[SOLVED] What is the best way to migrate from ssd to nvme

Donnyyy

Prominent
May 26, 2021
84
1
535
(I hope this is the right forum to ask this, if not pls tell me where)
I upgraded my pc and took my ssd from the old one to the new one, after just a few minutes of updating it was all good and ready to go,
now I want to migrate/clone everything on this drive to the nvme on the motherboard,
then I'll probably convert my old ssd to the primary data storage and my old hdd to the secondary data storage.

the old ssd is 248GB kingston, the nvme is 512GB toshiba.
the nvme also has os on it, should I delete/format it.

(I understand that I need to use a third party program)

  1. It makes sense right? this will improve performance?
  2. What is the best/recommeded way to this?
 
Solution
Can you pls explain why cloning to MBR is a problem.

this link says its possible: http://reflect.macrium.com/help/v5/how_to/conversions/convert_an_mbr_disk_to_a_gpt_disk.htm
it just indicates that in GPT there will be a small 128MB partition at the start and I should place all the partitions after that partition
Yes, it is possible.
Many things are possible.

Can your new system boot from an MBR formatted NVMe drive?


Try it.
If it fails, you still have the original to try again.
And you always have the fallback of a full fresh install.
D

Deleted member 14196

Guest
You won’t see much of any difference between the two drives

Use Macrium reflect to do the cloning
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
(I hope this is the right forum to ask this, if not pls tell me where)
I upgraded my pc and took my ssd from the old one to the new one, after just a few minutes of updating it was all good and ready to go,
now I want to migrate/clone everything on this drive to the nvme on the motherboard,
then I'll probably convert my old ssd to the primary data storage and my old hdd to the secondary data storage.

the old ssd is 248GB kingston, the nvme is 512GB toshiba.
the nvme also has os on it, should I delete/format it.

(I understand that I need to use a third party program)

  1. It makes sense right? this will improve performance?
  2. What is the best/recommeded way to this?
Hang on...

You updated parts, and didn't do a reinstall of the OS?

What parts did you change? From what to what?
 
D

Deleted member 14196

Guest
Yeah slow down you still have an explain exactly what you did in the first place and it does indeed sound like you may need to reinstall clean
 

jasonf2

Distinguished
If all you want to do is swap drives then you will need an imaging utility. Most top shelf drives come with one but if yours didn't most big block stores sell a converter cable/ cloning software package for mirroring drives that does it for you. Depending on your interface you may need a converter cable anyway to copy the image over. This is a big part of the reason I buy Samsung drives, it comes with software.
 

Donnyyy

Prominent
May 26, 2021
84
1
535
Hang on...

You updated parts, and didn't do a reinstall of the OS?

What parts did you change? From what to what?
Sure I'll explain.
I went from my old pc to a better one, but I have many things in my old ssd (windows and programs) so I just took my ssd from the old one (i5-3470) to the new one (i7-8700k), I did it before when I went from i3-550 to i5-3470, I read that with windows10 there is no problem doing that, and really it just went through updating somethig (I guess drivers and what ever) and everything seems to be fine, I'm writing from this pc now, I just add to go to legacy boot for some reason so it will recongnize the ssd , do you want the all configruation change?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Sure I'll explain.
I went from my old pc to a better one, but I have many things in my old pc so I just took my ssd from the old one (i5-3470) to the new one (i7-8700k), I did it before when I went from i3-550 to i5-3470, I read that with windows10 there is no problem doing that, and really it just updating somethig (I guess drivers and what ever), do you want the all configruation change?


I read that with windows10 there is no problem doing that
That is NOT a universal truth.

Changing parts like this, there are 3 possible outcomes:
  1. It works just fine.
  2. It fails completely.
  3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months.

I've personally seen all 3. #1 is the least likely result.

Yes....what are the rest of the parts, both old and new.
 

Donnyyy

Prominent
May 26, 2021
84
1
535
That is NOT a universal truth.

Changing parts like this, there are 3 possible outcomes:
  1. It works just fine.
  2. It fails completely.
  3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months.
I've personally seen all 3. #1 is the least likely result.

Yes....what are the rest of the parts, both old and new.
Well I assume you mean the mother board: from gigabyte ga-h61m-ds2 to -> https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c05811928
 
Last edited:

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
My 1-3 above still stands.

I would strongly recommend a fresh install on this new drive.

But, if you must....

-----------------------------
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)
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 This is not optional.
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.
-----------------------------
 

Donnyyy

Prominent
May 26, 2021
84
1
535
My 1-3 above still stands.

