Question Best option for Upgrading full C: drive SSD

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
S

slyguy28

Reputable
Jun 25, 2020
46
3
4,535
Hi Community,

Was looking for best option for adding (or replacing) C: Drive external SSD card with larger one. I currently have a 500GB SSD card (C:) and a 2 TB disk drive (H:) in my machine and recently noticed my SSD housing all my basic documents, work spreadsheets, etc is FULL. After some investigating on whether to clone or replace this drive with higher TB SSD, I thought I would look for advice from you all. I see mixed bag of information on cloning drives with operating systems, etc. Any suggestions on best way to increase? I would even appreciate any suggestions on WHAT specific drive to purchase. Not sure if adding additional SSD is option either?

Any help on what seems like a daunting task of replacing yet so simple.

Appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,

SLYGUY

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D 3 GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Scythe Fuma 3 67.62 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Storage: Crucial MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital WD_BLACK 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC V2 GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB Video Card
Case: Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G3 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Monitor: Acer VG270U Pbmiipx 27.0" 2560 x 1440 144 Hz Monitor
Monitor: Acer VG270U Pbmiipx 27.0" 2560 x 1440 144 Hz Monitor
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Cloning is generally no problem. Yes, even the OS drive.
You can put in a 1 or 2 TB NVMe drive, and clone the entirety of the current C drive (MX500) tot he new.

WD SN850X is an excellent option for this. I just bought one.
Or, Samsung 990 Pro.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/live/best-black-friday-ssd-deals-2024

Please show us a screencap of your current Disk Management window.

(Details on cloning to follow)
 
  • Like
Reactions: triplex1 and NightHawkRMX
Upvote 0 Downvote
slyguy28 said:
recently noticed my SSD housing all my basic documents, work spreadsheets, etc is FULL.
Click to expand...
You might be able to "free up" some space on the C: drive by running 'Windows Disk Clean-up' and click the "Clean-up system files" button. With any luck you'll get rid of 3GB to 9GB of redundant Windows Update files. This is only a temporary measure before you clone the SSD to a bigger drive. The next time Windows Update runs on the second Tuesday of each month, it'll gobble up some of the free space again.
https://www.howtogeek.com/825855/disk-cleanup-windows-10/

I use an older (free) version of Macrium Reflect to clone SSDs. Having done it before, I find it a very simple process.
https://www.macrium.com/blog/cloning-a-disk-with-macrium-reflect-v8

Before you start any cloning, backup all your documents, spreadsheets, family photographs, etc., on your C: drive to another disk drive, or USB memory stick. I've never had a disk clone fail, but backups are ESSENTIAL.

Disconnect all drives, apart from drive C: and the new SSD before cloning. When the clone finishes, disconnect the old drive C: before rebooting the PC. This ensures the hidden boot partition stays on the new (cloned) SSD.

If you have any questions, just ask. We're here to help.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
USAFRet said:
Cloning is generally no problem. Yes, even the OS drive.
You can put in a 1 or 2 TB NVMe drive, and clone the entirety of the current C drive (MX500) tot he new.

WD SN850X is an excellent option for this. I just bought one.
Or, Samsung 990 Pro.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/live/best-black-friday-ssd-deals-2024

Please show us a screencap of your current Disk Management window.

(Details on cloning to follow)
Click to expand...
Appreciate the response, unfortunately I don't have a great way to make a URL out of my screenshot (really don't need an account with imgur). Would gladly provide any details you are looking for though. Let me know what you need. I might just add the WD SN850X as 4TB should last me a while. HEAT SINK? No Heat Sink? Am i better off replacing C: drive with this or adding another Drive? Also is the SSD on motherboard better option than the external I am using now?

