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Using M.2 SSD with Switch 2

Brilliant! Someone in Japan tricked the Switch 2 console to accept an M.2 SSD, by using a microSD Express Card to bypass the hardware initiation.

Photo of a custom PCB, SSD, and microSD Express Card, plugged into a Switch 2
Screenshot of a Switch 2 System, recognizing the SSD as a microSD Express Card

Based on this X user’s follow-up tweets and what I gathered from a couple other related sites, below I’ll briefly explain how the hack works and how to replicate it yourself. Note that I’m simplifying it for brevity; see the reference links below for precise details.

When an Express Card is plugged into the Switch 2 console, the initialization is done through the standard SD pins (#1-#8 in images 1-2 below), afterward the communication switches to PCIe/NVMe (#9-#17). So the trick is to connect pins 1-8 to a real Express card and pins 9-17 to an M.2 SSD and USB PD power (image 3).

Drawing of microSD Express Card pinout, and UHS II Card pinout
Table of pin definition for microSD Express: Row 1 (Top - Legacy Pins 1-8): Used for standard UHS-I power and signaling (DAT0-DAT3, CMD, CLK) Row 2 (Bottom - Express Pins 9-17): Dedicated to PCIe/NVMe interface. Pins 9-10: Ground (GND). Pins 11-12: PCIe Transmitter Lanes (PETP0, PETN0). Pins 13-14: Ground (GND). Pins 15-16: PCIe Receiver Lanes (PERP0, PERN0). Pin 17: Dedicated to Card Present Detection (PRSNT#) or reference clock.
Photo of PCB on: https://github.com/Ushinbuy/MegaSD-Express

Since only one lane of PCIe 3 is supported, the transfer speed of SSD is limited to 985MB/s just like the microSD Express Card. The X user stated that not all SSDs he tried were compatible, so YMMV.

References: GitHub, mzimmermann.info, and x.com

[Originally posted on 2026-04-01 and -05 Pacific Time]