[SOLVED] Can you clone SSD to m.2 with same capacity

[FaithOnHuman]

Just wondering, can u clone an SSD e.g. 500gb to m.2 500gb or the m.2 should have bigger capacity?


edit: SATA III -> NVMe.

 

[USAFRet]

First off, "M.2" is merely the form factor. It is not the type of SSD>
M.2 can be either SATA III or NVMe.

Second....cloning into a 500GB drive requires that the actual consumed space on the source drive be below 400GB. It needs some free space to work.
The source drive can be of any size...500GB, 2TB, whatever. As long as the actual consumed space is below 400GB.


Now...SATA to M.2
Going from a SATA drive to an M.2 SATA drive...no problem. Given space requirements.
Going from a SATA drive to an M.2 NVMe drive...maybe problems.

 

[FaithOnHuman]

First off, "M.2" is merely the form factor. It is not the type of SSD>
M.2 can be either SATA III or NVMe.

Second....cloning into a 500GB drive requires that the actual consumed space on the source drive be below 400GB. It needs some free space to work.
The source drive can be of any size...500GB, 2TB, whatever. As long as the actual consumed space is below 400GB.


Now...SATA to M.2
Going from a SATA drive to an M.2 SATA drive...no problem. Given space requirements.
Going from a SATA drive to an M.2 NVMe drive...maybe problems.

oh sorry, it's SATA III -> NVMe.

SATA III disk (Samsung 860 Evo 500gb ) used space is around 150gb used
Nvme ( NVMe SSD 970 Evo Plus 500gb) is brand new...

so it's gonna work

 

[USAFRet]

Spacewise that will work.
SATA -> NVMe...might have issues.

Use the Samsung Data Migration tool.
And at the end of the process:
Power OFF
Disconnect the old drive
Power UP and allow the system to try to boot from the new drive on its own.
Resist the temptation to "look around" in the target drive (the 970), to see if everything is there. Barring an error message, it is. And you couldn't tell anyway.

Power OFF.

 

[FaithOnHuman]

Spacewise that will work.
SATA -> NVMe...might have issues.

Use the Samsung Data Migration tool.
And at the end of the process:
Power OFF
Disconnect the old drive
Power UP and allow the system to try to boot from the new drive on its own.
Resist the temptation to "look around" in the target drive (the 970), to see if everything is there. Barring an error message, it is. And you couldn't tell anyway.

Power OFF.

okkk thanks, i will back up everything just in case.

 

[atljsf]

i migrated from sata to nvme, the partiton and all worked, but windows

it turned out that windows needed a nvme driver to be able to load files from it and work, so i had to turn pc on with both ssd and nvme connected, let windows 10 detect the nvme, install drivers for it

then i used acronis, moved the 120gb ssd partition to a 240 nvme partition all worked well

so, yes you can, check if you need a windows 10 driver first before doing it, acronis took care of the partition size and resized it to fill the entire 240gbs on the nvme

other tools might do it different

if you are changing more than the nvme, consider doing a clean windows 10 installation instead, migrate is fast but sometimes might give you problems later, like slow performance, weird errors, similar stuff

 

[USAFRet]

okkk thanks, i will back up everything just in case.

You should ALWAYS have a backup (fall back plan), just in case things go weird.
Always.

Even just turning the PC on.

 

[FaithOnHuman]

i migrated from sata to nvme, the partiton and all worked, but windows

it turned out that windows needed a nvme driver to be able to load files from it and work, so i had to turn pc on with both ssd and nvme connected, let windows 10 detect the nvme, install drivers for it

then i used acronis, moved the 120gb ssd partition to a 240 nvme partition all worked well

so, yes you can, check if you need a windows 10 driver first before doing it, acronis took care of the partition size and resized it to fill the entire 240gbs on the nvme

other tools might do it different

if you are changing more than the nvme, consider doing a clean windows 10 installation instead, migrate is fast but sometimes might give you problems later, like slow performance, weird errors, similar stuff

hmm I see... I just clean installed windows like a week ago but yeah a fresh install is always the best

 

[USAFRet]

hmm I see... I just clean installed windows like a week ago but yeah a fresh install is always the best

If you did a clean install on the 860 EVO just last week, you don't have enough history in it to justify a clone.
Just do a clean install on the new 970.

 

[atljsf]

on that time i didn't wanted to reinstall steam, origin, epic, you know usual stuff, so i wanted to get up and running asap, but windows 10 installation process is like one hour more or less, specially with a nvme and the installer in a usb 3 drive connected to a usb 3 port

the clone process is perfectly doable, but the driver i mention seems to be a recurrent problem, so i had to install it to let win 10 detect it and install drive,r turn off pc, clone drive into the nvme, remove ssd and then set bios to boot form nvme and it worked, well it worked both times, but windows gave me that limitation

 

[FaithOnHuman]

on that time i didn't wanted to reinstall steam, origin, epic, you know usual stuff, so i wanted to get up and running asap, but windows 10 installation process is like one hour more or less, specially with a nvme and the installer in a usb 3 drive connected to a usb 3 port

the clone process is perfectly doable, but the driver i mention seems to be a recurrent problem, so i had to install it to let win 10 detect it and install drive,r turn off pc, clone drive into the nvme, remove ssd and then set bios to boot form nvme and it worked, well it worked both times, but windows gave me that limitation

I know... and as a professional designer my main issue with clean install is that I have to reinstall the Adobe CC, plug ins, fonts, assets, footage, drivers blah blah... but I think I am gonna fresh reinstall the windows to the nvme... after all is just one more sleepless night 😂

 

[atljsf]

you are right, who needs to sleep?