best way to clone SATA M.2 SSD to PCIe M.2 SSD?

Long story short:
I have a Gigabyte Mini ITX motherboard with a 256GB Sandisk SATA III M.2 SSD in it that I'm replacing with a 1TB Intel PCIe M.2 SSD and would like to keep my OS and everything.

My current plan ins to put the old SSD into a USB enclosure so I can boot from it then use Macrium reflect free to clone my OS to the new SSD. It looks like if I skip the OEM partition at the end I can clone everything over and extend the OS partition to take up the full space, is that correct? Should this plan work as-is? The SSD doesn't come in until Thursday so any preparations I need to do in advanced I'd be happy to hear about.

Hi there
@FuturDreamz

why not simply do this :

1) remove old SSD from mobo and connect to USB adapter
2) install new device
3) boot up recovery medium (macrium)
4) clone old ssd to new one
5) re-size partition(s) as required
6) re-boot system.

If any problems which 99.9% of time there shouldn't be -- simply re-boot the macrium recovery device and select fix windows boot problems.

Macrium free is the best tool in the opinion of a lot of Forum mebers including me --it's easy to make a bootable usb device. If any problems simply create an iso via the macrium menu and then use rufus to create a bootable usb device from the iso.

I recommend the sata --> ssd adapter you can then use it afterwards for extra storage of the old ssd.

Of course all this assumes that the computer will boot from the new SSD -- I can't imagine a company like Intel flogging "unbootable Disks" though -- check all the software / documentation etc when the new disk arrives.

Cheers
jimbo

Hi,
Best to restore a system image to the m.2 and not clone
Block sizes... may be different from 2.5" ssd and m.2 ssd.
Reflect can restore to any changes between ssd's and is why clones usually fail or be wonky even if they do complete.

You should already be system imaging anyway to a different hdd/ sdd so it's just routine recovery.. using the winpe recovery media.

But you'll probably find clean install is best in the long run and just keep personal files and apps.

ignatzatsonic said:

Interesting experiment. I don't think anyone has asked something similar on this forum.

Are you more than guessing that you'll be able to boot off that enclosure via a USB port?

Do you know for a fact that your mini ITX motherboard supports booting from an NVMe drive?

I've got the 2 TB version of your incoming Intel drive and I have no complaints at all----BUT, I'm using it for data only. My OS is still on a 2.5 inch SATA SSD.

If cloning fails, maybe imaging and image restoration would work.

Whoa....not sure that will work. Your enclosure is B key. Your drives are M key. I'm skeptical that an M key drive will connect properly in that enclosure.

as it turns out, I am unable to boot from the enclosure

yes it does. I double checked the manufacturer's website to be sure

I'm using the Intel SSD as a boot drive. I can tell the difference between it and the Sata3 SSD

I ended up having to use clonezilla as i didn't know that Macrium let me make a bootable USB. My plan was to boot from the old SSD when it was in the enclosure as it is a sata M.2 while the new drive is a PCIe M.2, but although ti can be read Windows refused to boot from it. It took a couple tries and a restart but so far everything is working fine.

Hi,
Yeah 10 installation media and running startup repair worked for me going from a sata system image to a m.2