No, there is not.

@msmith4099 @theofficemaven

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

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 Surface Studio model with Intel Core i7 has PCIe SSD.

The answer is yes.

@theofficemaven confirms that the Surface Studio with Intel Core i7 comes with a 128GB Toshiba XG3 THNSN5128GPU7 M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD installed.

Does you replacement Surface Studio unit also have the same PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD from Toshiba?

Have you received your replacement unit?

@redflight

My mistake. I've check Kingston's website and it's possible systems have M.2 sockets that can support either SATA or PCIe.

https://www.kingston.com/us/ssd/system-b...

The real question is whether the controller supports PCIe protocol.

We might not know the answer until someone tries putting in a PCIe SSD.

On the motherboard is the "Intel GL82CM236 Platform Hub Controller" which supports up to 8 SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) Ports.

A 2.5" SSD should be able to run at SATA III speed.

I assume that you just download the recovery image for Surface Studio (like for all the other Surfaces) from Microsoft's website and put it on your flash drive.

https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/...