M.2 SSD into ASUS RoG

[nallera]

Hi there, thanks for reading. I'm buying a GL552VW-DH71 notebook from ASUS: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1183450-REG/asus_gl552vw_dh71_i7_6700hq_16gb_1tb_windows_10_64_960m_15_6.html
And I bought a Samsung 850 Evo M.2 SSD: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1123188-REG/samsung_mz_n5e120bw_850_evo_120gb_m_2.html
So, when I get the computer (someone's buying it for me), the process is simple right? I understand there's an opening at the bottom, and a M.2 slot. I should plug the SSD and then clone the HDD to it, right? I guess the HDD will come with less than 120Gb used.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tradesman1]

Sounds about right, can download the manual to confirm:

https://www.asus.com/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/GL552VW/HelpDesk_Manual/

 

[nallera]

Hey, thanks, good idea. The bad part is that the only thing that the manual doesn't cover is adding a ssd hahaha.
Another question: what will happen to the original windows installation that now is in the hdd when I clone it to the ssd?

 

[Tradesman1]

I haven't cloned to an M.2 though should be like to a regular SSd and haven't had any problems with those

 

[nallera]

Forgot to answer. Ok, so I'll still have the license working. Great, thanks for your help.

 

[Tradesman1]

No worries 😉

 

[arthos4551]

For mine, adding the drive was pretty easy. The hatch to access the bays is literally one screw. Most of the ROGs come with a 2.5' bay that can be used. I added it in then simply did a full reset with windows and chose it to install on the ssd. If you want to copy everything from one to another then it will be abit more complicated. You will need some type of cloner. Then you will need to insert it into the laptop and enter bios and change the boot order. Hopefully if all goes well, it will work. I highly suggest not formatting the Harddrive till you know it fully works. That way if anything goes wrong you can place it back.

 

[SandmannAU]

Hey, thanks, good idea. The bad part is that the only thing that the manual doesn't cover is adding a ssd hahaha.
Another question: what will happen to the original windows installation that now is in the hdd when I clone it to the ssd?

I've just bought one of these myself. Forget about the manual - it's useless. I assume you bought the version with only a HDD in it? Good plan as I only had the one with the 128GB SSD available here, and the first thing I'm doing is upgrading it to a 256 one.

Chances are if you just install the SSD it will set itself up as D drive, and your C drive HDD will remain as it was. You could use one of various utilities to migrate your HDD's partition to your SSD and set it up so the SSD is the boot drive (google is your friend here - plenty of "how to's" out there) or you could just create a new "Program Files" folder on your D drive and manually install every program, app, etc to the D drive. Neither of these is a brilliant solution, though both will work.

My personal preference though is to set up the new SSD as the boot drive and reinstall from scratch on it, and using "Audit Mode" during the install process move the Users folder to the D drive (method is described here). That way every time you do a download, save a picture, put a video or an MP3 in the appropriate folder, or even save something to the desktop it will automatically save to the slower, spacious HDD and every time you install a program/app it will automatically install to the faster SSD. I've used this method under both Win7 and WIn10 on my desktop for about two years and the only problem I've found was that the free AVG virus checker didn't like it - everything else works flawlessly.

You can download an installation disk for Win10 from Microsoft legitimately and burn it to a DVD (or onto a bootable USB flash drive), and use the same installation key as your laptop already has to keep it legal (microsoft should automatically verify it without you even putting the number in). In my case this will leave the original 128BG SSD as a backup - in your case you might want to back up ALL the original partitions (remember there will probably be at least 1 invisible one with the Windows install on it on your HDD) to another drive. Another alternative would be to buy yourself a 2TB HDD as well and replace both, leaving you with the original HDD with its installation intact as a backup.

 

[Ethan_92]

Hi there, thanks for reading. I'm buying a GL552VW-DH71 notebook from ASUS: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1183450-REG/asus_gl552vw_dh71_i7_6700hq_16gb_1tb_windows_10_64_960m_15_6.html
And I bought a Samsung 850 Evo M.2 SSD: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1123188-REG/samsung_mz_n5e120bw_850_evo_120gb_m_2.html
So, when I get the computer (someone's buying it for me), the process is simple right? I understand there's an opening at the bottom, and a M.2 slot. I should plug the SSD and then clone the HDD to it, right? I guess the HDD will come with less than 120Gb used.

Thanks in advance.

Nope the m.2 slot sadly does not work on the DH71. It only works on the DH-74 model which is the one that comes with the 128GB SSD in default. I guess the only way to upgrade the laptop with SSD is by replacing the HDD with a Samsung EVO 850. I'm still reading the forums on if it will actually work before buying just to be careful.