Moving operating system to an M.2 card

[canuckamuck]

I like my computer, but the 128 GB SSD is getting on 5 years old, and I want to put in a 500 GB M.2 card and transfer everything form the SSD to there, so I can keep everything running the way it is, but just have a newer bigger operating drive. There is also a 1TB HDD in there that I will swap out later.

 

How do you go about transferring everything from one drive to another, and keep all your functionality?

[FritsSikkink]

Leave your operating system where it is, won't do you any favors moving it.

[cmarshall]

If you search there are lots of recipes to this.  This one, for instance:

 

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-move-windows-10-to-an-ssd/

[tonray]

Clone existing drive to SSD. I used Macrium Reflect free version..worked like a champ

[WorriedNoodle]

40 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Leave your operating system where it is, won't do you any favors moving it.

Why say such a thing? Assuming the o/p's hardware can connect to an M.2 card drive then it would boost the disk read/write speed by a factor of several times. What's wrong with that?

[canuckamuck]

Thanks everyone for the advice.

[OneMoreFarang]

Recently I did exactly what you want to do.

I bought a Samsung M.2 and I used their software to clone everything. The software run in Windows.

Basically: Add M.2 to your PC, install drivers, run program to clone, remove old SSD.

It's easy.

Sorry I forgot the name of the program.

 

When you add the M.2 be careful with the motherboard BIOS settings. Some M.2 can run in different modes. One is fast and one is very fast. So even if your new M.2 works in the slower mode you might not detect that without performance checking software.

I have a good ASUS motherboard and I work with computers since forever. And even for me it was difficult to understand how the BIOS had to be set for the faster mode. Better double check what you do to be sure you get the best performance.

[OneMoreFarang]

6 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Recently I did exactly what you want to do.

I bought a Samsung M.2 and I used their software to clone everything. The software run in Windows.

Basically: Add M.2 to your PC, install drivers, run program to clone, remove old SSD.

It's easy.

Sorry I forgot the name of the program.

 

When you add the M.2 be careful with the motherboard BIOS settings. Some M.2 can run in different modes. One is fast and one is very fast. So even if your new M.2 works in the slower mode you might not detect that without performance checking software.

I have a good ASUS motherboard and I work with computers since forever. And even for me it was difficult to understand how the BIOS had to be set for the faster mode. Better double check what you do to be sure you get the best performance.

 

I checked:

This is the M.2 which I used: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/970evoplus/

 

The Samsung software which I used can be downloaded here.

https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

I don't know if it only works with Samsung M.2

 

And this is one of the critical setting in my motherboard manual. 

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by OneMoreFarang

[ballpoint]

I had the same issue last year, the system SSD that came with my computer was 128Gb, and was almost full, meaning additional programs needed to install to the D drive, slowing things down.  The steps I took were:

• Purchase a new SSD and USB housing from the local Advice shop.
• Place the new SSD in the housing and plug into a USB port.
• Use "MiniTool Partition Wizard" - a free to download program to clone the old drive to the new one.  Because the new one is larger, it will ask if you want to expand all partitions accordingly, or keep them at the same size.  Expanding will waste space, as the system partitions don't need to be any larger than they already are.  Keeping them the same size will leave a large patch of unformatted space on the new drive, but this can be dealt with later.  The cloning will take a while, and the computer will reboot in order to copy the system files.
• Remove the original SSD from the computer and install the new one.
• Start the computer.  It should boot up exactly as it always has done.
• Use "MiniTool Partition Wizard" to resize the 'C' drive in order to make use of the whole SSD capacity.  You can also hide the system partitions so that they don't show up in Windows Explorer, which can be confusing.
• The original SSD can be placed in the USB housing and either kept as an emergency boot drive, or reformatted for use as normal storage.

I now regularly clone the new drive to a backup one using the same software, which gives me a complete backup of my operating system and all installed programs.

