[SOLVED] Migrating OS from SSD to M.2 SSD?

Chris 28

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Jul 30, 2017
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So, I've recently bought a Samsung 970 EVO 500gb M.2 SSD in hopes that I could use it as the active drive to store my Windows 10 Pro on, rather than using my current Samsung 860 1tb SSD. I went and downloaded MiniTool Partition Wizard and proceeded to use their OS Migration tool. After I finished each step and restarted my pc, I went into disk management and saw that a new 250MB partition was in fact created in the new disk and that it was an active partition. I also noticed that my other disk still had its active partition. I restarted into BIOS (using an MSI H370 Pro Carbon motherboard) and found that the M.2 isn't showing up in the boot order, but is shown under System Status in the M2_1 slot (Windows has detected the new M.2 just fine). Is this an issue with the motherboard? Does it have something to do with the M.2 itself? Is this even possible? I'm confused.

Fixed the problem from the help I got below:
It turns out the issue I had in this process was that I accidentally stopped the migration process right away and didn't realize it. It created a 250MB partition and a 465GB paritition, but didn't have any data on it. After I deleted the 2 new partitions and started over, all I needed to do was wait about 22min for the new migration to finish, boot from just the new M.2 so it became recognized in the boot sequence, reconnect my old ssd, and delete the original data so I had everything on just the M.2.

P.S the boot speeds are recognizably faster!
 
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Solution
At the end of the clone process, the very first thing you must do is power OFF< disconnect the old drive, and allow the system to boot up from the new drive.

Do that now and see what happens.

Chris 28

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Jul 30, 2017
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At the end of the clone process, the very first thing you must do is power OFF< disconnect the old drive, and allow the system to boot up from the new drive.

Do that now and see what happens.
So is it suppose to clone the whole drive onto the m.2? I just need to delete the content on the original drive?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
So is it suppose to clone the whole drive onto the m.2? I just need to delete the content on the original drive?
Depends on what you selected, and how the original drive was configured.
How full was the original drive?
With a target drive of 500GB, the actual used space needed to be below 400GB to make this work.

Mostly, yes...you migrate the entire drive contents from old to new.

Secondly, with 2x Samsung drives, the Samsung Data Migration tool is strongly recommended.
 

Chris 28

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Jul 30, 2017
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Depends on what you selected, and how the original drive was configured.
How full was the original drive?
With a target drive of 500GB, the actual used space needed to be below 400GB to make this work.

Mostly, yes...you migrate the entire drive contents from old to new.

Secondly, with 2x Samsung drives, the Samsung Data Migration tool is strongly recommended.
I had to delete a lot of games from my original drive in order for the tool to allow me to do the migration. It was over 900GB used, but I got it down to around 450GB .
If it's alright to delete my original drive, I should be fine now. I guess I was just under the impression that everything but the OS would stay on the original drive and that a new partition would be created on the new one to accommodate the OS.
Thanks for the help!
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I had to delete a lot of games from my original drive in order for the tool to allow me to do the migration. It was over 900GB used, but I got it down to around 450GB .
If it's alright to delete my original drive, I should be fine now. I guess I was just under the impression that everything but the OS would stay on the original drive and that a new partition would be created on the new one to accommodate the OS.
Thanks for the help!
No, it can't split off just the OS. Everything on that drive or selected partition goes.

Do NOT delete anything until you test.

Power OFF
Disconnect ALL drives except the new SSD.
Power UP

Does it boot correctly?
 

Chris 28

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Jul 30, 2017
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No, it can't split off just the OS. Everything on that drive or selected partition goes.

Do NOT delete anything until you test.

Power OFF
Disconnect ALL drives except the new SSD.
Power UP

Does it boot correctly?
Thank you for clarifying that. My brain just isn't working today

And yes, I unplugged the original and it booted just fine from the new one.