[SOLVED] M.2 ssd installation?

[jengs]

I have an overclock pc that I've had for a few months the mother board is an Asus prime b450m-a ii and I know it can accept a Sabrent NVME PCle M.2 SSD 1TB but when I try to install the SSD it blocks my old boot options, will I have to clone my old boot to this new SSD or will installing windows boot after plugging the SSD in be fine and not lose all my data, I'm very new to all of this and much of the stuff I have read and watched has gone over my head with words I don't know, pls help?

 

[USAFRet]

I have an overclock pc that I've had for a few months the mother board is an Asus prime b450m-a ii and I know it can accept a Sabrent NVME PCle M.2 SSD 1TB but when I try to install the SSD it blocks my old boot options, will I have to clone my old boot to this new SSD or will installing windows boot after plugging the SSD in be fine and not lose all my data, I'm very new to all of this and much of the stuff I have read and watched has gone over my head with words I don't know, pls help?

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"The M.2 Socket shares bandwidth with the SATA_5/6 ports, and therefore the SATA_5/6 ports cannot be used when an M.2 device is installed. "

Likely your current drive is in one of the affected SATA ports.
Move it to something other than 5 or 6, and all should be well.

If you wish to clone everything to the new M.2 drive, we can go into details.

 

[jengs]

PRIME B450M-A - Tech Specs｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

Discover PRIME B450M-A: The ultimate AMD AM4 motherboard, packed with cutting-edge features for an unmatched tech experience.

www.asus.com

"The M.2 Socket shares bandwidth with the SATA_5/6 ports, and therefore the SATA_5/6 ports cannot be used when an M.2 device is installed. "

Likely your current drive is in one of the affected SATA ports.
Move it to something other than 5 or 6, and all should be well.

If you wish to clone everything to the new M.2 drive, we can go into details.

Ok so what's the next step, also if you have any ideas on where to move the two cables in sata ports 5 and 6 to another that would be helpful

 

[USAFRet]

Ok so what's the next step, also if you have any ideas on where to move the two cables in sata ports 5 and 6 to another that would be helpful

Any of the other 4 ports. 1-4.
Let's get both drives working first, then we go into the cloning thing.

 

[jengs]

Any of the other 4 ports. 1-4.
Let's get both drives working first, then we go into the cloning thing.

yeah I see that now thank you, ok so what's next?

 

[USAFRet]

yeah I see that now thank you, ok so what's next?

How much space is consumed on your current HDD?

 

[jengs]

How much space is consumed on your current HDD?

almost all of it, recently downloaded a bunch of games and didn't look and now it's pretty much almost at 1tb

 

[USAFRet]

almost all of it, recently downloaded a bunch of games and didn't look and now it's pretty much almost at 1tb

We need an actual number...😉

To clone into a 1TB drive, the actual consumed space must be below 800GB.

 

[jengs]

We need an actual number...😉

To clone into a 1TB drive, the actual consumed space must be below 800GB.

ok so I'm just gonna uninstall a few games since they are taking up a lot of room and it is over 800gb

 

[USAFRet]

ok so I'm just gonna uninstall a few games since they are taking up a lot of room and it is over 800gb

OK.
Get to that number, and we can continue

 

[jengs]

OK.
Get to that number, and we can continue

we are at 626gb

 

[USAFRet]

OK....

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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 not optional.
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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