Msata pci-e m.2 adapter quirks

[R81Z3N1]

I need some collective knowledge I have a Msata 120 Gig drive that was used for linux on an Asrock Beebox. It worked great up till the time the motherboard died, something like 2 years out of warranty. I felt good as got some good use out of it.

So I decided to buy a m.2 msata adapter off Ebay that would take the Msata drive, and adapt it to M.2 slot on an MSI X370 SLI Plus, motherboard doesn't even recognize the drive. According to the manual, the m.2 slot is sata capable I am using the most current bios, but no dice. Even tried moving the other devices around such as another ssd drive, tried all the sata slots, moved all cards from PCI-e slots just to make sure no conflicts. But motherboard does not see the device thought that was strange. Granted the little adapter was not that much something like 5 dollars, has the msata slot on top, and seemed to be the right solution.

I could not try the m.2 adapter in another board that has m.2 slot as it is wide and fits the specs but the Asus x370 pro M.2 slot is so close to the 16x slot that can not fit it into the slot. I was thinking of getting a pci-e m.2 x4 adapter and trying that but decided to go a different route.

The solution I went with was to order an external Msata to sata 2.5 inch drive, so I can mount the Msata in the enclosure and get regular sata power and out hopefully that will solve the problem. I did not feel comfortable going for a pci-e x4 card as that was what my small adapter was supposed to do, wanted to play it safe. the enclosure was something like 22 bucks, so not a big loss, the drive bought brand new was like 35 dollars, I might have something like 55-60 dollars total cost, but just don't like hardware sitting around unused. In future I plan on sticking to standard formats, just did not want to chase the rabbit for little or no gain. I was also curious if it would boot strait into the old linux install.

I just wanted to see what other folks have experienced as I know a lot of old Msata hardware is still out there, I still have some ddr3 sticks from that beebox that needs to find a home, was thinking about a Pfsense box, but still at a toss up of why my m.2 adapter would not work, yes it was keyed properly. Came with a M-key and fit the m.2 slot perfectly at least on the MSI. It is a Ryzen build, and think could be a chipset problem, or just a quirk that is the nature of the beast. Like I said played it safe so now I have for all and purposes another 2.5 ssd, but with an Msata inside.

Just wondering what other folks have experienced with adapters when it comes to m.2 slots, I also thought it was a little strange that the MSI manual doesn't go into great detail other than saying the lengths, and that it is sata capable, it was also lacking great details on NVME wonder if some weirdness with the X370 chipset also plays a role.

 

[R81Z3N1]

Just wanted to do a follow-up I received the 2.5 Msata enclosure and it works great, it was made by StarTech and requires no software for install or for the device to be recognized. Just plug and go, very happy with the result.

The drive had Archlinux on it and was able to boot right away, just had to change kernel line to point to proper device, as well as load an Intel network driver. I was able to do an update and was very surprised that changing cpu's and hard drives allowed it to boot, with such minor changes.

Especially if you consider a complete new architect, new motherboard was used went from Intel, to AMD and no problems. I know that Linux is kind of meant to do this, but it worked out of the box and saved me an install.

I was reading in some of the MSI forums and found out that on some motherboards have approved hardware list for SSD's as well as NVME drives. I am glad I went with the enclosure as I don't know if a pci-e adapter card would work as well. Granted you can find one maybe a little cheaper, but if they list approved m.2 ssd's makes me wonder how flexibile the pci-e slot solution would be. I also assumed that a m.2 adapter would work as well.

It could all come down to what is written in the uefi bios, and how well the motherboard detects the device. I don't think I have to ever worry about Msata, and am happy the enclosure is a good solution. In future might go straight for x4 drives without adapters and might stick to an Intel solution. Might be fun when Optane comes out to test it out but most likely will have to wait until a few generations of motherboards support it. I am kind of burned out of 1st gen boards, and hope that the AM4 solution will get bios updates for new CPU's in a year or so time.

Am happy with the results, and if folks have any Msata drives that need to be re-purposed this is probably one of the best solutions if you just want it to work.

 

[deustroop]

ok