I have an m.2 SSD and what to make it my boot drive without a clean install. I've heard you can clone the drive, then simply make that drive the boot drive from BIOS. Is it that simple? And is there a recommended cloning program?
This is my registered windows program and will be the only PC in use, in case that's an issue.
I recently changed my hard drive for a SSD, both 1TB in size... if this is what you want to do and just replace the existing HDD with the SSD I did a clone using Macrium Reflect... Macrium Software | It’s our business to protect your data
I paid for the home edition and use it to back up each day, if you ever need to restore the drive, again very easy and very reliable.
Very easy to do, just connected the new SSD with a SATA to USB lead in my case and cloned the drive.
Once cloned I swapped them over and it booted straight away..
Not sure if you can do this with the m.2 SSD :)
Basically yes.
- Install the M.2 SSD and boot from the current drive.
- Use Macrium reflect to clone the current drive to the M.2 SSD. If the sizes are different you may need to adjust C: partition to fit.
- Shutdown and detach the current drive and see if the M.2 SSD boots normally.
Clone all partitions.
Use Macrium reflect free to clone.
Select only the main drive as source and hit clone this drive
Select the SSD as target (If it's not clean, Macrium will do it)
Once Source and target are selected, hit Next
On the schedule page, don't do nothing, hit next
On Backup save Options, mark first square, un mark second and start hitting OK
Last edited by Megahertz; 19 Jan 2021 at 15:43.
Hello @Fool,
Yes, that should work,BUT, just in case you have a problem with theActivation[ you shouldn't do ], you could useGatherOSStateto extract theLicenseinformation from theHDD[ BEFORE you remove theHDDdrive ] andSaveit to a USB [IMPORTANT] . . .
> GatherOSState.exe Provides Win10 License Info for Clean Install - Win10Guru
ClonetheHDDto theSSD.
Swap theHDDfor theSSD.
If there is a problem withActivation, you have theGatherOSStatefile.
I hope this helps.
Last edited by Paul Black; 19 Jan 2021 at 15:22.
macrium worked perfectly. I used the free edition, took less than 18 minutes. And yes, it definitely works with SSD to M.2.
My new issue is that my 500gb M.2 drive listing itself as being 120gb and is in the C:/ drive instead of listing itself as the N:/ drive. Not, the B:/ drive was named "Old" and where I put my backup..... Let me organize what I'm saying;
- C:/ drive was 120gb. Now my 500gb M.2 is listing as a C:/ drive and a 120gb drive at that.
- B:/ drive was a 500gb SSD I renamed "Old". Now my C:/ drive is named "Old"
- N:/ drive was my 500gb M.2 drive I renamed "Boot".
And yes I took out both my original SSD's. And my O:/ drive is the only other drive, which is named "Games" and is untouched. What do I do?
Fool:
If possible, post a screen shot of Windows Disk Management.
Have you confirmed that the new M2 will boot your PC with all other drives disconnected?
You should be easily able to expand the 120 gb partition on the M2 to take up the entire M2 if that's what you want to do. Possibly by using Windows Disk Management menus.
Do you have any other issues other than possibly drive letters?
You say "What do I do".................about what specifically?
Yes, every boots without issue and both the original SSD and the backup SSD as disconnected.
I want to be able to use the extra 353.97gb of space on this drive. Specifically, I want the extra space to all be on one drive.
No
In your case, you can't add that 353 gb to C with Windows Disk Management......because of that 517 mb recovery partition immediately to the right of C.
Instead, you need to use Minitool Partition Wizard.........it does not have that limitation. It's a free download, quite intuitive.
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