Solved Windows 11 Clean install with more than one NVME drives

Winuser · Feb 11, 2022

Dru2 said:
The "difference" can also be whether one NVMe slot disables SATA ports or not.

I would be surprised if it didn't.

Dru2 · Feb 11, 2022

hsehestedt said:
here are trick you can use to determine which NVMe is which. This assumes that there is data on those NVMe disks now and that one of them has the OS on it already.

You don't really need to do all that since you can easily identify the drive prior to installing the OS. Simply note the volume name you're dropping the OS on. This of course assumes you know to check this when installing an OS with multiple drives :wink:

NavyLCDR · Feb 11, 2022

Dru2 said:
It's not about the drives but how the m.2 is setup to handle the drive - Example on my Z270 board having two m.2 slots will only allow one to use all SATA ports when used. The table below for my Gigabyte GA-Z270X Gaming 8 board shows only the bottom (M2P_32G) allowing all my SATA ports to be used with that slot filled. Using the top (M2M_32G) will cost me two SATA slots...

View attachment 21563
BTW some m.2 ports will also downgrade certain PCIe slot speeds. Again... owner's manual.

But yes, if you don't use SATA ports, no issue, but if you need SATA ports, it "could" be an issue. It simply depends on needs.

How is that at all applicable to this thread? @Keith Weissher has an SSD installed in each slot. He wants to know, how do I know if disk 0 is the top slot or the bottom slot? So exactly what difference does it make if the top slot disables SATA ports or the bottom slot does or if disk 1 disables SATA ports because it is in the slot or disk 0 disables the SATA ports?

There is already an SSD installed in each slot. The question being asked is NOT which slot should I install my SSD in.

Winuser · Feb 11, 2022

hsehestedt said:
here are trick you can use to determine which NVMe is which. This assumes that there is data on those NVMe disks now and that one of them has the OS on it already.

Boot from your Windows installation media.
At the first static screen, press SHIFT + F10 to open a command prompt.
Run "diskpart"
Run "list vol" and note what vol number is associated with drive letter C
Run "select volume 4" (NOTE: substitute the volume number you found above. It just happens to be "4" on my system)
Run "detail volume"

This will tell you the disk number associated with that volume.

Run "exit" to quit diskpart.

If the OS is not on one of those drives, simply drop a file on one of those NVMe drives from within Windows. Boot into your install media, open a command prompt, and locate that file. Use diskpart to determine what drive number setup sees that disk as being. Just be aware that what shows up as disk 0 (or any other number) in Windows setup may not be the same drive letter in a running instance of Windows.

From the title of the thread the OP wants to do a clean install. If the drives are already installed, they can do the clean install on either disk 0 or disk 1.

Winuser · Feb 11, 2022

Dru2 said:
It's not about the drives but how the m.2 is setup to handle the drive - Example on my Z270 board having two m.2 slots will only allow one to use all SATA ports when used. The table below for my Gigabyte GA-Z270X Gaming 8 board shows only the bottom (M2P_32G) allowing all my SATA ports to be used with that slot filled. Using the top (M2M_32G) will cost me two SATA slots...

View attachment 21563
BTW some m.2 ports will also downgrade certain PCIe slot speeds. Again... owner's manual.

But yes, if you don't use SATA ports, no issue, but if you need SATA ports, it "could" be an issue. It simply depends on needs.

The drives are already installed. Are you suggesting that they should remove one of the drives?

Dru2 · Feb 11, 2022

Winuser said:
The drives are already installed. Are you suggesting that they should remove one of the drives?

Please re-read all my posts again starting with post #14 as that's nowhere near what I said (or mean to say) :)

Thanks.

Dru2 · Feb 11, 2022

NavyLCDR said:
How is that at all applicable to this thread?

It became "applicable to this thread" when you said this...

NavyLCDR said:
I'm at a loss as to what difference it makes if it is the top or bottom slot?

That's what I was clarifying :wink:

Winuser · Feb 11, 2022

Dru2 said:
Please re-read all my posts again starting with post #14 as that's nowhere near what I said (or mean to say) :)

Thanks.

I would but it doesn't answer the OP's question. They're more concerned about which of the two drives would be disk 0. I might be wrong, but I think that they are thinking that Windows has to be installed on disk 0.

abactuon · Feb 11, 2022

Use always autounattend.xml
The first time you install Windows, it doesn't matter which disk is used.
The main thing then is not to erase the user disk in case of a possible reinstallation.
Always use
<DiskID>0</DiskID>
If I understood the task correctly.

Dru2 · Feb 11, 2022

Winuser said:
I would but it doesn't answer the OP's question.

Yeah, I've said the same about many a post made to an OP :wink:

Anyway, my posts were made to address a specific comment by a specific individual. Nothing nefarious there :)

NavyLCDR · Feb 11, 2022

Keith Weisshar said:
My motherboard has two NVME M.2 slots. If both slots have WD SN750 2TB installed, which slot will I use when I install to Disk 0? Is there a 50/50 chance that it will use either the top or bottom slot each time I boot the Windows 11 installer and choose Disk 0? Having two identical drives can easily cause a confusion.

Let's revisit the original questions, then....

If both slots have WD SN750 2TB installed, which slot will I use when I install to Disk 0?