 

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by ballpoint

[teacherclaire]

You could also use their software.

 

      https://www.easeus.com/backup-utility/migrate-os-to-m.2-ssd-with-m.2-ssd-clone-software.html

[Mambowoman]

Hi, @teacherclaire

 

Is that software free babe?

 

I need some for my  computer at school.

 

Help us watch our learning games!

[Bruno123]

2 hours ago, Mambowoman said:

Hi, @teacherclaire

 

Is that software free babe?

 

I need some for my  computer at school.

 

Help us watch our learning games!

 

What are you trying to achieve, with concern to the school computer?

[Bruno123]

22 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Recently I did exactly what you want to do.

I bought a Samsung M.2 and I used their software to clone everything. The software run in Windows.

Basically: Add M.2 to your PC, install drivers, run program to clone, remove old SSD.

It's easy.

Sorry I forgot the name of the program.

 

When you add the M.2 be careful with the motherboard BIOS settings. Some M.2 can run in different modes. One is fast and one is very fast. So even if your new M.2 works in the slower mode you might not detect that without performance checking software.

I have a good ASUS motherboard and I work with computers since forever. And even for me it was difficult to understand how the BIOS had to be set for the faster mode. Better double check what you do to be sure you get the best performance.

 

Using the term M.2 to describe a storage drive only denotes the form factor(the shape of the thing and even that is inaccurate; simply because there are differing sizes of M.2 form factor drives.

 

Usually, we are referring to M.2 2280: (22-mm wide and 80-mm long). But there are others, such as M.2 2242 for an instance.

 

But now the difference to which you were referring: There are M.2 2280 that work only with the SATA specification, which means that they will only be as fast as that interface allows. The same speeds as a standard 2.5" SSD.

But there are also M.2 2280 NVMe drives that connect via the PCIe interface, which has far more bandwidth available; with sequential read speeds up to six times faster currently. Though in laptops, half that.

 

You can tell the differences in the drives, even if the had no label, by simply looking at them. They have specific notches. It's the notches that tell you which kind of drive and whether they will be compatible with your device.

 

 

 

[Bruno123]

Though to add to the above, there are also some NVMe drives with two notches, not unlike the M.2 SATA drives. So if there was no label on the drive, you would then have to check which drives your Motherboard can accept.

SATA means just the M.2 SATA drives. SATA Express means SATA & PCIe. The small 'e' stands for Express.

NVMe drives need the PCI Express interface.

 

This of course, is just for general consumption.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, Bruno123 said:

 

Using the term M.2 to describe a storage drive only denotes the form factor(the shape of the thing and even that is inaccurate; simply because there are differing sizes of M.2 form factor drives.

 

Usually, we are referring to M.2 2280: (22-mm wide and 80-mm long). But there are others, such as M.2 2242 for an instance.

 

But now the difference to which you were referring: There are M.2 2280 that work only with the SATA specification, which means that they will only be as fast as that interface allows. The same speeds as a standard 2.5" SSD.

But there are also M.2 2280 NVMe drives that connect via the PCIe interface, which has far more bandwidth available; with sequential read speeds up to six times faster currently. Though in laptops, half that.

 

You can tell the differences in the drives, even if the had no label, by simply looking at them. They have specific notches. It's the notches that tell you which kind of drive and whether they will be compatible with your device.

 

 

 

Thanks for the info.

You described the issue from the side of the M.2 cards.

There is the additional issue for motherboards. Which of the M.2 cards which you described to the motherboards support?

And which settings have to be changed in the BIOS.

Many people, including me, were used to plug and play of HDDs and SSD over the last decades. For most of them it was not necessary to set anything in the BIOS. It was all fully automatic. With the different kinds of M.2 cards that changed again. So be careful what you buy and how you install it. Motherboard and M.2 have to be compatible with each other and the settings must be correct to reach the highest performance. 

