Solved NVMe drive Question

Winuser · Jul 31, 2023

Flashorn said:
Could you provide a screen of the original drive.

SIW2 · Jul 31, 2023

Beelink U59 review: an excellent budget mini PC

The good: Beautiful, neat and compact design. Licensed Windows 11 Pro Dual-channel memory Decent performance. Full of connectivity options. The bad: No SD or MicroSD card slot. The top side easily attracts scratches and figerprints. Beelink’s...

forum.xda-developers.com

The U59 features an m.2 2280 SATA SSD, which obviously lags behind those NVMe drives in high-end models such as the Beelink SER and Lenovo ThinkCentre, but is still faster than the eMMc or HDD in older and more basic models.

The review doesnt say the m.2 slot can support either sata or nvme, so presumably it can't.

I often use sata ssd. Outside of some specialist activities it is hard to tell the difference in real life use. The limitations of that machine are more to do with the cpu and igpu.

If there is only one ram stick, it might benefit by adding another for dual channel.

Flashorn · Jul 31, 2023

Winuser said:
I'll have to wait until I can get a change to take the Mini PC apart to take a pic. The old M.2 card has two slots and says SATA C. The Bios is very basic. It only shows what devices you can use to boot from. I went ahead and put the new drive in the Mini PC and tried to install Windows from my flash drive. The drive couldn't be found. I put the old drive back in and tried again. The old drive is seen but shows two partions with a size of 0. I was going to try a 2.5 HDD but I don't have any I can use. I don't know what happened to this Mini PC to cause two drives to mess up. On my USB HDD all of the folders lost the ownership and I couldn't open them. Luckily it was just a matter of taking ownership again. Neither drive shows in File explorer on my desktop using this enclosure I bought. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MNFH1PX?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Your drives might not be messed up but, simply not seen .
As I said, you might have to Format the drive and /or
initialise it in Disk Management.
This is why I asked if it is seen on another PC/notebook.

Winuser said:
The old M.2 card has two slots and says SATA

That would indicate that it is in fact a SATA drive. The C at the end might just be that it
indicates that it is your "C" drive but, not sure. I haven't seen it named that way else where either.
From what I can ascertain , the new drive is a PCIe Gen 3 drive and Not a SATA drive.
The link you posted for the external adapter is for a SATA drive and for PCIe drive so,
it should work with the new drive. This is why I asked to test it on another device.
From there , you can format if need be.

I have a T7 as storage via a C port and is seen as exFat in Disk management but, it also has a drive letter
assigned to it. When you plug in the new drive in the external enclosure, do you see it in Disk Management ?

Winuser · Jul 31, 2023

Flashorn said:
our drives might not be messed up but, simply not seen .
As I said, you might have to Format the drive and /or
initialise it in Disk Management.
This is why I asked if it is seen on another PC/notebook.

You where correct about the new drive needing to be initialized. Now I'm going to see if I can do anything with the old drive.

Flashorn · Jul 31, 2023

Winuser said:
You where correct about the new drive needing to be initialized. Now I'm going to see if I can do anything with the old drive.

The old drive has the OS on it ?
Do you have the Original OS it came with from the factory or where
you bought it?
I would not chance a backup at this point. The original OS will have
all the drivers needed for the PC to boot and work properly.

Winuser · Jul 31, 2023

The old drive showed up in file explorer for about a minute. I tried to access it but only got the spinning circle before it disappeared. It's also not showing in Disk Management. The only thing it doing is giving me the tone that I get when I plug in or unplug a USB Drive. I'm going to consider it toasted.

Flashorn · Jul 31, 2023

This is as close as I can get to your drive with the "C" at the end:

The Silicon Motion AZW 256G M.228 220426 "C" is an M.2 2280 SSD using the slow SATA III interface.
We tested it in the Beelink U59 Mini-S Mini PC.

Silicon Motion AZW 256G M.228 220426 C SATA 3 SSD Benchmarks

Silicon Motion AZW 256G M.228 220426 C SATA 3 specs and benchmarks

www.notebookcheck.net

Maybe some of you guys/gals can make sense of this. I haven't seen this before.

Flashorn · Jul 31, 2023

Winuser said:
The old drive showed up in file explorer for about a minute. I tried to access it but only got the spinning circle before it disappeared. It's also not showing in Disk Management. The only thing it doing is giving me the tone that I get when I plug in or unplug a USB Drive. I'm going to consider it toasted.

You should always use the Safely Remove option to eject a USB drive/key.
I have lost data from not doing that.

SIW2 · Jul 31, 2023

The C at the end might just be that it
indicates that it is your "C" drive but not sure

Doubt it. The osletter doesnt have to be C that is a popular misconception. More likely to be part of the model reference. Might indicate it is the third iteration of that device, or maybe it indicates which oem it was supplied to.

