[SOLVED] Upgrading From a SDD to a M2

[WildcatTM]

Greetings, all.

I just completed a small upgrade on my system and one of those upgrades included adding a M2 SSD. The way my system is put together is I have the a SSD for my C drive with Windows 10 and some regularly used programs. D drive is another SSD with some not so frequently used problems. E drive for storage of work files and other stuff. And finally an F drive for media. The new M2 SSD doesn't have a letter assoicated with it because since it's a clone, it's currently offline because it has signature collision with the C drive.

I haven't done this in awhile, so I'm a bit rusty on my next move. I cloned my current windows installation to the M2. After that, I'm a bit lost. I want to reletter the new drive to C, but I know that can't be done in Windows. Is there anyway to do with without physically removing the original C drive from the system temporarily?

 

[USAFRet]

You've done the clone thing wrong.
At the end of the clone process, you needed to power OFF, remove or disconnect the original C drive, and allow the system to try to power up with only the new drive.

Do NOT go into swapping around drive letters, especially the C drive. You will absolutely break thing.

What is the new M.2 drive? Make/model?

 

[WildcatTM]

I haven't done the cloning in awhile. Probably since Windows 7. I remember the software I had back then cloned the drive, then shutdown and completed the process. Think what the software did was allowed you to reassign drive letters before Windows loaded or something. I know it can't be done within Windows.

The M.2 drive is Samsung's 970 EVO Plus. Using their migration tool.

 

[falcon291]

Greetings, all.

I just completed a small upgrade on my system and one of those upgrades included adding a M2 SSD. The way my system is put together is I have the a SSD for my C drive with Windows 10 and some regularly used programs. D drive is another SSD with some not so frequently used problems. E drive for storage of work files and other stuff. And finally an F drive for media. The new M2 SSD doesn't have a letter assoicated with it because since it's a clone, it's currently offline because it has signature collision with the C drive.

I haven't done this in awhile, so I'm a bit rusty on my next move. I cloned my current windows installation to the M2. After that, I'm a bit lost. I want to reletter the new drive to C, but I know that can't be done in Windows. Is there anyway to do with without physically removing the original C drive from the system temporarily?

After cloning enter the BIOS change the boot drive to M2 drive.

When the computer is started then your M2 drive would have C: letter, and your SATA drive will be assigned a new letter automatically by the OS.

You can then freely delete the contents of the old SATA drive. But first check if everything runs fine.

 

[USAFRet]

I haven't done the cloning in awhile. Probably since Windows 7. I remember the software I had back then cloned the drive, then shutdown and completed the process. Think what the software did was allowed you to reassign drive letters before Windows loaded or something. I know it can't be done within Windows.

The M.2 drive is Samsung's 970 EVO Plus. Using their migration tool.

Redo the clone.
At the end of the process, power OFF, disconnect the old drive, and allow it to try to boot up from the new drive.
Assuming a successful boot, that drive WILL be the C.

You do not need to, nor should you try to...change that drive letter manually.

 

[WildcatTM]

After cloning enter the BIOS change the boot drive to M2 drive.

When the computer is started then your M2 drive would have C: letter, and your SATA drive will be assigned a new letter automatically by the OS.

You can then freely delete the contents of the old SATA drive. But first check if everything runs fine.

Redo the clone.
At the end of the process, power OFF, disconnect the old drive, and allow it to try to boot up from the new drive.
Assuming a successful boot, that drive WILL be the C.

You do not need to, nor should you try to...change that drive letter manually.

You both are right. I didn't need to reletter. It was done automatically after I selected the M.2 drive from the BIOS. The BIOS didn't registry the M.2 drive at first, which seems to be why I overlooked it. So now I'm booted into the new drive. The old drive wasn't disconnected, but it's now showing up as the G drive. Many thanks!

One last question. To my knowledge, I don't think you can change Disk numbering (Disk 0, Disk 1, Disk 2, etc.). Last time I did it involved disconnecting all but the boot drive, boot up, shut down, connect another drive, boot up, shut down, etc., etc. Gonna read some related stuff, but is there a better way to do this?

 

[USAFRet]

The numbering is whatever physical port the drive is connected to. You can't 'change it'.

 

[WildcatTM]

The numbering is whatever physical port the drive is connected to. You can't 'change it'.

Figured. I thought M.2 would default to disk 0. Certainly not the end of the world.

 

[falcon291]

Figured. I thought M.2 would default to disk 0. Certainly not the end of the world.

Your M2 is working in SATA mode, then it takes one of the latest SATA ports space, my PCI Express M2 drive took Disk 0. I don't know how it named after I set as SATA. Never tried.

Anyway this disk number is almost never used, so it would not be a problem for you.