Surface Studio M.2 SSD Replacement

Geschrieben von: The Raptor
  • Kommentare: 21
Surface Studio M.2 SSD Replacement

Schwierigkeitsgrad

Moderate

Schritte

4

Zeitaufwand

10 - 20 Minuten

Einleitung

Do you want a bigger SSD or perhaps a faster PCIe NVMe SSD? Follow this guide to replace your SSD.

(Note: Surface Studio with Intel Core i5 comes with SATA III SSD while Surface Studio with Intel Core i7 comes with PCIe NVMe SSD.)

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    • Lay the Surface face down on a padded surface

    • Be careful not to scratch the screen when laying it face down

    • Remove the four rubber feet at each corner concealing the Torx screws

    • Remove the four Torx screws under the rubber feet.

    • Two screws on the upper corners are longer than two screws on the lower corners.

    • Attach suction cups to the bottom cover and then pull on the suction cups to free the bottom cover.

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    • Remove five torx screws holding the two fans to the midframe

    • Remove the two fans

    • The fan connectors are behind the midframe and not yet accessible. Let the fans hang loosely until you can access the connectors.

    • Four large torx screws and four small torx screws hold the midframe to the upper frame.

    • Remove four large torx screws holding the midframe

    • Remove four small torx screws holding the midframe

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    • Slowly remove the midframe

    • Be careful, the speaker on the midframe is still attached to the motherboard

    • Detach the connectors for the two fans and the speaker

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    • With the midframe removed, the M.2 SSD is now accessible

    • Remove a torx screw holding the M.2 holding the SSD to the motherboard

    • Pull the SSD straight back

    • Do not pull the SSD upward or risk damaging the M.2 socket

    • The M.2 socket is compatible with most SATA III, PCIe ACHI, and PCIe NVMe in the M.2 2280 form factor

Abschluss

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

Tinte & Feder

The Raptor

Mitglied seit: 28/11/16

6013 Reputation

21 Kommentare

I know that one of the very first questions would be: Does the M.2 slot supports PCIe NVMe ?

The answer is: Yes it does.

The Raptor -

But it does not mean that you can get the drive to run in NVMe model.

There does not appear to be a setting to enable NVMe model for the drive.

John -

Does it support bootable NVMe?

Mark Smith -

@msmith4099 @theofficemaven

Sure. When installing Windows, choose to install Windows to "Drive 1" instead of "Drive 0"

The Raptor -

Is there any raid options that need to be configured?

Mark Smith -

No, there is not.

The Raptor -

I just installed a Samsung 960 EVO 1TB into my Surface Studio. Did a clean windows install. Loaded the Intel Rapid driver during installation and was able to get windows 10 boot and install on the the 960 EVO.

However, it appears that the drive is running in SATA model and not NVMe mode. I could not install the Samsung NVMe driver. Whenever, the installer, I will get an error message, saying no NVMe device is detected.

Inside the BIOS, there is no option to change the model of the m.2 drive. In fact, I don't see any drive at all.

John -

Take a look in Device Manager and you will see "NVMe Samsung SSD 960" listed under "Disk drives", and you will see that it is indeed using Microsoft's NVMe driver. On the Surface Studio, the Intel RST driver is configured in RAID mode out-of-the-box (in order to support the stock "rapid hybrid drive"), which utilizes Microsoft's NVMe driver for NVMe SSDs. This is also the reason why you can't install the Samsung NVMe driver (i.e. since Intel SRT is in RAID mode, the Samsung NVMe driver, as well as the Samsung Magician software, can't see the drive). It'd be nice if Microsoft would provide a way for Surface Studio owners to switch their machine into AHCI mode, but I seriously doubt that you'd notice any real world advantage to doing that. The 1 TB Samsung 960 Evo in my own Surface Studio is reaching nearly 3,000 MB/s read and 2,000 MB/s write speeds with the stock Intel RST RAID mode configuration.

TheOfficeMaven -

My 960 evo 1TB is not running at anywhere near that speed. According AS SSD I am only get 1,300MB/s read and 5,00MB/s write. Given that it's in RAID, does the 2.5inch drive matter?

John -

Do you have Bitlocker/Encryption enabled on your Surface Studio? If so, that's probably what's lowering the read/write speeds on your 960 Evo Benchmarks. Try turning it off and then run your benchmarks again. In theory, the M.2 2280 PCIe connector and the 2.5" SATA III connector should be completely separate from one another, and so it shouldn't matter if you kept the original 2.5" HDD installed or not (i.e. the 2.5" drive shouldn't have any effect on the speed of the M.2 SSD even in RAID mode). Even though the Intel RST controller is configured in RAID mode, it will behave as if it is configured in AHCI mode when a RAID array isn't configured (i.e. when it's using JBOD).

