SSD M.2 2280 NVMe drive for Ubuntu 24.04

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Dear all,

Thanks.

The TBW 600 TB for both DW black SN850X and Samsung 990 Pro are very good. Both circa £80.00 +vat.

The Western Digital SN 5000 are great on cost.

Good to know the heat spec information.

Yours,
York

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I’ll bet any of the name brand NvME drives will work. Are you your able to return your purchase in the unlikely event it doesn’t work properly? I don’t have any laptops with NvME drives but do have a desktop (MSI) with HP NvME 512GB. It works without issue. HP are actually made by MultiPointe and were priced very attractively at the time. The thing I find a little odd is the way NvME drives are designated in Linux. They’re something like NvMEon1or similar.

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Dear @kurt-landis ,

Thank you.

Good to be aware of these things.

And a returns policy is always good too. If a product were defective for some reason . Not sure if the merchant would consider Linux incompatibility a defect though . Have seen some SSD drives advertised as Windows only, but not many.

Yours,
York

25

A common marking from a manufacturer support standpoint, but any SSD matching your mobo interface type will work. They just work with linux.

There should be zero driver issues with any modern Ubuntu. It should be recognized right away in your motherboard settings, there may be a setting to enable NVMe on your mobo but probably not, it should just appear. If any issues, check that your motherboard drivers are updated. Apart from that, however unlikely, it is possible to buy a bad drive, if so, most mainstream merchants will just replace it. Get any of the well known brands and you’ll be Ubuntu’ing in no time.

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Dear @aljames ,

Thanks.

This is reassuring.

Equivocating between ;

WD Blue SN5000 NVMe™ SSD - 1 TB, lower cost
Samsung 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD - 1 TB, better performance

Been finishing research on general kit needed. Laptop repair kits, plectrums, that sort of thing. Precision screw drivers Philips Torx and so on.

Will ponder about it for a few more days then make a decision on SSD.

Yours,
York

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I would have no concerns with either choice. Western Digital bought Sandisk in 2016 and has spun its its flash storage business off under the Sandisk name. Why WD would spin off the flash business and keep the spinning disk business I don’t know but I’m pretty sure the heads of WD know what they’re doing. I do have an M2 Western Digital SATA drive in a Thinkpad notebook running Ubuntu 24.04 and it has been flawless, no issues at all. I imagine for flash storage product support going forward, whether WD or Sandisk, that support will be found at Sandisk.

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Dear @kurt-landis

Thanks.

Which makes sense of why the Western Digital SSD’s as advertised on Sandisk website were high on search results for same.

Good to know you rate both.

Yours,
York

29

Dear Community,

Supplementary question.

What are the concerns with using an SSD as an laptop internal drive, if Canonical Ubuntu LTS 2404.x is installed on an SSD in an external USB enclosure in the first instance?

That is Canonical Ubuntu LTS 24.04 is first installed on an SSD in a USB enclosure. The SSD with Ubuntu now installed is then removed from the enclosure and used as the internal drive for the laptop.

Wil the fact that the SSD had Ubuntu installed when it was in the USB enclosure cause Ubuntu to fail to boot or work properly if the SSD is then used as an internal drive.

That is does Ubuntu do things during the installation process to Linux configuration on in an external enclosure that means that the Ubuntu install wont work if the SSD is used as an internal drive.

Also visa versa. Ubuntu installed on internal SSD then put in an enclosure as external USB drive still boot and operate as ‘normal’.

Working assumption. Ubuntu on an SSD in an external enclosure will be much slower over USB. Memory access issues slowing things down. But Ubuntu will still function notwithstanding huge performance costs being used over USB.

The question is prompted by reports that Windows 10 Pro would not boot if the internal SSD on which Windows 10 is installed is put into an external USB enclosure. As is, might be, the case Windows 10 Pro ‘notes’ its hardware environment and if this changes will no longer function if the hardware environment into which it is installed changes significantly. The assumption being that a move from SSD install drive as internal to external enclosure is a significant hardware configuration change which will stop Win 10 Pro booting as it is now housed in an external drive.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-au/answers/questions/5510218/boot-from-an-external-ssd-with-widows-10-already-i

Other things to note. New SSD purchased for Ubuntu LTS 24.04.x install. WD Blue SN5000 NVMe™ SSD 1 TB .

