[SOLVED] Upgrading to M.2 SSD from existing SATA

[Grahame Chisholm]

Hi All!

I currently have one 1tb HDD and one 250gb SSD (SATA) on my ASUS Z97-C Motherboard. I have now bought a 1tb M.2 NVMe SSD and I want to clone my 250gb SATA to the new 1tb M.2 NVMe.

How do I go about this as I have heard that the SATA becomes disabled if the M.2 port is being used. Do I have to buy a USB adapter and clone through that? or can I just install the M.2 NVMe and clone the SSD that way?

Much appreciate any help given!

Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

Disabling the SATA ports is very much board specific, and it is NEVER all of them. Your board has 6x SATA ports.
Which specific M.2 drive did you buy?

On a Z97, booting from this NVMe drive is a maybe. Not all Z97 boards have this capability.
And even then, many/most Z97 era boards can't fully utilize an M.2 NVMe drive at its best speed.

Z97-C - Support

www.asus.com

 

[Grahame Chisholm]

I bought a 970 EVO Samsung M.2 NVMe. My board does day M.2 support on it. I just dont know how to go about transferring the contents of my current SSD to the new M.2 SSD

 

[USAFRet]

I bought a 970 EVO Samsung M.2 NVMe. My board does day M.2 support on it. I just dont know how to go about transferring the contents of my current SSD to the new M.2 SSD

Yes, it does support the M.2
Have you verified it supports booting from that?

 

[USAFRet]

With a Samsung target drive, you should use the Samsung Data Migration.

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Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
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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)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
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

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

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.
-----------------------------

 

[Mr.Spock]

you can create an image of the 250GB on your HDD using most utilities (Acronis for example) - you can dl from their site (it's fully functional for 30-day trial). create a PE-boot USB. remove the old SSD - install the new NVMe and boot off the PE drive. you then restore the image to your NVMe and reboot afterwards to check for any ill effects. (your old drive remains safely out of harm's way)

Hi All!

I currently have one 1tb HDD and one 250gb SSD (SATA) on my ASUS Z97-C Motherboard. I have now bought a 1tb M.2 NVMe SSD and I want to clone my 250gb SATA to the new 1tb M.2 NVMe.

How do I go about this as I have heard that the SATA becomes disabled if the M.2 port is being used. Do I have to buy a USB adapter and clone through that? or can I just install the M.2 NVMe and clone the SSD that way?

Much appreciate any help given!

Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

you can create an image of the 250GB on your HDD using most utilities (Acronis for example) - you can dl from their site (it's fully functional for 30-day trial). create a PE-boot USB. remove the old SSD - install the new NVMe and boot off the PE drive. you then restore the image to your NVMe and reboot afterwards to check for any ill effects. (your old drive remains safely out of harm's way)

No need for the Image thing in this instance.
Multiple SATA ports are still available.

 

[Mr.Spock]

people make mistakes - that's why images help.
I've seen Samsung Migration Tool fail on many an instance

No need for the Image thing in this instance.
Multiple SATA ports are still available.

 

[USAFRet]

people make mistakes - that's why images help.
I've seen Samsung Migration Tool fail on many an instance

I've seen it fail too.
That is why the original drive is never messed with, until long after the clone process is finished and verified.
SDM does not do Images, only the actual migration.

An Image can't hurt, but it is mostly not needed in this type of movement.