[SOLVED] Cloning HDD to SDD- Adapter needed?

[KtrlAltDel]

If a motherboard has a slot for both an old HDD and another slot for a new SSD, will I need an adapter to clone the HDD to the SDD or can I have both installed at the same time in the motherboard when performing a complete clone? It looks like no, but I just need to check my knowledge since it seems many people say adapters are needed to install externally.

I want to clone my old HDD (Toshiba 1TB but only ~700GB used) to a SDD ( Crucial 1TB M2-m key). I have a Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI motherboard. I will be conducting the clone with Macrium Reflect. I am not planning on keeping the old HDD installed after I power down to see if clone to SDD worked.

 

[USAFRet]

"GA-Z97X-SLI"

The M.2 port is only PCIe 2.0.
As such, performance of an NVMe dive is halved from what it should be.
Further, you must be on BIOS v F7 or later. Otherwise, no boot for you.
Further, use of an M.2 drive disables SATA ports 4 & 5.

Z97 era boards are iffy with NVMe support.

Can you do it? Yes.
Is it worth it? Probably not.
Will you see any great benefit over a SATA III SSD? No.


But, here ya go:

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Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
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Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, 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
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

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 specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
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.
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[TerryLaze]

If the system can see both at the same time then you can also clone them without issues.

If the drive is a windows drive you might have problems because suddenly the driver will change from sata to nvme and also the starting disk will be a different one. Those problems will be the same even if you do use an adapter.

 

[USAFRet]

since it seems many people say adapters are needed to install externally.

No you don't need an adapter.
Just don't have the HDD connected to SATA 4 or 5.

 

[KtrlAltDel]

"GA-Z97X-SLI"

The M.2 port is only PCIe 2.0.
As such, performance of an NVMe dive is halved from what it should be.
Further, you must be on BIOS v F7 or later. Otherwise, no boot for you.
Further, use of an M.2 drive disables SATA ports 4 & 5.

Z97 era boards are iffy with NVMe support.

Can you do it? Yes.
Is it worth it? Probably not.
Will you see any great benefit over a SATA III SSD? No.



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Thanks. I might just go with a SATA SDD now.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks. I might just go with a SATA SDD now.

And you'll still see a massive benefit over your existing HDD.