M.2 NVMe SSD Move

I kinda doubt it will be that easy, but you never know.

Plan-B (if needed) might be to restore the Full Macrium Image ... you smartly created first. 

I suppose Plan-C is a clean-install.

I also question your motivation, because I see little net-benefit. 

My backup M2 NVME PCIE (F:) drive is a bootable clone of my primary (C:) M2 NVME PCIE drive.  The backup was cloned right after windows was clean installed on the primary drive.  The backup also contains regularly scheduled Macrium image backups.  I have an external drive with Macrium backups too, in the event of a virus, etc.  I've had 6 boot drive failures over the years and now am meticulous with my backups.  On a spinner, recovering data from a failed drive is no simple task.  With an SSD, I assume it's probably a lost cause.  In the event anything goes wrong with my main drive (botched software update, etc.) I just swap locations of the two M2 drives (backup going into M2 slot, primary going into PCIE), format, and re-image the main boot drive with the most recent Macrium image from my backup drive.  Then, I put the drives back into their original configuration.   I confirmed that both drives are bootable from the M2 slot, although I never had a need to try booting the backup drive while connected via PCIE.  I assume if bios is set to UEFI and since the R7 and presumably your Z370 board supports NVME booting, it should be possible.  You may need to specify the boot drive in BIOS since you're changing its physical location.  

Some info from Dell:  https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln300820/what-are-pcie-ssds-and-how-to-use-them-as-a-boot-drive-for-a-dell-pc?lang=en#install

I would suggest that, if your intent is primarily to cool your existing NVME m2 drive, there may be cheaper options.  For example, see this  fan/heatsink combo that you can just slap on top of an M2 SSD:  https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Heatsinks-Solid-State-Computer/dp/B07QZQZ422/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=nvme+heatsink+with+fan&qid=1564952511&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFZNzZGWE5XSVU3T0UmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAzNTAwMDlVRVpBMzg3UExXVzEmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDk0MTk5MzFUMElGM0dJSlBLTVkmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

In the event anything goes wrong with my main drive (botched software update, etc.) I just swap locations of the two M2 drives (backup going into M2 slot, primary going into PCIE), format, and re-image the main boot drive with the most recent Macrium image from my backup drive. Then, I put the drives back into their original configuration. I confirmed that both drives are bootable from the M2 slot, although I never had a need to try booting the backup drive while connected via PCIE.

@r72019 has the closest setup to what @Anonymous wants. 1 bootable NVMe SSD in the M2 slot and 1 backup NVMe SSD in the PCIe slot. However, boot always happens through the M2 slot SSD. The PCIe slot SSD is like a live clone of the M2's, close to but not exactly RAID, done through Macrium image. In the event of boot SSD failure, it's like just taking a very similar copy of the boot drive from the PCIe slot and popping it back into the M2 slot.

Barring the difference of an R7 vs 8930, @r72019 could try out the PCIe boot hypothesis pretty easily.

Thanks very much. I really appreciate the information. I will have to purchase that backup software, and present any questions about that in a separate thread.

From what I understand (or not) the card I pictured will plugged into a PCIe X4 card slot. Do you see any issue there? (photo below, red circle)

The Community platform is suffering through numerous glitches lately. No more "QUOTE" function, for one example. If you want to post in 'Rich Text' format, and the icons are not present, keep hitting 'F5' refresh until they show up. 

Update: I can confirm that my R7 allowed me to boot from lower PCIE x16 (x8) slot with GPU in upper slot.

I use Macrium to backup my system. If something goes wrong, I can restore my software settings to the backup without having to clean install windows. It saves the time of reinstalling all the software, office, windows, etc. I also suggest verify image after creation. I had one instance where I wasn't able to restore from an imaged backup so I now keep several backup images. I keep my videos, music, pictures, etc., on the storage drive so backups don't take up so much space.

If you do restore a backup, note that OneDrive may automatically delete all your new post-backup files so be sure not to empty your recycle bin.

Random aside, do other people have this problem?  When replying, sometimes there's format buttons on the top of the reply box, and other times there's no options visible at all and you need to add html tags to use formatting, line breaks, etc? 

My PCIe adapter is x4 too.  I plugged it into the x16 slot to allow for better airflow, because the second x16 slot was the farthest slot from my GPU and not being used anyway.

Macrium is like adobe, there's a free version and a paid version. The free version offers all the basics needed to create and restore from backups.

I don't have a quote button anymore either, I don't think I've seen it since sometime in June. 

Awesome. Thank you very much!

Based on the information so far, I am going to go for it, but I will definately get the Macrium image stuff figured out first.

SATA SSD drives AHCI vs NVME use different drivers so there is no plug and play or clone or anything supported.  F6 Mass storage drivers are no longer optional especially with PCI-E NVME vs SATA SSD.

As I understand from reading the first post, OP is re-using the same M2 PCIe NVME drive. The proposal is to move his existing PCIe NVME drive from one physical location to another location (i.e., M2 slot to PCIE x4 slot). There's no SATA based drive involved. I think his intent is to take advantage of the cooling features offered by the PCIe adapter.

SATA SSD drives AHCI vs NVME use different drivers so there is no plug and play or clone or anything supported.  F6 Mass storage drivers are no longer optional especially with PCI-E NVME vs SATA SSD.

B keyed NVME is SATA not PCI-E

M key only is PCI-E NVME.

The 2 are not compatible with each other.

Thank You. That is correct. I would take my existing SSD from the M2 slot and install it in this adapter:

Alphacool Eisblock HDX-2 PCI-e 3.0 x4 adaptor for M.2 NGFF