Flashorn · Jul 31, 2023

Winuser said:
The old drive showed up in file explorer for about a minute. I tried to access it but only got the spinning circle before it disappeared. It's also not showing in Disk Management. The only thing it doing is giving me the tone that I get when I plug in or unplug a USB Drive. I'm going to consider it toasted.

Have you tried it in the external enclosure on another PC to ascertain it's Deadness ?

johnlgalt · Jul 31, 2023

Winuser said:
The old drive showed up in file explorer for about a minute. I tried to access it but only got the spinning circle before it disappeared. It's also not showing in Disk Management. The only thing it doing is giving me the tone that I get when I plug in or unplug a USB Drive. I'm going to consider it toasted.

Don't write it off quite yet, man. If it is a simple overvolt protection resistor that has blown, a repair shop can probably replace it and it will be just like new. Find an electronics shop to take a looksie at it, see if they can determine the failure point. A simple blown resistor, or else perhaps a loose solder point, and a lot of electronics start failing like that.

Flashorn said:
Maybe some of you guys/gals can make sense of this. I haven't seen this before.

What you found was, indeed, the baby brother of Winuser's drive.

NVMe wasn't always used as teh interface, and that is why M.2 has the 3 different key structures:

B / M / B + M

In order to save money, OEMs are notorious for using slower (and thus less expensive) hardware.

I bought a laptop one time, back in the day before SSDs, that had a spindle speed of 4200 RPM. It was utterly slow as molasses. Replaced it with a 7200 rpm drive, and the difference was instantly noticeable (even though the latency was not quite halved, a 42% reduction). Battery took a hit in terms of longevity but that was a trade off I was willing to make for the responsiveness of the system.

johnlgalt · Jul 31, 2023

Flashorn said:
Have you tried it in the external enclosure on another PC to ascertain it's Deadness ?

Winuser said:
Neither drive shows in File explorer on my desktop using this enclosure I bought. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MNFH1PX?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Yup - he did.

Flashorn · Jul 31, 2023

This from Kingston Faqs:

Question:
What would happen if I connected a PCIe M.2 SSD to a SATA only M.2 port.
Reply:
If the host system doesn’t support the PCIe protocol, the PCIe M.2 SSD will most likely not be seen by the BIOS and therefore would be incompatible with the system.

Flashorn · Jul 31, 2023

johnlgalt said:
Yup - he did.

Thanks, I didn't see this. So , I guess DEAD

johnlgalt · Jul 31, 2023

Flashorn said:
This from Kingston Faqs:

Question:
What would happen if I connected a PCIe M.2 SSD to a SATA only M.2 port.
Reply:
If the host system doesn’t support the PCIe protocol, the PCIe M.2 SSD will most likely not be seen by the BIOS and therefore would be incompatible with the system.

But he said the port only has the single notch.

Winuser said:
Looking inside, the connector it looks like the drive will connect because there is only the one gap on the right.

I suspect the port is actually NVMe (which makes sense since the new drive is working in it) but the original drive they threw in there (or whomever he got it from threw in there) is a SATA drive, done so to make it less expensive of a build from the builder's perspective.

Flashorn said:
Thanks, I didn't see this. So , I guess DEAD

Well, yes, currently dead. But not necessarily permanently dead. As I mentioned, a simple overvolt protection resistor could be burned up, or a solder joint somewhere could have loosened up, and that will cause it to fail. If either of those are the case and they are fixed, the drive could be easily revived.

Flashorn · Jul 31, 2023

johnlgalt said:
that had a spindle speed of 4200 RPM.

Yes, had a Compaq with 5400 RPM. When switched to 7200 it did make a noticeable difference.

Flashorn · Jul 31, 2023

johnlgalt said:
the port

That was intentional right?

johnlgalt · Jul 31, 2023

Yes, intentional. If the port (slot) had 2 notches, it would only accept a SATA drive, not an NVMe drive. Since the port (slot) only has a single notch, it's conceivable that it is actually an NVMe port (slot).

I used the same terminology as Winuser so I don't confuse him, but yeah, I'm referring to the number of notches in the slot, discounting the number of notches on the drive.

Flashorn · Jul 31, 2023

johnlgalt said:
Yes, intentional. If the port (slot) had 2 notches, it would only accept a SATA drive, not an NVMe drive. Since the port (slot) only has a single notch, it's conceivable that it is actually an NVMe port (slot).

I used the same terminology as Winuser so I don't confuse him, but yeah, I'm referring to the number of notches in the slot, discounting the number of notches on the drive.

But, we don't know if the motherboard supports PCIe protocols or only SATA or both
I haven't seen any data that would refer to this.

johnlgalt · Jul 31, 2023

You provided the data yourself.

Your screenshot clearly shows that an NVMe drive can be used in systems with M or M + B key. He has a single key (aka notch). SO, it is either B or M. The drive is now initialized and he has successfully installed the OS on it. Thus, his NVMe drive is fully functional in his system.

That is as good as it gets.

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