Question

if i use an adapter card with multiple m.2 slots will it show up as 1 storage drive on the pc unless the motherboard has pcie bifurcation?

Answer 1

When an adapter card with multiple M.2 slots is used, individual M.2 drives will be recognized as separate drives only if the motherboard supports PCIe bifurcation.

Step-by-step explanation:

The correct answer is option Computers and Technology. When using an adapter card with multiple M.2 slots, whether or not the drives show up as a single storage drive or individual drives on the PC depends on the PCIe bifurcation support of the motherboard.

Without PCIe bifurcation, the motherboard's BIOS cannot split the PCIe lanes to individually recognize each M.2 drive. Consequently, the system might only see the first drive connected to the adapter card. With PCIe bifurcation, each M.2 slot can use dedicated lanes, allowing the system to recognize each drive separately.

For the drives to appear as a single storage drive, you would need to configure them in a RAID array using hardware or software RAID, assuming bifurcation is supported and the drives are individually recognized.

Without it, typically only one drive may be recognized. To appear as a single storage drive, the drives must be configured in a RAID array.