Thanks again,

SLYGUY
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Misgar said:
You might be able to "free up" some space on the C: drive by running 'Windows Disk Clean-up' and click the "Clean-up system files" button. With any luck you'll get rid of 3GB to 9GB of redundant Windows Update files. This is only a temporary measure before you clone the SSD to a bigger drive. The next time Windows Update runs on the second Tuesday of each month, it'll gobble up some of the free space again.
https://www.howtogeek.com/825855/disk-cleanup-windows-10/

I use an older (free) version of Macrium Reflect to clone SSDs. Having done it before, I find it a very simple process.
https://www.macrium.com/blog/cloning-a-disk-with-macrium-reflect-v8

Before you start any cloning, backup all your documents, spreadsheets, family photographs, etc., on your C: drive to another disk drive, or USB memory stick. I've never had a disk clone fail, but backups are ESSENTIAL.

Disconnect all drives, apart from drive C: and the new SSD before cloning. When the clone finishes, disconnect the old drive C: before rebooting the PC. This ensures the hidden boot partition stays on the new (cloned) SSD.

If you have any questions, just ask. We're here to help.
Click to expand...
Really appreciate the help. I am likely to look into an SSD listed above (i like the idea of 4TB of SSD space as this will likely outlast my needs. With the recommendation above, will like consider one of the options listed. Do you have any recommendations on SSD? looks like my motherboard will support it, but a little confused on if I need heatsink or not?
Once i have SSD in hand I guess the real issue consists of the process of making the migration properly and limiting issues with my current PC. I will place order today, then will likely have concerns or questions about best way to proceed with transfer.

Thanks Misgar
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
slyguy28 said:
Appreciate the response, unfortunately I don't have a great way to make a URL out of my screenshot (really don't need an account with imgur). Would gladly provide any details you are looking for though. Let me know what you need. I might just add the WD SN850X as 4TB should last me a while. HEAT SINK? No Heat Sink? Am i better off replacing C: drive with this or adding another Drive? Also is the SSD on motherboard better option than the external I am using now?

Thanks again,

SLYGUY
Click to expand...

I'm not quite following your current drive setup.

I see various references to drive C, drive H, internal, external, Crucial MX 500 and Western Digital 7200 rpm.

I'm guessing you have ONLY 2 drives.

MX 500 internal, 500 GB. I assume this is your OS and applications drive.

Is the Western Digital 7200 RPM 2 TB an internal drive? External? Does it contain your "original" personal data? Or is it for backup purposes or?

Or do you have a third drive?

How much space is occupied on each of the drives you now have?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
USAFRet said:
You can do it without creating an account at imgur.

But for proper recommendation, we out here really need to see what you see, and how the system is configured.
Click to expand...
Volume:LayoutTypeFile SystemStatusCapacityFree Space% Free
(C)SimpleBasicNTFSHealthy465.16GB78.60GBB17%
Disk 1 Partition 1SimpleBasicHealthy100 MB100MB100%
Disk 1 Partition 4SimpleBasicHealthy499MB499MB100%
Hard Drive (H)SimpleBasicNTFSHealthy1863GB1521.67 GB82%

Disk 0
Basic
1863 GB
Online		Hard Drive (H)
1863 GB NTFS
Healthy (Page File,Basic Data Partition)
Disk 1
Basic
468.75 GB
Online		100 MB
Healthy (EFI System Partition)		(C)
465.16 GB NTFS
Healthy (Boot, Crash Dump, Basic Data Partition)		499 MB
Healthy (Recovery Partition)

The 500 Is my external SSD drive and the Western Digital is Internal. Hope you can make this work. Again, not trying to offend or upset, just looking for help.

Appreciate everyone's time.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
slyguy28 said:
The 500 Is my external SSD drive
Click to expand...
When you say your 500GB Windows boot drive is "external", could you be more specific? As @USAFRet says, it's not standard practice to boot a typical 'home-user' Windows PC from an external drive.

Most people I know boot their Windows computers from an "internal" drive, i.e. a drive which is mounted inside their computer. Older drives used IDE or SCSI interfaces, modern drives use SATA, M.2 NVMe, SAS, etc.