We really don't know. The only way to tell would be to match the serial number to the disk #. Open a command prompt with admin privileges ("run as administrator") and run the following command:
wmic diskdrive get DeviceID, SerialNumber

That will tell you which serial number is disk 0 and which is disk 1. Then you will need to open the computer and look at the drives and figure out which serial number is in which slot. You only need to see the serial number on the label on one drive, and use the process of elimination.

Is there a 50/50 chance that it will use either the top or bottom slot each time I boot the Windows 11 installer and choose Disk 0?

With NVMe the chances that the drives will be enumerated in a different order by the BIOS is next to none. Windows assigns disk numbers based on the order presented by BIOS. In the days of spinning HDDs, things such as spin-up time could affect enumeration order. But, if you want to be sure, you can always run the command above. If you want to do it after booting from a Windows 10/11 USB flash drive, press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt and run the command. Which drive has Windows installed to, and the boot priority order do not matter because drive enumeration occurs before processing the boot priority order.

Did that answer your question without getting into any questions about why it is important to you?

Winuser · Feb 11, 2022

I wonder if @Keith Weisshar did the clean install?

Hazel123 · Feb 11, 2022

Maybe I'm being a bit simplistic here but could the OP not just install Windows on one of the drives and see what happens? :) Then reformat and install on the other drive and see what happens. And decide which one works best and gives out less heat.

NavyLCDR · Feb 11, 2022

Hazel123 said:
Maybe I'm being a bit simplistic here but could the OP not just install Windows on one of the drives and see what happens? :) Then reformat and install on the other drive and see what happens. And decide which one works best and gives out less heat.

Part of the problem is that @Keith Weisshar has not explained to us why it matters to him. Is it because one M.2 slot is PCIe3, and the other is PCIe4 which would not matter because the WD SN750 SSD is a PCIe3 drive. Are the number of PCIe lanes different between the M.2 slots? Does one M.2 slot run off the CPU PCIe interface and the other M.2 slot run off the chipset? What is the difference between the two slots that is the concern?

It can't be SATA ports disabled, the is not applicable here because an SSD is already installed in each slot.

idgat · Feb 11, 2022

Keith Weisshar said:
My motherboard has two NVME M.2 slots. If both slots have WD SN750 2TB installed, which slot will I use when I install to Disk 0? Is there a 50/50 chance that it will use either the top or bottom slot each time I boot the Windows 11 installer and choose Disk 0? Having two identical drives can easily cause a confusion.

For the time it takes to do a quick basic install ... Just choose one, and go and make a cup of coffee. If it works (boots), you've selected the correct one. If it doesn't, then try the other.

EDIT :
Or, If wrong drive, boot with Macrium Reflect boot USB and clone, or image > restore, from one drive to the other.

Winuser · Feb 11, 2022

idgat said:
For the time it takes to do a quick basic install ... Just choose one, and go and make a cup of coffee. If it works (boots), you've selected the correct one. If it doesn't, then try the other.

Unless the motherboard doesn't allow it, the OS will install and work on either drive.

idgat · Feb 11, 2022

Winuser said:
Unless the motherboard doesn't allow it, the OS will install and work on either drive.

Yeh, got an old(ish) HP laptop like that - drive 0 or 1, makes no matter, albeit the "default" is 1 (Meh! No sleep lost over that)

Given the lack of response, I suspect the OP has solved the problem, and we're all just talking to the converted here.

Winuser · Feb 11, 2022

idgat said:
Given the lack of response, I suspect the OP has solved the problem, and we're all just talking to the converted here.

I'm thinking the same thing.

Winuser · Feb 11, 2022

I could be wrong, but I truly believe that the OP thought the OS had to be on disk 0.

Dru2 · Feb 11, 2022

cereberus said:
It is not clear what you are asking. You can set whichever drive you wish as boot drive in bios. The old disk 0 conventions died out years ago.

Agree. Anyway... From the OP's post... (and the fact that I do have two near identical NVMe (Samsung 970 Pro (512 & 1 TB)....

Keith Weisshar said:
My motherboard has two NVME M.2 slots. If both slots have WD SN750 2TB installed, which slot will I use when I install to Disk 0?

In this case disk "0" will be the first capable boot disk. And though it may say disk 0 on the install screen, as noted elsewhere, disk numbering will change once the OS loads. Example when I disable my SATA drives my NVME drives become disk 0 & 1. Once I re-enable the drives after the OS install, my NVMe drives revert to disk 3 & 4, and my SATA disks become 0, 1, & 2.

Now where you have multiple drives in the system, you can usually tell which is which by name, size, or usage. If the drives were used prior to a new OS and never wiped, you'll usually see "C" next to the current OS drive. Choose the drive you want, install the OS, and that's the boot drive (regardless of "disk numbering" and being identical drives) the system will boot from - unless you have an OS on both drives, then things can get a little complicated. However, if you're only booting from one OS drive, there's no drive confusion.

Keith Weisshar said:
Is there a 50/50 chance that it will use either the top or bottom slot each time I boot the Windows 11 installer and choose Disk 0? Having two identical drives can easily cause a confusion.

No. As mentioned above, the drive with the OS & boot files will always be the booted drive (unless the boot files become damaged).

That's the simple. But yes, one can always deep dive with what ifs and maybe so's, but simple works 99.999 percent of time :)

Now If the OP is looking for something a bit more elaborate, it's not in their original post(s).