M2 ssd ?

[gh4wi]

I prefer to use 2.5" SSD which can be plugged into the front of the mini-tower.
That way I can swap SSD's and use different OS for development, testing, and production.

I am wondering if the M2 SSD can be used as a fixed drive (ie. /dev/sda2) available
to which ever SSD and Linux OS that I install on the 2.5" SSD. That way it could hold
common files that I use to add to any Linux OS (such as a VPN *.deb files, speech scripts, etc).

I do not want the M2 SSD to contain any bootable OS, just common storage.
Or must the M2 SSD be used only as a bootable drive ?

Thanks for any Info.

[oshunluvr]

This is Linux so you can configure just about anything the way you want. Whether or not your PC BIOS will allow booting to one device or another is the question, and that's not a Linux question.

So the answer is "yes, you can use your M2 SSD as a data storage drive and mount it as a "fixed" drive. I'm not really sure what that means in your mind, but I assume you mean mounted at boot to a fixed mount point.

I think your question needs changing. What you're really asking is "Can the 2.5" pluggable SSD in the front of my mini-tower be used as a boot device?" The answer to that will lie in your BIOS. Since you didn't give any info about your PC, no one here will be able to answer that question. Boot into your BIOS and see if it lets you selected the drive in question as bootable.

Assuming it cannot, there's still a way to do what you're describing. While your BIOS may not be able to boot to the 2.5" drive, you could still keep GRUB on the internal drive and GRUB will be able to boot from your removable drive if configured properly.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Your plan should work.

The M.2 SSD will probably be /dev/nvme01n1, the partitions /dev/nvme01n1p1, p2, p3…

[gh4wi]

Thanks for quick response & the M2 SSD info.
I have been using the 2.5" SSD as a boot device on all my PC's ...not a problem.

Is there any difference besides size & price /w M2 SSD.
What should I avoid, and what is the most popular M2 SSD ?

[oshunluvr]

Choice will be about money. Buy the largest and fastest you can afford. For me, SSD is about speed, so I usually buy the fastest I can get, then adjust the size up or down to get the best value. Samsung has made the fastest devices for a long time but now they're only a few percentage points ahead of several others. Adata, Crucial, and Mushkin have all been making drives for quite awhile with good results. I'd avoid Intel, WD and a couple other newer players. How you're going to use the device is a primary deciding factor. If it's just going to hold Linux and not your home, the size won't matter at all. If it's for your home files, you may sacrifice a little speed to get a larger capacity. Real world usage is more important than numbers on paper. All SSDs are fast enough that you likely won't notice much difference day-to-day.

For my money, the Samsung 970 EVO is one of the better choices out there. Almost as fast as the PRO version but quite a bit less in cost. One thing to consider is when using SSDs, in general Size=Speed. Meaning, all things equal, a larger SSD will be a little faster than the exact same drive in a smaller capacity. All that being said, do some research and buy what fits your needs and budget.

[jlittle]

What should I avoid...

I'm not sure how important this is these days, but you want to be sure that the motherboard (or whatever) supports the type of M.2 you get.

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…] For my money, the Samsung 970 EVO is one of the better choices out there. […]

One should also mention that the current Samsung EVO and Pro product lines have one of the highest, if not the highest, TBW values ("Terabytes written, measure of the endurance of a solid-state drive to write operations") of all SSDs in their respective market segments - this concerns both SATA SSDs and M.2 SSDs.

This is the most important thing about an SSDs for me, as I like to keep my hardware and my data for a long time… ;-)

PS: concerning SATA SSDs the Kingston KC600 product line has an equal TBW value to the Samsung EVO.

PPS: in general, the bigger the storage size of an SSDs is, the higher is the TBW value.

[mr_raider]

Your plan should work.

The M.2 SSD will probably be /dev/nvme01n1, the partitions /dev/nvme01n1p1, p2, p3…

If it's PCI-E yes. If it's SATA M.2 it will be /dev/sdX