[SOLVED] Upgrading M.2 SSD to Larger PCIE while keeping data

[oscian44]

I currently have a WD 240 GB m.2 SSD on my motherboard as a boot drive and i'm planning to install a 1 TB PCIe NVMe aorus ssd

I want to clone the 240GB ssd with windows on it to the new 1tb pcie one and then keep the old 240gb for games such as Rust which benefit from a fast drive to load the assets

What would be a suitable cloning software and how or would i need to change the drive letter on the new ssd to C when i start booting from it.

If I dont change the drive letter will this affect things such as desktop shortcuts?

 

[parthtrivedi]

I have personally used Acronis, which came free with my ADATA SSD, from experience I'll suggest, that you're better off reinstalling windows and all other apps that you need on a new drive and manually transfer the media files.
If you need help with setting up the drive from scratch let me know, I'll hook you up.

 

[USAFRet]

I currently have a WD 256 GB m.2 SSD on my motherboard as a boot drive and i'm planning to install a 1 TB PCIe NVMe aorus ssd

I want to clone the 256GB ssd with windows on it to the new 1tb pcie one and then keep the old 256gb for games such as Rust which benefit from a fast drive to load the assets

What would be a suitable cloning software and how or would i need to change the drive letter on the new ssd to C when i start booting from it.

If I dont change the drive letter will this affect things such as desktop shortcuts?

You migrate the whole ting to the new 1TB drive.
It then becomes the C drive.
Later, you wipe the 256GB drive completely, and use it for whatever. It will simply have a different drive letter.

What is the specific motherboard, and which specific WD drive is the existing one?

 

[oscian44]

You migrate the whole ting to the new 1TB drive.
It then becomes the C drive.
Later, you wipe the 256GB drive completely, and use it for whatever. It will simply have a different drive letter.

What is the specific motherboard, and which specific WD drive is the existing one?

The motherboard is an ASUS ROG Strix z390-f gaming board

The WD SSD is a WDS240G1G0B-00RC30 which is 240gb, which I said earlier was 256, my mistake.

 

[USAFRet]

Mostly, this:

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
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)
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
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
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.
-----------------------------

 

[oscian44]

Mostly, this:

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
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)
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
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
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.
-----------------------------

Thank you, I will follow this method.