesn't see it either, I'd really recommend double-checking the SSD with another PC or using another SSD in your M.2 slot to identify if the issue lies with the motherboard or the drive.

Answered By GamerGal123 On

It sounds like your M.2 slot should technically support the drive, so if it's not showing up, you might need to check Disk Management to initialize it. But since you also mentioned that it's not detected in BIOS, there could be more at play – maybe a compatibility issue or a bad drive. Keep in mind, even if you use a PCIe adapter, if the M.2 slot isn't functioning, the adapter won't fix that issue. Also, since you're using a Gen4 SSD with a Gen3 M.2 slot, you'll be throttled back, and if you go through a PCIe Gen2 adapter, you're looking at possibly only 25% of its speed, which might still be better than your older SSD for gaming.

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