[SOLVED] Clone via pciE adapter or usb enclosure

[2simple4u]

Hello I currently have this build:

Motherboard: HP 8767
Intel Core i7-10700F
1TB HDD
256GB SSD (KXG60ZNV256G)
32GB RAM
GeForce GTX 1660 Super

1 x PCI-E x16 - Occupied; 1 x PCI-E x1 - Available; 2 x M.2 - Occupied

I am currently booting off the SSD, and would like to upgrade that to a 1 TB SSD.

Would it be best if I:
1 - buy a pci-e to M.2 adapter and just use it as a secondary drive or
2 - buy an ssd enclosure, clone my current ssd to a new 1TB SSD, then use the 1TB SSD as my c drive

I'm hoping my extra space will solve a couple issues I'm currently having:

• when editing real estate photography related stuff, photoshop gets unresponsive after a few edited photos. For example I'd start painting with a brush, and the actual painting is delayed by a few seconds. as you can imagine, slows my workflow to a crawl.
• I have a game that I'd like to download that is recommending that I have 120 GB free on the SSD. I only have 40 left (from the 256).

Any guidance would be appreciated. thank you in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

1x m.2 slot with an Image

Assuming you have another drive with sufficient free space to hold the entirety of your current m.2 drive:

1. Download and install Macrium Reflect
2. Run that, and create a Rescue CD or USB (you'll use this later). "Other Tasks"
3. In the Macrium client, create an Image to some other drive. External USB HDD, maybe. Select all partitions. This results in a file of xxxx.mrimage
4. When done, power OFF.
5. Swap the 2 drives
6. Boot up from the Rescue USB you created earlier.
7. Recover, and tell it where the Image is that you created in step 3, and which drive to apply it to...the new m.2
8. Go, and wait until it finishes.
9. That's all...this should work.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

you don't need the drive connected externally to clone.
just connecting to another available internal SATA port and running the cloning software is all you would need to do.

afterwards you would exchange the location of the drives and the new one would take over as the main OS system drive.

whichever software you use should include a pretty in depth explanation of the process.

 

[2simple4u]

you don't need the drive connected externally to clone.
just connecting to another available internal SATA port and running the cloning software is all you would need to do.

afterwards you would exchange the location of the drives and the new one would take over as the main OS system drive.

whichever software you use should include a pretty in depth explanation of the process.

thanks for your reply. would I need to get an adapter to make the M.2 SSD to SATA port connection ? This pc didnt come with any extra cables.

 

[2simple4u]

1x m.2 slot with an Image

Assuming you have another drive with sufficient free space to hold the entirety of your current m.2 drive:

1. Download and install Macrium Reflect
2. Run that, and create a Rescue CD or USB (you'll use this later). "Other Tasks"
3. In the Macrium client, create an Image to some other drive. External USB HDD, maybe. Select all partitions. This results in a file of xxxx.mrimage
4. When done, power OFF.
5. Swap the 2 drives
6. Boot up from the Rescue USB you created earlier.
7. Recover, and tell it where the Image is that you created in step 3, and which drive to apply it to...the new m.2
8. Go, and wait until it finishes.
9. That's all...this should work.

Thank you for your reply. A couple follow-up questions:

• I do have the internal 1 TB HDD. would I not be able to save the image here ?
• If I were to buy that pci-e adapter and kept my 256 for storage...is that a worthwhile option (to keep the 256 ssd as secondary storage)

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

would I need to get an adapter to make the M.2 SSD to SATA port connection ?

if you are using strictly M.2 just remove one, that is not the OS drive, temporarily and place the new drive there as the target for the clone.
after the operation is complete you can replace the temporarily removed drive and/or reorganize them as needed.

you should post exactly which drives contain what data and where they are currently located in the system.
M.2, 2.5" SSD, 3.5" HDD, etc.

 

[USAFRet]

Thank you for your reply. A couple follow-up questions:

• I do have the internal 1 TB HDD. would I not be able to save the image here ?
• If I were to buy that pci-e adapter and kept my 256 for storage...is that a worthwhile option (to keep the 256 ssd as secondary storage)

Yes, any storage device with sufficient free space.

 

[2simple4u]

if you are using strictly M.2 just remove one, that is not the OS drive, temporarily and place the new drive there as the target for the clone.

after the operation is complete you can replace the temporarily removed drive and reorganize them as needed.

Ah i see where the confusion is.

I only have a single M.2 port (which is occupied by my 256 ssd)
and then there's the HDD using some other port

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I only have a single M.2 port

but you state, "...2 x M.2 - Occupied" in your original post.

 

[2simple4u]

but you state, "...2 x M.2 - Occupied" in your original post.

yes that I copied from the specs sheet from the online store for the computer.

Having a visual look at the board, i can only see the one M.2 port (hosting the 256 SSD). I'm not sure what's attached to that other M.2. I would have to remove bays and stuff to see the fuller picture.

If it makes any difference to you, the motherboard specs from HP says this:

• Two M.2 expansion slots (1 x PCIe x16 and 1 x PCIe x1)
  • One M.2 socket 1, Key A
  • One M.2 socket 3, Key M, (2280/2242)

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

and you should still,

...post exactly which drives contain what data and where they are currently located in the system.
M.2, 2.5" SSD, 3.5" HDD, etc.