TheOfficeMaven -

No I do not have Bitlocker enable. Totally scratching my head now...

John -

Strange... What version of the Intel RST drivers do you have installed (Device Manager -> Storage controllers -> Intel Chipset SATA RAID Controller -> right-click -> Properties -> "Driver" tab)? I'm using the default v14.10.3.1041 that comes with the Surface Studio (out-of-the-box, and via the recovery image). If you are too, then you could try downloading and installing the latest version of the "Intel Rapid Storage Technology (Intel RST) RAID Driver" from Intel's website (which is v15.2.0.1020 as of this writing). Maybe that'll help??? Also, you might want to try using CrystalDiskMark v5.2 for your benchmarks (if you're not already).

TheOfficeMaven -

I just tried it with CrysalDisk mark, and it's giving me 3,000 MB/s read and 2,000 MB/s write speeds. It's only the AS SSD software that is showing strange results.

Yes, I did install the Surface Platform driver. So far everything seems to be working now. Thanks so much for your help!

John -

ahahahahahahah

Jon C -

I just installed 960 evo and installed windows 10 using recovery image. Windows 10 successfully installed drive 1, 960 evo but HDD drive is not appear, even disk management either.

How do I make HDD dirve show on windows 10?

Frank -

I just installed 2 TB Crucial MX300 SSD in my Surface Studio yesterday. The clone didn't work properly, so I had to reinstall Windows 10 using the Surface Studio recovery media. All of the drivers appear to have been installed correctly, but for some reason, it seems as though the drives are no longer in a RAID configuration and I cannot see the 128 GB SSD that came with the Studio. Anyone have any idea why that might be and what I can do to get the RAID configuration set back up for caching through Intel Rapid Storage? I'd love to still be able to take advantage of the speed boost from that M.2 SSD if at all possible.

Jeremy -

When I load the RST_AHCI “Intel Chipset SATA RAID Controller” drivers, downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download.... It doesn´t recognize my m.2 ssd 64gb/Go. I have a Surface Studio core i5. I don´t know what else to do to install windows in that disk.

Cristian Adrian Blanco Montero -

Is Rob (The Office Maven; The Raptor) still here/available? I’ve just ordered the 2 SSD units (Samsung 850 m.2 250gb; Samsung 860 EVO SATA III 2.5 inch)….I’m confident I’ll have little trouble replacing the drives, but reinstalling Windows, that's where my concern comes in. So I downloaded the recovery image for my Surface Studio, but in the midst of reading/reviewing what I need to do, I’m radically confused, as some comment about loading the Intel RST driver 1st, but it supposedly is limited to 64GB. So why did I or anyone want to replace with a larger M.2 (in my case, a 250GB Samsung 850 M.2)? I hope to keep the Studio’s configuration where there appears to only be 1 drive (hybrid drive). So what step(s) are needed to get Windows running on these 2 new drives I’m about to install, and of what value is it to have gotten a 250GB M.2 versus a smaller (even 64GB) M.2? Seems Rob has been the key to helping folks get through these complications. Anyone here still? Anyone familiar with how to do this

bcr26 -

Thanks a lot, perfect instructions, my Surface (I7, Harddiscs from 2017....) became terribly slow, needed some 20min to start, and ResMon showed 100% harddisc activity and system Hangs. I bought a Samsung V-NAND SSD 970 EVO Plus (2TB) and a SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD 4TB. First I did a standard backup using Acronis True Image 2021 (It saved both hard discs in one file because of the Raid architecture), then after following you instructions I restored data on the Samsung EVO (I didnt manage to rebuilt the former RAID System), and I activated the 4TB disc a second harddrive in the Windows system/control. then: WOW....... terribly fast...... booting is no problem anymore, and ResMon shows excellent data.

PROBLEMS: in spite of your excellent instruction I missed one screw to loosen and broke on fixation point of the ventilators - which was not a problem in the end.

NOTE: Acronis True Image 2021 is part of the SanDisk Ultra (5 years license) - so you can download it for free. THANKS again, Thumbs UP! Manfred

Manfred Dichtl -

First I did a standard backup using Acronis True Image 2021 (It saved both hard discs in one file because of the Raid architecture), then after following you instructions I restored data on the Samsung EVO (I didnt manage to rebuilt the former RAID System), and I activated the 4TB disc a second harddrive in the Windows system/control

i have similar approach as Manfred discribed above ... is it required to backup to an external (usb)drive first and then restore from it to the Samsung EVO?

Markus B. -

Another thing: Attention when loosing the screw of your main SSD (in my case the Samsung V-NAND): Here the Harddiscs jumped out of its bed and the tiny srew luckily flew direct into my hand. Otherwise I would have never found it.

Manfred Dichtl -