[SOLVED] Migrating Windows 10 to new Samsung SSD (970 Pro) [Macrium/EaseUs/Magician/Casper]

[davidkjtoh]

My single SSD (Samsung Evo 960 500 GB) is getting full so I recently purchased and installed a second Samsung Evo 970 Pro 512 GB into my computer.

Since the 970 is faster I would like to migrate my Windows 10 installation (and everything else while I'm at it) from the 960 into the 970.

Both drives are installed into M2 NVMe slots and can be seen and explored in file explorer. My motherboard is Asus Z370i. 960 is slotted into the front M2 slot and 970 into the back.

I've tried a few different methods and run into a bunch of issues with each one.

Macrium and EaseUs clone

Both programs report that they cannot clone due to sector size mismatch (960 source drive is 512 and the 970 is 4096).

Samsung Magician/Data Migration

Data Migration cannot detect the destination drive (970) and Magician cannot see either drive even though they are both recent Samsung SSDs.

Casper

I was able to create a bootable backup of my 960 onto my 970 using Casper 10. However when I go into the bios booting into the 970 results in a black screen and return to bios. In the bios, selecting the 970 says something like "Samsung Pro 970" whereas the 960 says something like "Windows boot manager (Samsung Evo 960)".

I've tried "fix master boot record" on the 970 through Casper explorer and it says this is successful but it has no effect.

I've been struggling with this for a few days already trying different options so I would greatly appreciate and help.

P.S. I would consider creating an image of the 960 and restoring Windows from it onto the 970 but I believe this would require an additional drive of roughly 500GB that I do not have.

 

[jay32267]

"I was able to create a bootable backup of my 960"

Why would this be different than a clone?

You could try formatting the 970 to 512 sector size.....or you could try Aomei Backupper. It's free....it's what I use....and I never have problems.

 

[karenjoly]

For fun, Let's see what the actual sector count is. Boot from the 960

Start – Programs – Accessories – System tools – System information

Within System Information open Components – Storage – Disks and check “Bytes/Sector” value of both disks in the list.

Both will likely say 512.

Even were there a 4k sector disc it would emulate 512. See the Macrium FAQ below. I suspect that the 970 is either misconnected ( Is it the stand up M2 port ? reconnect it ) or inoperable.

Interesting however is that Macrium says a sector mismatch will not affect an image op.

"This is only an issue when the structure of the target disk for a restore or clone differs from the source. It does not concern disks used to store images / backup files."

It also states

"There are no disks currently available that would cause this issue when connected directly (i.e. not via USB)." Because of emulation.


Why I suggested the solutions I did.

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/Incompatible+Disk+Selected

Does the 960 alone boot in the port used by the 970 ?

 

[karenjoly]

Are there ANY Asus Z370i boards with both M2 slots active ?

 

[davidkjtoh]

For fun, Let's see what the actual sector count is. Boot from the 960

Start – Programs – Accessories – System tools – System information

Within System Information open Components – Storage – Disks and check “Bytes/Sector” value of both disks in the list.

Both will likely say 512.

Even were there a 4k sector disc it would emulate 512. See the Macrium FAQ below. I suspect that the 970 is either misconnected ( Is it the stand up M2 port ? reconnect it ) or inoperable.

Interesting however is that Macrium says a sector mismatch will not affect an image op.

"This is only an issue when the structure of the target disk for a restore or clone differs from the source. It does not concern disks used to store images / backup files."

It also states

"There are no disks currently available that would cause this issue when connected directly (i.e. not via USB)." Because of emulation.


Why I suggested the solutions I did.

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/Incompatible+Disk+Selected

Does the 960 alone boot in the port used by the 970 ?

Thanks for your response.
Here is the screencap from System Information

Screencap

I believe this falls under the 2nd row of the table in the Macrium link (512 -> 4096 Not compatible) which is why Macrium doesn't allow it.

I'm pretty sure the 970 is plugged in correctly because I can access it through file explorer.

Could you advise as to how to change sector size (of the 970 from 4096 to 512). I've searched Google but have not found any guides as to how to do so.

For now I will try the Aomei program jay32267 recommended.

 

[davidkjtoh]

"I was able to create a bootable backup of my 960"

Why would this be different than a clone?

You could try formatting the 970 to 512 sector size.....or you could try Aomei Backupper. It's free....it's what I use....and I never have problems.

Thanks for your input. Could you advise how to change the sector size?

I guess the bootable backup is a clone? I'm not fussy about the method (image/clone whatever) as long as it accomplishes my goal.

I downloaded Backupper and found out system clone is only available in the pro version. I downloaded a trial of the pro version and system clone still requested a registration key? Seeing as how the other programs the other programs that have promised this functionality have not worked for me I am not keen on putting down $50 for this.

 

[karenjoly]

The reason I quoted the FAQ and suggested that the drive is the problem is that the only drives on the market that I'm aware of that use true "4K native" or 4Kn setups are enterprise drives. Other drives that use 4K sectors at a hardware level still emulate 512-byte sectors for compatibility; they are called "512e" drives.

How does Samsung Magician report the drive ?

Lets confirm what the 970 reports by running the command "fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo X:", replacing X with the desired drive letter.

The 960 Pro I use here:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo c:
LogicalBytesPerSector : 512
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 512
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance : 512
FileSystemEffectivePhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 512

If yours shows

C:\WINDOWS\system32>fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo c:
LogicalBytesPerSector : 4096
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 4096
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance : 4096
FileSystemEffectivePhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 4096

Then I would consider a return (has a 5 year warranty).
(Windows will run a 4kn drive) ( You cannot change sector size or at least, not very easily).

 

[davidkjtoh]

The reason I quoted the FAQ and suggested that the drive is the problem is that the only drives on the market that I'm aware of that use true "4K native" or 4Kn setups are enterprise drives. Other drives that use 4K sectors at a hardware level still emulate 512-byte sectors for compatibility; they are called "512e" drives.

How does Samsung Magician report the drive ?

Lets confirm what the 970 reports by running the command "fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo X:", replacing X with the desired drive letter.

The 960 Pro I use here:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo c:
LogicalBytesPerSector : 512
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 512
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance : 512
FileSystemEffectivePhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 512

If yours shows

C:\WINDOWS\system32>fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo c:
LogicalBytesPerSector : 4096
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 4096
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance : 4096
FileSystemEffectivePhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 4096

Then I would consider a return (has a 5 year warranty).
(Windows will run a 4kn drive) ( You cannot change sector size or at least, not very easily).

This is the output I get running that command for my 970

C:\Windows\system32>fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo d:
LogicalBytesPerSector : 4096
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 4096
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance : 4096
FileSystemEffectivePhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 4096
Device Alignment : Aligned (0x000)
Partition alignment on device : Aligned (0x000)
No Seek Penalty
Trim Supported
Not DAX capable
Is Thinly-Provisioned, SlabSizeInBytes : 268435456

As for Samsung Magician it doesn't show either drive (960 or 970) but only an empty window with black bar on top and grey bar below. I can press refresh and it will "search" for drives but not find anything.

At this point I'm considering just living with Windows on my 960. it's not optimal but it's not terribly slow or anything.

Thanks for your help.

 

[karenjoly]

Well that's one option. But not yet.

Did you use The latest version of Magician, 521 ?


How about looking at the state of the drives in CrystalDiskMark6 x64. Are they performing to spec ? Just do the read and write for both.

Below average specs will make the compromise on branding a little less acceptable.