 

[2simple4u]

and you should still,

had to go hunting to find out this information. So,

I've 2 disks installed:

• SSD 256 GB Windows drive (c: ) M.2 (model: KXG60ZNV256G)
• HDD 1 TB Data drive (d: ) 3.5 SATA (model: DT01ACA100 )

 

[Bob.B]

Hello I currently have this build:

Motherboard: HP 8767
Intel Core i7-10700F
1TB HDD
256GB SSD (KXG60ZNV256G)
32GB RAM
GeForce GTX 1660 Super

1 x PCI-E x16 - Occupied; 1 x PCI-E x1 - Available; 2 x M.2 - Occupied

I am currently booting off the SSD, and would like to upgrade that to a 1 TB SSD.

Would it be best if I:
1 - buy a pci-e to M.2 adapter and just use it as a secondary drive or
2 - buy an ssd enclosure, clone my current ssd to a new 1TB SSD, then use the 1TB SSD as my c drive

I'm hoping my extra space will solve a couple issues I'm currently having:

• when editing real estate photography related stuff, photoshop gets unresponsive after a few edited photos. For example I'd start painting with a brush, and the actual painting is delayed by a few seconds. as you can imagine, slows my workflow to a crawl.
• I have a game that I'd like to download that is recommending that I have 120 GB free on the SSD. I only have 40 left (from the 256).

Any guidance would be appreciated. thank you in advance.

It's your call what you want to do with the 256 after the clone.
If you want a permanent mount you get the adapter or if you want a temp mount to use as needed you get the enclosure.

Consider a different mix......keep your 256 for the OS and apps and replace the hdd with a ssd for storage.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Never use a 256 gb as an os drive. Way too small!

 

[Bob.B]

Never use a 256 gb as an os drive. Way too small!

Never say never.
Not very many users will have a problem with a 256 disk.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

yeah, until windows updates. not worth the trouble later on, and they don't last as long as a larger SSD

get by on it until you can afford at least a 500GB or a 1TB

 

[Bob.B]

yeah, until windows updates. not worth the trouble later on, and they don't last as long as a larger SSD

get by on it until you can afford at least a 500GB or a 1TB

I'm going on 3 yrs and my W10/OS disk has less than 25GB.

A problem is folks know how to add but not subtract.....tidy up....house cleaning.

Based on ~1.5GB per hour writes I might get a few yrs of use from my disk before I hit the tbw limit.

We all run our machines different but I don't see a need for some huge OS disk.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Never use a 256 gb as an os drive. Way too small!

have been using 480GB disk for the OS and have never filled it past 150GB, usually closer to 100GB.
so 256GB is fine for Windows plus an average amount of applications.

if you're installing a lot of very large software packages of course you would need something that can handle that but for basic users 256GB is in no way too small.

 

[2simple4u]

1x m.2 slot with an Image

Assuming you have another drive with sufficient free space to hold the entirety of your current m.2 drive:

1. Download and install Macrium Reflect
2. Run that, and create a Rescue CD or USB (you'll use this later). "Other Tasks"
3. In the Macrium client, create an Image to some other drive. External USB HDD, maybe. Select all partitions. This results in a file of xxxx.mrimage
4. When done, power OFF.
5. Swap the 2 drives
6. Boot up from the Rescue USB you created earlier.
7. Recover, and tell it where the Image is that you created in step 3, and which drive to apply it to...the new m.2
8. Go, and wait until it finishes.
9. That's all...this should work.

Everything was going smooth until I restarted the machine after completing the steps above.

Now when I boot, I get the message that my disk needs to be repaired.

Restarting the machine after that, I can go into the bios and can see the new SSD. I guess there's something wrong with the image ?

 

[USAFRet]

Everything was going smooth until I restarted the machine after completing the steps above.

Now when I boot, I get the message that my disk needs to be repaired.

Restarting the machine after that, I can go into the bios and can see the new SSD. I guess there's something wrong with the image ?

If it did not work, something went wrong in the process.

Return it back to original config...does the system boot up?
If so, try again.

 

[2simple4u]

If it did not work, something went wrong in the process.

Return it back to original config...does the system boot up?
If so, try again.

In the app, I selected, "create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore windows"

The image is on the new SSD, but just not bootable it seems.

Was there another option I was supposed to select to create a bootable image ?

 

[USAFRet]

In the app, I selected, "create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore windows"

The image is on the new SSD, but just not bootable it seems.

Was there another option I was supposed to select to create a bootable image ?

From Step 3 above : "Select all partitions. "

 

[2simple4u]

From Step 3 above : "Select all partitions. "

Will regroup and try again. The partitions on the new SSD appear to match those on external HDD.

Ifbmy new SSD isn't booting, can I use the usb to recover the image on the HDD to the new SSD ?

 

[USAFRet]

Will regroup and try again. The partitions on the new SSD appear to match those on external HDD.

Ifbmy new SSD isn't booting, can I use the usb to recover the image on the HDD to the new SSD ?

Current SSD -> write Image on HDD -> write that image to new SSD.
That's the way it is supposed to work.

 

[Lafong]

You might examine Macrium's "Fix Boot" capability.