I would strongly recommend a fresh install on this new drive.

But, if you must....

-----------------------------
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)
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 This is not optional.
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, which program do you recommend, neither of them is samsung the ssd is kingston 256GB the nvme is toshiba 512GB, and should I delete/format the nvme before? (also for some reason secure boot on the hp bios only allows to boot from the nvme so I had to disable it and go to legacy boot for it to boot from the old 256 ssd)
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Thank you, which program do you recommend, neither of them is samsung the ssd is kingston 256GB the nvme is toshiba 512GB, and should I delete/format the nvme before? (also for some reason secure boot on the hp bios only allows to boot from the nvme so I had to disable it and go to legacy boot for it to boot from the old 256 ssd)

As linked above, Macrium Reflect.

But....
If you're already having issues with legacy vs UEFI....a clone to this new NVMe drive will only make those issues worse.

Bite the bullet, do it right the first time with a fresh install.
 

Donnyyy

Prominent
May 26, 2021
84
1
535
As linked above, Macrium Reflect.

But....
If you're already having issues with legacy vs UEFI....a clone to this new NVMe drive will only make those issues worse.

Bite the bullet, do it right the first time with a fresh install.
Thank you for the advice, I did a fresh install and hated it, everything was weird, couldn't make it behave like my old one, plus I have many programs and settings, and I already did the "bad" part as you say, and if something will not work I'll still have the old one. and should I delete the nvme before?
 

Donnyyy

Prominent
May 26, 2021
84
1
535
My 1-3 above still stands.

I would strongly recommend a fresh install on this new drive.

But, if you must....

-----------------------------
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)
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 This is not optional.
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.
-----------------------------
Hi, just two more question before I start, I saw a tutorial
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHCENfs87F4
that I will follow and there he also used diskpart to clean the old disk, why isn't it sufficient just to delete it from windows ui or format from disk management? and the tutorial also guides to create some kind of rescue disk. thanks
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
A simple 'format' leaves behind the old boot partition.

Diskpart and clean deletes ALL from the old drive.

As far as steps to follow...I've not watched that video. But my steps above work.


Yes, creating a RescueUSB or DVD in Macrium is highly recommended.
On the Menu..."Other Tasks - Create Rescue Media"

I have a USB with that stashed in the bottom of my case. Can't get lost or accidentally formatted.
 

Donnyyy

Prominent
May 26, 2021
84
1
535
A simple 'format' leaves behind the old boot partition.

Diskpart and clean deletes ALL from the old drive.

As far as steps to follow...I've not watched that video. But my steps above work.


Yes, creating a RescueUSB or DVD in Macrium is highly recommended.
On the Menu..."Other Tasks - Create Rescue Media"

I have a USB with that stashed in the bottom of my case. Can't get lost or accidentally formatted.
Thank you, I'm smarter now (I hope :))
 

Donnyyy

Prominent
May 26, 2021
84
1
535
Sorry I have one more question before I start, I've cleaned the nvme and now I don't know if I shoud initialize it as MBR or GPT, it will hold the operarting system and it has 512GB, will it cause a problem if I clone a MBR disk to a GPT disk
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Sorry I have one more question before I start, I've cleaned the nvme and now I don't know if I shoud initialize it as MBR or GPT, it will hold the operarting system and is has 512GB, will it cause a problem if I clone a MBR disk to GPT disk
Yes, that may be an issue.

Strongly recommend converting your MBR to GPT before this clone action.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...management/change-an-mbr-disk-into-a-gpt-disk

(of course, have a know good backup before you start this)
 

Donnyyy

Prominent
May 26, 2021
84
1
535
Yes, that may be an issue.

Strongly recommend converting your MBR to GPT before this clone action.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...management/change-an-mbr-disk-into-a-gpt-disk

(of course, have a know good backup before you start this)
I don't understand, how can I convert the ssd with my os to gpt it says(in your link): "You can change a disk from MBR to GPT partition style as long as the disk contains no partitions or volumes", and it has partitions (thank you for been responsive)
 

Donnyyy

Prominent
May 26, 2021
84
1
535
You do that before the clone operation.

Moving the system to the NVMe as MBR may/will fail to boot completely.


I still recommend a full clean install on this new drive.
Can you pls explain why cloning to MBR is a problem.

this link says its possible: http://reflect.macrium.com/help/v5/how_to/conversions/convert_an_mbr_disk_to_a_gpt_disk.htm
it just indicates that in GPT there will be a small 128MB partition at the start and I should place all the partitions after that partition
 
Last edited: