Upgrading SSD, Question about Cloning?

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

Morning (or evening) all!

The laptop I've got is just over 4 years old now and works perfectly, so I've finally taken the plunge to upgrade my 256GB Samsung P961 NVME SSD to a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus to improve lifespan and storage speed.

I've never in all my life cloned a drive before... I've heard Samsung's Data Migration software is good and since both drives are Samsung I'd imagine there would be no issue with using that software actually but I'm open to suggestions. I've bought an external enclosure to put the new SSD in so that I can clone the drive via USB, by the way.

My question is, how exactly does it work? I really just want to migrate the data onto the new drive without it creating a partition. In my head the cloning process will want me to create a partition that's 256GB so clone the drive exactly as it was on the old storage? I really just want it to remain as the C:\ drive... Is this possible to do? I imagine that cloning means I'll have all my programs, files, setup and drivers etc exactly as they were before changing SSD?


I'll be replacing the slow(er) internal 1TB SSHD with a 2TB Sata SSD too, but I think the migration on that would just be as simple as a drag and drop for that, as there are no system files on my D:\ drive. Just My documents, Pictures, Videos... All those folders that are setup by windows, so as long as the drive letter matches it should work the same yes?

Any help with this much appreciated. I'll have all the components by Friday but want to be prepared for the switch.
Thanks all!

 

[FAST6191]

There are two general approaches cloning tools use.

1) File level

2) Sector level

File level is a little bit more than a copy-paste as it might also have to set some flags for booting and whatnot, maybe format the drive, make sure hidden files get copied and the like but is essentially that.

Sector level. Much as it sounds like it copies sectors from one to the other, maybe only doing that which is occupied. Does then mean whatever partitions and arrangements thereof you have already there will be copied across. Annoying 10 years ago when people moved to SSDs as sizes were typically smaller than the spinning rust drives they replaced and annoying today when going up sized, though a little while with gparted afterwards might allow you to grow it (assuming you don't just format a bunch of new partitions and use them instead) just as before you might have deleted a bunch of files and shrank it with gparted to get it to the size in question.
Edit. Forgot to mention sector level is also important if your basic OS level install is not going to be aware of whatever formats are used by the thing in question (around here something formatted to WBFS for the Wii being a good example, though Windows doing Linux stuff without extras, macs doing anything, custom tweaked SD cards* and more are of note here).
*granted many of those sold for GPS systems and the like have this but also use things like the serial numbers as DRM.

I generally like https://clonezilla.org/ but most of my transfer and backup is more about restoring tools and known states for things rather than outright changes -- SSDs don't tend to die as much as laptop drives used to so most of the time any time I am doing anything it is a whole new machine and as long as people have their photos, documents and browser settings** then all good as far as they are concerned which also raises the possibility of just format, new install, possibly a debloat script and copy the relevant data across. Some like to go a bit more basic and use tools like dd ( https://linuxhint.com/clone-disk-using-dd-linux/ ). I don't know that I would pay for anything here for personal computer use (it starts to make a bit more sense if you have a massive network constantly needing restores, though clonezilla is also kind of designed for it).

** https://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ is getting a bit long in the tooth so might be worth seeing what else is out there, and while it is for firefox then import between chrome and other things and export to said same is pretty good if you did want that approach. https://ninite.com/ is a wonderful tool for installing a lot of programs all at once as well in case you were unfamiliar with that.

 

[fringle]

I've used AOMEI for cloning drives and for the most part it works ok but do run into the odd occasion where no matter what I do, the cloned drive will not boot or it boots but won't allow me to extend the cloned partition to the full size of the drive once it's complete. These are probably the two main issues you will run into with cloning drives.

As for replacing your second drive, it will be as simple as drag and drop but with folder like my documents and such you will have to first copy all files/folders to the new drive. On the old drive remove the files, since you don't want them to get copied back to the C drive then go into the properties of the folders and change them back to C. Open disk management change the old drive letter to something unused and change the new drive to D. Go back to explorer and the system folders you want back on d, right click and change their location back to the D drive. This is the only way windows won't see a conflict and start creating them on your c drive anyway if you move or delete them without changing their location first.

 

[Hayato213]

Morning (or evening) all!

The laptop I've got is just over 4 years old now and works perfectly, so I've finally taken the plunge to upgrade my 256GB Samsung P961 NVME SSD to a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus to improve lifespan and storage speed.

I've never in all my life cloned a drive before... I've heard Samsung's Data Migration software is good and since both drives are Samsung I'd imagine there would be no issue with using that software actually but I'm open to suggestions. I've bought an external enclosure to put the new SSD in so that I can clone the drive via USB, by the way.

My question is, how exactly does it work? I really just want to migrate the data onto the new drive without it creating a partition. In my head the cloning process will want me to create a partition that's 256GB so clone the drive exactly as it was on the old storage? I really just want it to remain as the C:\ drive... Is this possible to do? I imagine that cloning means I'll have all my programs, files, setup and drivers etc exactly as they were before changing SSD?


I'll be replacing the slow(er) internal 1TB SSHD with a 2TB Sata SSD too, but I think the migration on that would just be as simple as a drag and drop for that, as there are no system files on my D:\ drive. Just My documents, Pictures, Videos... All those folders that are setup by windows, so as long as the drive letter matches it should work the same yes?

Any help with this much appreciated. I'll have all the components by Friday but want to be prepared for the switch.
Thanks all!

I would recommend using something like Acronis for your cloning, you would be able to proportion the drive, The only thing come to mind is that you would lose access to license to one time activated software like office, so you would end up having to buy another license unless you have like office 365 or volume license.

 

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

I would recommend using something like Acronis for your cloning, you would be able to proportion the drive, The only thing come to mind is that you would lose access to license to one time activated software like office, so you would end up having to buy another license unless you have like office 365 or volume license.

I rarely use office, but if I need it then I have access to 365 through work anyway actually so that's not ah issue.

Strange though, why does the SSD change effect the office license

 

[Hayato213]

I rarely use office, but if I need it then I have access to 365 through work anyway actually so that's not ah issue.

Strange though, why does the SSD change effect the office license

Just how the license work if you bought an one time use license, when you clone the drive you lose the license.

 

[godreborn]

I have the same 1TB ssd in my system as the one you plan to get. I used acronis true image to make a disk backup of the old drive, then just reflashed the image to the new drive. the only downside is if you have multiple partitions on the original disk, you might have to delete some of them, so you can expand the storage. that's mostly if going from lower capacity to higher. the unallocated memory needs to be expanded. anyway, I encountered no problems doing this from a 500GB to a 1TB. that's when I had best buy test the ssd I had originally, which seemed to be failing. they didn't replace the ssd. the guy actually threw away the old ssd, so best buy gave me a $200 gift card as this was recorded. anyway, my mom and I put the new ssd in, that's how we found out there was no longer an ssd in it.

Post automatically merged: Nov 8, 2022

btw, expanding a disk only works for partitions next to each other. good luck.

 

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

I have the same 1TB ssd in my system as the one you plan to get. I used acronis true image to make a disk backup of the old drive, then just reflashed the image to the new drive. the only downside is if you have multiple partitions on the original disk, you might have to delete some of them, so you can expand the storage. that's mostly if going from lower capacity to higher. the unallocated memory needs to be expanded. anyway, I encountered no problems doing this from a 500GB to a 1TB. that's when I had best buy test the ssd I had originally, which seemed to be failing. they didn't replace the ssd. the guy actually threw away the old ssd, so best buy gave me a $200 gift card as this was recorded. anyway, my mom and I put the new ssd in, that's how we found out there was no longer an ssd in it.

Post automatically merged: Nov 8, 2022

btw, expanding a disk only works for partitions next to each other. good luck.

If you have the same SSD, then I have full faith in it

Only a single partition for me. I've never been interested in partitioning drives! Having the OS on the same partition as data doesn't bother me really, unless I'm missing something big that's an advantage to having them separate? Or another reason to partition?

Good news that it worked fine for you. Is there a reason you didn't just clone the original directly onto the target 1TB SSD though? Just interested to know the thought process on it as I know you can clone direct from original to target on a few of the softwares I've taken a look at!

 

[godreborn]

this is an m2, right, and not a normal ssd? I have no way to clone the drive from and to an m2. I don't have the equipment for that. plus, I think it will make the ssd appear smaller, since it's half of what the capacity of the new drive is. I do have to wipe the entire drive before flashing the disk image, because my hdds is encrypted, and acronis will not work unless the drive is empty due to this.

 

[FAST6191]

Just how the license work if you bought an one time use license, when you clone the drive you lose the license.

Is office 365 tied that way rather than the usual combo of motherboard and CPU like most other consumer level MS things?

If you have the same SSD, then I have full faith in it

Only a single partition for me. I've never been interested in partitioning drives! Having the OS on the same partition as data doesn't bother me really, unless I'm missing something big that's an advantage to having them separate? Or another reason to partition?

Good news that it worked fine for you. Is there a reason you didn't just clone the original directly onto the target 1TB SSD though? Just interested to know the thought process on it as I know you can clone direct from original to target on a few of the softwares I've taken a look at!

Multiple partitions (as opposed to multiple drives or remote drives/storage, where you can also cut the other way and use RAID to make multiple drives appear as one single one if so desired) are mostly useful for when someone messes up the OS and you can just grab data from the second partition, wants to do a reinstall without worrying about fishing out existing data, wants to share things between different OSes (be it Windows or Linux which traditionally did not have the best NTFS write abilities), wants to use something fancier on the second partition (compression, encryption, extra data recovery/parity options and such like) where the OS can do what it likes (or vice versa -- I might not need my scratch space to be fully encrypted, compressed and with parity all the way down but hardened OS is something more useful). Some also like to stick their swap space or equivalent on another partition but better to have a different drive there. It is also used when you have certain multi OS setups.
Downsides are mostly split in size meaning wasted free space on the OS partition or OS partition running out of data as time and updates roll in, older programs not understanding (several things, including the things I mentioned using it for above, only understand hard drive is C:\, CD/DVD drive is D:\ and everything else follows that and will only install from D to C).

Said older programs are not really a problem these days, or have workarounds. I mostly do it because I am a contrarian bastard, practice for Linux, theoretically being able to grab data (most hard drives physically die and backups exist, not to mention I don't care about booting from a liveCD to copy data as it is effectively the same job either way for me unless we are talking terabytes of data I now have to find a temporary home for while I reformat). At the same time I will not fault someone for sticking with just the one.

 

[Hayato213]

Is office 365 tied that way rather than the usual combo of motherboard and CPU like most other consumer level MS things?

Office 365 is tied to the account used.

 

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

Is office 365 tied that way rather than the usual combo of motherboard and CPU like most other consumer level MS things?

Multiple partitions (as opposed to multiple drives or remote drives/storage, where you can also cut the other way and use RAID to make multiple drives appear as one single one if so desired) are mostly useful for when someone messes up the OS and you can just grab data from the second partition, wants to do a reinstall without worrying about fishing out existing data, wants to share things between different OSes (be it Windows or Linux which traditionally did not have the best NTFS write abilities), wants to use something fancier on the second partition (compression, encryption, extra data recovery/parity options and such like) where the OS can do what it likes (or vice versa -- I might not need my scratch space to be fully encrypted, compressed and with parity all the way down but hardened OS is something more useful). Some also like to stick their swap space or equivalent on another partition but better to have a different drive there. It is also used when you have certain multi OS setups.
Downsides are mostly split in size meaning wasted free space on the OS partition or OS partition running out of data as time and updates roll in, older programs not understanding (several things, including the things I mentioned using it for above, only understand hard drive is C:\, CD/DVD drive is D:\ and everything else follows that and will only install from D to C).

