Installation issues on M.2 drives often cause confusion.
Installation issues on M.2 drives often cause confusion.
When I began playing PC games about two years ago, I purchased a pre-assembled system. Later, I built my own rig. I used the old PC's HDD because it had Windows and everything I needed there. Recently, I bought an M.2 drive (ADATA 128gb), performed a fresh Windows install, signed in with my Microsoft account, and verified my credentials. I thought I needed an empty drive to set up as a slave, but that didn't work for some reason, so I connected the old one and restarted. Windows booted onto the M.2, and my HDD was fully accessible. From there, I launched Discord, Steam CS:GO, and Google, and everything functioned as if I were running Windows directly. In Disk Management, it showed that Windows was only using about 18GB of the M.2 drive. I'm still unsure if I missed something or made a mistake. My setup includes a Ryzen 5 2600 (stock cooler), EVGA 1080, ACX G Skill RGB graphics, 16GB RAM, MSI B450 Tomahawk, ADATA XPG 128GB, Toshiba 1TB HDD, and a 650W Gold Fractal Design Meshify.
Follow the instructions carefully to connect only the m.2 drive during installation. Once done, reinstall the old HDD and adjust the boot order if needed. Regarding master and slave, I’m not sure about the details—this seems like older PC building knowledge.
Just assumed the Windows version would use more space on my M.2 slot, assuming that’s typical, and everything seems fine!
The new setup uses around 16GB for 32-bit and 20GB for 64-bit, which seems reasonable. I believe the term 'master' and 'slave' refers to his boot drive and data drive. He might be referencing older tech concepts, but it looks like he's trying to make a point. Just to clarify, IDE handled master and slave roles, and using a single SATA drive per cable eliminates that distinction.