 

[Bruno123]

Definitely worth checking, if you've bought a computer within the past three years, if it can accept NVMe drives. Not just that, but whether you can boot from the PCIe Gen3 x2/4 slot.

 

Another thing you have to check, is the amount of lanes available. For a laptop it's usually two; for a PC, four.

Some NVMe drives only make use of two lanes, so they will have less bandwidth available to them, than one that uses four lanes.

 

So, you don't want to buy an NVMe drive specified as PCIe Gen3 x2 for a PC that can accept PCIe Gen3 x4 drives.. You can buy those for laptops(PCIe Gen3 x2), if the price is right.

 

Examples: 

https://www.xpg.com/en/feature/583/ Read 3500MB/s , Write 3000MB/s
Maximum 4K random read/write IOPS : up to 390K/380K

https://www.xpg.com/en/feature/500/ Read 1000MB/s , Write 800MB/s
Maximum 4K random read / write IOPS : up to 100K / 110K

 

Samsung Evo 970 of course conforms to the PCIe Gen3 x4 specification.

 

You can put a PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe SSD into a laptop. You can expect roughly half the specified performance. So I would buy the one at the top regardless, unless there was a huge price differential.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bruno123]

Meant bought within the past four years, but could not edit...

[dddave]

4 hours ago, Bruno123 said:

Meant bought within the past four years, but could not edit...

"EDIT" is now hidden in the 3 top, RH dots.

[Mambowoman]

13 hours ago, Bruno123 said:

 

What are you trying to achieve, with concern to the school computer?

Repair and duplicate the game valve.

[Bruno123]

44 minutes ago, Mambowoman said:

Repair and duplicate the game valve.

 

Am I the only one who has no idea what that means?

[Bruno123]

14 hours ago, Mambowoman said:

Repair and duplicate the game valve.

 

Do you mean Half Life(or similar)?

[Mavideol]

On 10/23/2020 at 9:46 AM, OneMoreFarang said:

 

I checked:

This is the M.2 which I used: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/970evoplus/

 

The Samsung software which I used can be downloaded here.

https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

I don't know if it only works with Samsung M.2

 

And this is one of the critical setting in my motherboard manual. 

 

I have the same as you mention, however when trying to install the driver I get an error saying """ Samsung NVM Express device is not connected. Connect the device and try again""   but the device is there and connect and accessible but it shows and older driver, how to get around that

[Mavideol]

""" Samsung NVM Express device is not connected. Connect the device and try again"" 

On 10/24/2020 at 9:50 AM, Bruno123 said:

Definitely worth checking, if you've bought a computer within the past three years, if it can accept NVMe drives. Not just that, but whether you can boot from the PCIe Gen3 x2/4 slot.

 

Another thing you have to check, is the amount of lanes available. For a laptop it's usually two; for a PC, four.

Some NVMe drives only make use of two lanes, so they will have less bandwidth available to them, than one that uses four lanes.

 

So, you don't want to buy an NVMe drive specified as PCIe Gen3 x2 for a PC that can accept PCIe Gen3 x4 drives.. You can buy those for laptops(PCIe Gen3 x2), if the price is right.

 

Examples: 

https://www.xpg.com/en/feature/583/ Read 3500MB/s , Write 3000MB/s
Maximum 4K random read/write IOPS : up to 390K/380K

https://www.xpg.com/en/feature/500/ Read 1000MB/s , Write 800MB/s
Maximum 4K random read / write IOPS : up to 100K / 110K

 

Samsung Evo 970 of course conforms to the PCIe Gen3 x4 specification.

 

You can put a PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe SSD into a laptop. You can expect roughly half the specified performance. So I would buy the one at the top regardless, unless there was a huge price differential.