Said older programs are not really a problem these days, or have workarounds. I mostly do it because I am a contrarian bastard, practice for Linux, theoretically being able to grab data (most hard drives physically die and backups exist, not to mention I don't care about booting from a liveCD to copy data as it is effectively the same job either way for me unless we are talking terabytes of data I now have to find a temporary home for while I reformat). At the same time I will not fault someone for sticking with just the one.

Ahhh great info. That makes a lot of sense. That way you can still access any personal data even if the OS is broken in some way right? I don't tend to mess with the OS, and do tend to keep a recent backup of my system just incase an update goes wrong (which it has in the past!)

With what you've told me, the rest of the applications you mentioned aren't relevant to me so I still don't need to consider partitioning at this time. But it's all good to learn about!

this is an m2, right, and not a normal ssd? I have no way to clone the drive from and to an m2. I don't have the equipment for that. plus, I think it will make the ssd appear smaller, since it's half of what the capacity of the new drive is. I do have to wipe the entire drive before flashing the disk image, because my hdds is encrypted, and acronis will not work unless the drive is empty due to this.

Yeah it's an M.2 NVME Gen3 SSD. I just bought an M.2 to USB Enclosure and I'm hoping that's suitable for cloning the drive. I can't see it being an issue anyway!

 

[godreborn]

yeah, then that is the one I'm using as well. I didn't know there was an adapter or enclosure for m2s.

 

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

yeah, then that is the one I'm using as well. I didn't know there was an adapter or enclosure for m2s.

Yeah I think they're quite commonplace now... I've never used one so I'm hoping I'm not misunderstanding, but this is what I bought! CLICK HERE

 

[godreborn]

Yeah I think they're quite commonplace now... I've never used one so I'm hoping I'm not misunderstanding, but this is what I bought! CLICK HERE

ah, didn't know something like that existed.

 

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

ah, didn't know something like that existed.

I only checked as it was a simple method to get the NVME SSD connected to my Laptop with only a single slot on the motherboard. There are a ton of them, maybe something that can help in future if you upgrade again

 

[godreborn]

I only checked as it was a simple method to get the NVME SSD connected to my Laptop with only a single slot on the motherboard. There are a ton of them, maybe something that can help in future if you upgrade again

I actually use acronis. I used it when my old ssd failed, and I had no problems with it aside from it showing unallocated memory for the rest of the drive, once the disk flash was finished. you can only extend the volume with adjacent parts of the disk though I found no way to get around this. that's if you're upgrading to a larger drive. anyway, it was relatively painless to get everything back. you can also restore specific folders or files instead of flashing the disk. since my m2 is encrypted, I have to format the drive first through acronis.

 

[Luke94]

Is it about does it has to does to do I mean has something in common with USB Flash Drive/Pendrive?

 

[Originality]

For cloning, I’ve used AOMEI (free at the time) and Acronis, both worked well.
Although my personal preference is actually just to start with a fresh install. You can reinstall apps that you need, copy over important data, and the rest can sit in archive, either on your old drive (I’ve got a USB enclosure for each type of drive standard over the years due to work) or in a NAS for longer term storage. Starting fresh has that clean tidy PC feel.

 

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

For cloning, I’ve used AOMEI (free at the time) and Acronis, both worked well.
Although my personal preference is actually just to start with a fresh install. You can reinstall apps that you need, copy over important data, and the rest can sit in archive, either on your old drive (I’ve got a USB enclosure for each type of drive standard over the years due to work) or in a NAS for longer term storage. Starting fresh has that clean tidy PC feel.

Appreciate the thoughts and I agree that sometimes it's better to start a fresh install, but if there's one thing I absolutely hate, it's the hassle of setting up everything I need is just too much for me ahaha

Not necessarily because I'm lazy, it's just that I'm way too busy to go through everything and re-install and there's a lot of software/ installed Drivers (that I'd probably struggle to find) that I use actually... If I was gonna start a fresh, it'll probably when I change the laptop for the GPU/ CPU upgrade!

Using Acronis/ AOMEI would make it so everything is identical right? Something as simple as a Larger SSD install is such a pain apparently ahaha