The picture below shows an M.2 drive (top) and a 2.5" SATA drive (bottom). Both are typical of internal drives used to boot up a computer into Windows.

iu


To my mind, an "external" drive is one that is physically located outside the computer case and typically connected via USB, Ethernet, Thunderbolt, or possibly eSATA.

The image below is of a Crucial 4TB Portable (External) SSD, using a USB-C cable to connect to a computer.

Crucial-x6-4tb-baco.jpg


On very rare occasions I've booted computers into Windows from an external USB memory stick configured with WinToUSB.
https://www.techspot.com/downloads/6475-wintousb.html

It might help if you could provide the precise model number and manufacturer of your 500GB boot drive C: so we can figure out the best options.

slyguy28 said:
Volume:LayoutTypeFile SystemStatusCapacityFree Space% Free
(C)SimpleBasicNTFSHealthy465.16GB78.60GBB17%
Disk 1 Partition 1SimpleBasicHealthy100 MB100MB100%
Disk 1 Partition 4SimpleBasicHealthy499MB499MB100%
Click to expand...
This shows a typical Windows boot disk, with several partitions, only one of which (Drive C:) is visible to casual inspection. The other hidden partitions are required to boot the drive into Windows and for system Recovery.

When cloning your Windows drive, you need to clone all the partitions on the 500GB SSD to a new (bigger) drive. You can make the C: drive fill all free space on the new drive.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Misgar said:
When you say your 500GB Windows boot drive is "external", could you be more specific? As @USAFRet says, it's not standard practice to boot a typical 'home-user' Windows PC from an external drive.

Most people I know boot their Windows computers from an "internal" drive, i.e. a drive which is mounted inside their computer. Older drives used IDE or SCSI interfaces, modern drives use SATA, M.2 NVMe, SAS, etc.

The picture below shows an M.2 drive (top) and a 2.5" SATA drive (bottom). Both are typical of internal drives used to boot up a computer into Windows.

iu


To my mind, an "external" drive is one that is physically located outside the computer case and typically connected via USB, Ethernet, Thunderbolt, or possibly eSATA.

The image below is of a Crucial 4TB Portable (External) SSD, using a USB-C cable to connect to a computer.

Crucial-x6-4tb-baco.jpg


On very rare occasions I've booted computers into Windows from an external USB memory stick configured with WinToUSB.
https://www.techspot.com/downloads/6475-wintousb.html

It might help if you could provide the precise model number and manufacturer of your 500GB boot drive C: so we can figure out the best options.


This shows a typical Windows boot disk, with several partitions, only one of which (Drive C:) is visible to casual inspection. The other hidden partitions are required to boot the drive into Windows and for system Recovery.

When cloning your Windows drive, you need to clone all the partitions on the 500GB SSD to a new (bigger) drive. You can make the C: drive fill all free space on the new drive.
Click to expand...
I have a traditional disk drive (Western Digital WD_BLACK 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive) fixed mounted in case and the SSD card (Crucial MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive) wired in as well, nothing is portable. I was just using "external" as reference to it being an add on. (both are mounted in case). I currently DO NOT have an M.2 drive.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
USAFRet said:
OK, that clears that up.

You can clone to a larger 1 or 2 TB NVMe drive.
Maybe $120 max, at current prices.
Click to expand...
Appreciate the feedback. Assuming 3rd party software best for "cloning?" Sure I can research to process and find plenty of tutorials, but would gladly appreciate any insight or recommendations you have.

Thanks again for your time and help.

SLYGUY
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
slyguy28 said:
Appreciate the feedback. Assuming 3rd party software best for "cloning?" Sure I can research to process and find plenty of tutorials, but would gladly appreciate any insight or recommendations you have.

Thanks again for your time and help.

SLYGUY
Click to expand...
-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Magician (which includes Data Migration), if a Samsung target SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up

Verify the system boots with ONLY the current "C drive" connected.
If not, we have to fix that first.

Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specify the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom