Bootable M.2 sata3 on Z97-A

[Ahriman27]

Is it possible?

I came across a Kingston SM2280S3 120g stick for my ASUS Z97-A which has an M.2 slot.

I read online that it disables 2 sata ports which might be a problem since I currently use 4 on my build + another for BD reader.

Regardless, I can't even see the drive in Win7/OSX10.10 even after enabling in BIOS M.2 mode under onboard devices config.

The easy exit route would be to return it and buy more ssd drives and replace lower capacity ones but I wanted to rule out all possibilities before doing so.

Any ideas?
thanks.

 

[BreBo]

From the Kingston support page, maybe it helps.

When the SSD is recognised in the BIOS, but the Windows 7 installation does not detect the drive:
Follow these steps:

Disconnect any other hard drives or SSDs. Boot the Windows 7 installation disk. Choose repair, then advanced, then command prompt. Type: "diskpart" without quotes and press Enter. You will see a prompt labeled "diskpart". Type the following commands and press Enter after each one.

Diskpart > Select Disk 0
Diskpart > Clean
Diskpart > Create Partition Primary Align=1024
Diskpart > Format Quick FS=NTFS
Diskpart > List Partition
Diskpart > Active
Diskpart > Exit

Then, reboot the computer to the Windows 7 installation disk.

 

[jperkins909]

"For example, say you have a Asus Z97-A and want to install a M.2 x4 drive using a PCI-E adapter. That motherboard has two PCI-E x1 slots and three physical PCI-E x16 slots. The two PCI-E x1 slots don't have the necessary number of PCI-E lanes for a M.2 drive so they cannot be used. For the x16 slots, it turns out that the bottom PCI-E x16 slot is actually only capable of x2 speeds, so that slot will not allow for the full speed of a M.2 x4 drive. The primary x16 slot is likely needed for the GPU so it is also not available to be used. Finally, the second x16 slot is capable of x8 speeds so it will work for the M.2 x4 drive, but using that slot will actually reduce the primary slot (and thus the GPU) to x8 speeds"

Sounds fun let me know if you achieve those 1.6GB/s speeds!

 

[Ahriman27]

Hey guys thanks for the replies.

I didn't get a chance to try it out but I just got my answer back from ASUS. One of their techs confirms what I've read elsewhere which is that the Z-97A uses PCIE mode for M.2 and the Kingston drive requires NGFF mode. Therefore is not compatible.

I'll give it back and just go with a second Samsung 850 PRO 256 SSD.

PCIe M.2 s are twice the price for same capacity so I'll wait it out when prices get more reasonable.