Yours,
York

30

On my PCs I have no problem with nvme disks:

Dell product: Inspiron 3793 Year 2019
Toshiba model: KBG40ZNS512G NVMe KIOXIA 512GB temp: 27.9 C
6 partitions with: Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04, 25.04, 25.10, Debian 13, data

Desktop Cogorno Year 2020
Gigabyte H510M H UEFI: American Megatrends
Kingston model: SNV2S500G size: 465.76 GiB temp: 31.3 C
6 partitions with: boot/efi, Ubuntu 24.04, 25.04, 25.10, Debian 14, data

Desktop Rezzoaglio refurbished year 2024
ASUSTeK PRIME H610M-E D4 UEFI: American Megatrends
nvme0n1 Toshiba model: KBG40ZNV256G KIOXIA size: 238.47 GiB temp: 28.9 C
nvme1n1 Kingston model: SKC2000M8250G size: 232.89 GiB temp: 28.9 C
partitions with: boot/efi, Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04, 25.04, 25.10, Debian 14, data

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Dear @corradoventu ,

Thanks for the response.

Good to know. Further confirmation it will likely work with the Western Digital SSD purchased. And a good list of other SSD’s to consider.

Yours,
York

32

No concerns at all

Installed versions of Windows 10/11 will never boot from an external USB device.
Windows To Go would be the alternative if you really need this feature.

A SSD/NVMe disk with an installed version of Ubuntu 24.04 will often boot on a completely separate PC
e.g. Install on an AMD PC, very good chance it will boot on a similar Intel PC

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Only issue could be the UEFI boot entry in the system.

Windows & Ubuntu share an ESP - efi system partition. Normal default of grub/Ubuntu is to ESP on first drive. Then an entry in UEFI has the GUID/partUUID of the ESP to know where to boot from.

If installing to an external drive best to have ESP on external drive. Most systems then have to use the one time UEFI boot key to select the external drive, if the external drive is disconnected. UEFI often forgets entries for drives that are removed. My Dell even remembers the UEFI entry for my external drive as default even after it is unplugged, but that does not seem to be normal.

If external drive is installed internally manually boot the first time. Then you only need to run grub’s install to add an entry into UEFI for default booting. It will normally make it first in boot order except with HP and maybe a few others. Those with HP have to go into UEFI settings & change boot order. Those with Acer have to enable “trust” in UEFI for the ubuntu entry.

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Dear @tea-for-one ,

Thanks for your response.

Good to have that confirmation about Win 10/11 and external USB enclosure for SSD.

So implication is that it will likely work installing Ubuntu on SSD in external USB enclosure then moving to SSD to internal M.2 slot inside laptop. For successful boot with SSD transferred as internal drive.

But still not sure if there are any hidden gotcha’s in doing so.

Yours,
York

35

Dear @oldfred ,

Thanks for your response.

Given this information the simpler option is to remove the SSD with Win 10 Pro and put new SSD into laptop unformatted. Then let Ubuntu installer do its thing. Assuming it will create a new UEFI partition for new disk.

So need to be sure to have all the necessary things lined up beforehand. Ahead of laptop teardown and removal of current SSD with Win 10 .

It would presumably be possible to boot from the USB key with Ubuntu ISO image on to access the internet if needed for troubleshooting. Or reinsert the SSD with Win 10 on if need be. But concerned the Win 10 might not work as expected once the SSD it is installed on is removed and reinserted notwithstanding some assurances it probably would.

Yours,
York

36

Yes, the ESP will be created.

Yes, you would boot into a “Try Ubuntu” live session.
Set your UEFI options to boot from USB

Yes, no obstacle there

Again, as long as your Windows 10 system is in good order (e.g. file systems OK), then, there will be no problem.
However, it’s always a good idea to have a Windows ISO on another USB stick for troubleshooting/repair process.

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