 

 

 

 

 

I have a Samsung 970 EVO PLUS NVME M2 SSD installed on my 1year old  LAPTOP that originally had a toshiba 128 gb SSD thus replaced it with the samsung, while trying to install the Samsung it kept giving the same error over and over and until now still can not update the drive, it's running with Microsoft windows 10 drive dated 2006, when trying to install (run as administrator) the Samsung drive it keeps giving the same error """""" Samsung NVM Express device is not connected. Connect the device and try again"" what's my problem here, just downloaded the Samsung updated drive and still same error, thks for any help

[Bruno123]

1 hour ago, Mavideol said:

""" Samsung NVM Express device is not connected. Connect the device and try again"" 

I have a Samsung 970 EVO PLUS NVME M2 SSD installed on my 1year old  LAPTOP that originally had a toshiba 128 gb SSD thus replaced it with the samsung, while trying to install the Samsung it kept giving the same error over and over and until now still can not update the drive, it's running with Microsoft windows 10 drive dated 2006, when trying to install (run as administrator) the Samsung drive it keeps giving the same error """""" Samsung NVM Express device is not connected. Connect the device and try again"" what's my problem here, just downloaded the Samsung updated drive and still same error, thks for any help

 

Full model number of laptop, together with the capacity of the drive....

[Mavideol]

2 hours ago, Bruno123 said:

 

Full model number of laptop, together with the capacity of the drive....

Dell inspiron 5593 Samsung 970 EVO NVME2  = 1 TB

[OneMoreFarang]

6 hours ago, Mavideol said:

I have the same as you mention, however when trying to install the driver I get an error saying """ Samsung NVM Express device is not connected. Connect the device and try again""   but the device is there and connect and accessible but it shows and older driver, how to get around that

Check your BIOS (like I recommended in an earlier post).

When I did that on my PC I could see the M.2 with different BIOS settings. But I saw the M.2 in different ways. I think in the Windows Disk Manager one time it was the first device and one time not - to name just one little difference.

And you can use a performance tool to check how fast it works. This is what I saw with my M.2 with 

CrystalDiskMark 7

https://crystalmark.info/

 

For comparison, this is what my old SSD showed:

 

[Eindhoven]

21 hours ago, Mavideol said:

""" Samsung NVM Express device is not connected. Connect the device and try again"" 

I have a Samsung 970 EVO PLUS NVME M2 SSD installed on my 1year old  LAPTOP that originally had a toshiba 128 gb SSD thus replaced it with the samsung, while trying to install the Samsung it kept giving the same error over and over and until now still can not update the drive, it's running with Microsoft windows 10 drive dated 2006, when trying to install (run as administrator) the Samsung drive it keeps giving the same error """""" Samsung NVM Express device is not connected. Connect the device and try again"" what's my problem here, just downloaded the Samsung updated drive and still same error, thks for any help

 

 

The way you have written this is confusing. Are you using "drive" for ''driver''? Thos e are two completely different things. 

So you are using the drive but you cannot use the Samsung Driver or install Samsung Magician?

 

Perhaps try to clarify...

[Bruno123]

17 hours ago, Mavideol said:

Dell inspiron 5593 Samsung 970 EVO NVME2  = 1 TB

 

 

Boot into the BIOS setup using F2; go to System Configuration and scroll down to Storage Interface. Is RAID selected or AHCI?

[Mavideol]

1 hour ago, Eindhoven said:

 

 

The way you have written this is confusing. Are you using "drive" for ''driver''? Thos e are two completely different things. 

So you are using the drive but you cannot use the Samsung Driver or install Samsung Magician?

 

Perhaps try to clarify...

correct, I am using a samsung SSD drive with the older Microsoft DRIVER as I can not install the correct samsung driver due to the error shown

[Mavideol]

1 hour ago, Bruno123 said:

 

 

Boot into the BIOS setup using F2; go to System Configuration and scroll down to Storage Interface. Is RAID selected or AHCI?

have a dell Laptop and f2  takes me to bios screen and f12 to a disk config and intel bios where it says no RAID disk but could not find a way to make changes, this a Dell software to manage the bios and not being an expert it's not an easy step