this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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I'm waiting on a standoff kit to come in the mail, as this is my next troubleshooting step

I bought this SSD to fit into a thin client. I am new to stick drives so I think it's correct that I can only insert it one way due to the M-key (my port only has one divider, unlike the memory stick).

I don't have a standoff so the stick is in but at a slight angle.

The PC has no operating system yet so is it correct that a blank drive should show up in the BIOS at least? It shows the m.2 slot as being empty currently. Or is it potentially readable as is, but needs something on it to format it?

The plan is to chuck Debian on it to boot into, via a thumb drive, but I wanted to make sure it was at least installed correctly (I mean, it isn't because it should have a standoff).

If when my standoff kit arrives, the drive still doesn't show in the BIOS what would you recommend I do next?

EDIT: thank you so much for the advice so far! I added a standoff and I can now see 500Gb in the BIOS. Truthfully it might have already been recognised, there is a section for M.2 in the BIOS which was reading empty but it also lists primary hard drive and it's showing up there. Now to install me some Debian

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[–] calamitycastle@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

Yes, thank you. Assuming this works, see the dodgy angle that it currently has

[–] SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Dodgy angle and all, that looks serviceable.

[–] calamitycastle@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I've loosened the screw a bit. I'll try it again tomorrow but yeah. The thin client sees the RAM I installed fine but nothing here and I thought I'd popped it in correctly. I'll remove and reseat and try again

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

there may be a setting in the bios to configure the mode the storage device(s) use. it may simply be expecting nvme and not even looking for ahci sata.

[–] SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 1 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah, there is a hynix chip underneath, and it might be looking at onboard storage only for some reason.

[–] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Are you sure that drive is even supported? That slot looks like an NVMe slot. Notice how there's no plastic bump in the socket on the left of the drive. And there are pins in that slot area that are not touching any contacts on your drive.

I imagine some motherboards will support both SSD and NVMe, but if it supports NVMe, you want an NVMe drive. They are much faster. And since you said you can't see the drive in BIOS, your motherboard very likely only supports NVMe.

[–] calamitycastle@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

Ironically I accidentally ordered an NVMe drive before this and that wasn't recognised either. Per the internet you need an adaptor to put an NVMe drive in to the Wi-Fi slot, but that's a different slot to this one unless I've completely banjaxxxed this

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 1 points 4 weeks ago

That looks fine. Can you back the screw off at all so you're flexing the board less, without it popping out?

[–] TeoTwawki@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

you are missing a spacer there that holds it up higher, it isn't meant to flex down like that.

what model of thin client or board is it you are putting this drive in? I'm not convinced this drive even belongs in that slot.

[–] calamitycastle@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] TeoTwawki@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

ok it is definitely m2 sata and not nvme according to the manual, yet the only picture I found was nvme. seatching known parts also yielded sata only results, so I am confident it is.

I'm not sure why your specific ssd isn't detected, I see some online posts claiming larger ones are a problem, but I was able to find some working just fine all the way to 2TB.

For that missing standoff, standard mainboard standoffs have the right hight to replace the missing one but might not thread in correctly. A possible work ared is to find some small nuts to use with a longer screw. As long as the screw threads properly in the screw hole it'd be fine

[–] calamitycastle@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Thanks for this. Hopefully putting a standoff in will get it reading. I will find out tomorrow!