Nvme Hard Drives

A good friend just introduced me to this class hard drives which as far as I know is not compatible with windows in either form win 10 or win 11. Am I wrong about this are there any patches that would allow this memory to be used by an older operating system? As far as I know she also said it works with Linux too. True or false?

For those who don't know what I'm talking about NVME stands for non volatile memory. Basically think of an SSD that plugs directly into a PCI port. And it is much faster than say the SATA interface.

 

NVME drives work with Windows 11 for sure. My laptop came with one. Pretty sure they work with Win 10, not sure about older versions of Windows.

 

Whoa! There seems to be a lot of confusion over terminology here and in technical discussions, it is important all are on the same page with the correct terms to avoid confusion and misunderstandings.

Wendy specifically said "hard drives" and said it more than once suggesting it might be intentional. A "hard" drive has many moving parts; motors and spinning platters and a read/write head that moves back and forth across those spinning platters. Hard drive rely on magnetic fields to orient magnetic particles in patterns that represent "0s" and "1s". And while "hard" in this sense is a throwback term used to differentiate these storage devices from "floppy" disk drives, it still applies to differentiate them from SSDs too.

SSDs have no moving parts and use IC storage devices to store data.

So, while the materials used to construct SSDs are "hard", and while SSDs are not "soft" or floppy, they are not "hard" drives either. They are solid state drives or SSDs.

There is no such thing as an NVME "hard" drive. There are, however, NVME solid state drives, or SSDs. And yes, if the motherboard supports W10 and has the necessary M.2 port, it will support NVME SSDs.

Note that NVME is a "protocol" that uses the PCIe bus/interface for data transfer. Not all SSDs support NVME.

Ummm, sorry but no. That is not correct.

PCI is NOT to be confused with PCIe (PCI express). They are totally different computer interfaces. While they both use slot type connectors and look similar, they are not physically or electronically compatible - as seen here.

Not only that, NVME SSDs do NOT go in our computer's normal PCIe slot. They are inserted into a M.2 slot. They may look similar but again are different. See, M.2 vs PCIe SSDs: What’s the Difference?

Let me add this, the slowest SSD will run circles around the fastest hard drives and will greatly improve disk performance and nearly every aspect of your computing experience. So if you are used to traditional hard drives, even stepping up to a plain SATA SSD will yield amazing performance gains.

However, moving from SATA SSD to PCIe SSD to NVME SSDs will still yield performance gains, but they will be marginal gains in comparison to the gains going from hard drive to SATA SSD. Just something to keep in mind - especially when considering the budget.

Will my next computer use NVME SSD and M.2? Absolutely.

Would I consider upgrading this computer with its SATA SSDs to PCIe/M.2 to improve performance? No way.

Remember, disk performance only really matters (in terms of user perception booting the computer or while performing tasks) during disk "reads". Disk "writes" (saves) are typically done in the background. Once the file/application is read into RAM, the disk is no longer a factor in perceived performance. The vast majority of the data transfer/crunching at that point is happening between the CPU, RAM and graphics solution over the motherboard buses, not through the drive(s).

Clear as mud, huh?

 

https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Inte...qid=1739469870&sprefix=nv,aps,418&sr=8-3&th=1

 

Oh wow! Thanks for that, Wendy. Now I understand where you got that. Sadly, Amazon is wrong! Shame on Amazon!

If you visit the Samsung website for that SSD, you will not find "Hard Drive" anywhere in the description.

To make it even worse, look down on that Amazon page and note it says,

That's totally wrong too. Again, it is not a hard disk. And more importantly, it uses the PCIe Gen4 protocol through a M.2 interface connector. It does NOT use SATA.

And USB? Really?

As you correctly noted above (except for the PCI vs PCIe bit), this SSD uses PCIe which, as you noted, is faster than SATA. SATA supports up to 6GB/s. This PCIe M.2 SSD supports up to 7.45GB/s (7,450MB/s).

Sadly, I have seen many times where Amazon has incorrect descriptions for many items. That might be why if you return an item to Amazon, one of their predefined reasons we can opt to use is "Not as described on webpage" (or words to that affect).

Most Amazon pages even have a link, as that page does, to "Report an issue with this product or seller". I have on several occasions reported incorrect information and not once have I seen it corrected. So I have got into the habit of checking the manufacturer's webpage for items I am considering buying from Amazon. I recommend all do the same - at least when it comes to pricy high-tech items where compatibility is a major concern - as it is here.

Again, thanks for posting that link. This misunderstanding is all on Amazon!

 

I got my info from an IT professional who wants to use this drive in a Linux computer she's building for me. For my once a week/monthly backups I use a USB SSD to USB 3.0. So I will respectfully disagree. It is a SSD with a PCI interface. The problem I'm looking at is it doesn't seem to be supported by win10 or the MB BIOS.

 

I am confused as I am not sure what or even who you are disagreeing with here, Wendy. I showed you the Samsung site for that SSD. Are you disagreeing with Samsung too? The issue here is simply Amazon failing to post the correct product information for that drive.

First, let me say that's great you do weekly backups. I sure wish everyone was so diligent. Most don't do any backups. And of those who do, most don't do them near often enough. And sadly, many have never done a practice run to see if the backups are successful, and perhaps more importantly, to become familiar with the restore process BEFORE they actually need to do one.

I am not sure exactly what you mean by "USB SSD". I think there still might be some confusion of terms here.

If you make your backups of your SSD through USB (as I do) then you do so through some sort of USB "adaptor". That could be a card, a cable, docking station (which is what I use) or even an enclosure. Or perhaps via a standard USB port on your computer. Either way, the SSD itself does not have USB. It uses its SATA or PCIe interface and connects to a USB adaptor either directly, or through a hub integrated in your motherboard.

I assure you, Windows 10 supports SSDs and has from Day 1. I have 4 W10 computers here and all only have SSDs. And we have built dozens more, SATA and M.2 PCIe for clients.

"IF" your motherboard has a M.2 slot connector, then the motherboard's BIOS should support that M.2 drive too. There would be no other reason to put a M.2 slot connector on the motherboard. However, many older motherboards do not have a M.2 slot. If you post your exact motherboard make and model number, then surely someone here can help you verify compatibility.

Also, and again, there is a distinct difference between PCI and PCIe (PCI Express). I assure you, your SSD does NOT use PCI. As I showed above, PCI is totally different from PCIe. PCI was an interface commonly used WAY WAY BACK when the original PCs came out, years before the AGP graphics interface, which came out years before PCIe. PCI is almost completely obsolete these days and rarely used any more. And PCI definitely is not used for SSDs as PCI is just too slow an interface, even for regular hard disk drives - among other reasons.

I showed the difference between PCI and PCIe above. For more information, please see this, PCI vs PCIe | Direct Comparison Between Conventional Slots.

Also, please see: Difference between Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and Solid State Drive (SSD)

Please believe me when I say I am not trying to lead you astray here. Please see my Microsoft MVP Profile and decide for yourself if I might have a little knowledge and experience here. If you still don't believe me, ask your IT friend to clarify (show her this thread and my comments above) and I am sure she will agree that we are not talking about PCI. And SSDs are not "hard" drives either. And remember, Bing Google is our friend.

And last, again, this is about Amazon posting incorrect product information.

 

My experience dates back to the C64/C128, I liked the old 8 bit machines because they were comprehensible. I used to disassemble old 50 meg MFM drives and mix match parts for my BBS which ran on old 286 machines. I am somewhat acquainted with hard drives.bt SSD I mean Solid State Drives. Which I now use on all my current machines.