How do I copy my boot drive to an m.2?

Zeroel
Zeroel Member Posts: 50 Devotee WiFi Icon
edited November 2023 in 2018 Archives
So I got a laptop that shipped with 1 tb hdd, very slow loading times and all. I replaced it with a 250gb ssd. but now I wanna slap on an M.2 NVME or whatever that's called, and I wanna know if I should install windows 10 on it or if there's a way I can copy the OS from the original 1 tb hdd to an M.2. I've heard that there are softwares I could download for it. Would anyone care to recommend one? :D

Best Answers

  • Sharanji
    Sharanji ACE Posts: 4,327 Pathfinder
    Answer ✓
    Zeroel 

    There are many tools : AOMEI Partition Assitant, EaseUS Partition Master, Paragon Partition Manager, etc. you could migrate Windows 10 from HDD or SSD to M.2 SSD.

    I recommend you to try migrating your original hard drive( whole disk) using migrate feature in Minitool Partition wizard, I found it very useful program. https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

    One last thing to add, after finishing the migration, unplugged the HDD and set the boot priority of the SSD to the top. After reboot, the SSD has become the system disk, C:\   Then plug back your HDD and it can be used as the data storage, and  keep the original windows in the HDD for recovery purpose.

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  • FredinBroome
    FredinBroome Member Posts: 23 Networker
    Answer ✓
    No matter what you do or plan, open the Acer Care Center, go to Recovery Management and make a backup of your system to USB. I imaged my 128GB SSD, upgraded the drive to a NVMe 512GB and then tried to use my image to restore my system. To my dismay the software choked and my image from the original drive was useless. Luckily I had created a recovery usb and I used that to put my system back. Being an SSD its is very fast to do compared to the slog with a standard Hard Drive 

Answers

  • Sharanji
    Sharanji ACE Posts: 4,327 Pathfinder
    Answer ✓
    Zeroel 

    There are many tools : AOMEI Partition Assitant, EaseUS Partition Master, Paragon Partition Manager, etc. you could migrate Windows 10 from HDD or SSD to M.2 SSD.

    I recommend you to try migrating your original hard drive( whole disk) using migrate feature in Minitool Partition wizard, I found it very useful program. https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

    One last thing to add, after finishing the migration, unplugged the HDD and set the boot priority of the SSD to the top. After reboot, the SSD has become the system disk, C:\   Then plug back your HDD and it can be used as the data storage, and  keep the original windows in the HDD for recovery purpose.

    Hit 'Like' if you find the answer helpful!   
    Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!
  • FredinBroome
    FredinBroome Member Posts: 23 Networker
    Answer ✓
    No matter what you do or plan, open the Acer Care Center, go to Recovery Management and make a backup of your system to USB. I imaged my 128GB SSD, upgraded the drive to a NVMe 512GB and then tried to use my image to restore my system. To my dismay the software choked and my image from the original drive was useless. Luckily I had created a recovery usb and I used that to put my system back. Being an SSD its is very fast to do compared to the slog with a standard Hard Drive 
  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,623 Pathfinder
    Once you change hard disk, the recovery becomes useless since there is no recovery partition any more.
     
    Take a disk clone/backup with something like macrium, install windows clean, install macrium, and restore the earlier backed up image. Don't update the boot manager.
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  • FredinBroome
    FredinBroome Member Posts: 23 Networker
    edited June 2018
    sri369 said:
    Once you change hard disk, the recovery becomes useless since there is no recovery partition any more.
     
    Take a disk clone/backup with something like macrium, install windows clean, install macrium, and restore the earlier backed up image. Don't update the boot manager.
    I'd have to disagree. Creating the recovery USB through the Acer software also creates the recovery partition as shown in my diagram. It also carries over all drivers too. It isn't comparable to a vanilla windows recovery USB. Using imaging software is far quicker but if it doesn't work as was the case in my situation having a recovery USB saved me from having a brick

  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,623 Pathfinder
    I'd have to disagree. Creating the recovery USB through the Acer software also creates the recovery partition as shown in my diagram. It also carries over all drivers too. It isn't comparable to a vanilla windows recovery USB.

    This didn't work for me when i was moving from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Looks like you didn't delete any partitions. I had to delete all partitions to convert GPT to MBR for windows 7, and then back to GPT for windows 10.
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  • FredinBroome
    FredinBroome Member Posts: 23 Networker
    sri369 said:
    I'd have to disagree. Creating the recovery USB through the Acer software also creates the recovery partition as shown in my diagram. It also carries over all drivers too. It isn't comparable to a vanilla windows recovery USB.

    This didn't work for me when i was moving from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Looks like you didn't delete any partitions. I had to delete all partitions to convert GPT to MBR for windows 7, and then back to GPT for windows 10.
    sri369 said:
    I'd have to disagree. Creating the recovery USB through the Acer software also creates the recovery partition as shown in my diagram. It also carries over all drivers too. It isn't comparable to a vanilla windows recovery USB.

    This didn't work for me when i was moving from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Looks like you didn't delete any partitions. I had to delete all partitions to convert GPT to MBR for windows 7, and then back to GPT for windows 10.
    No this was a brand new drive with 100% unallocated space
  • Yvette222
    Yvette222 Member Posts: 7

    Tinkerer

    Many tools can help you clone OS. I'd also like to recommend minitool partition wizard. Sharanji has posted detailed steps, you can follow them.
  • Zeroel
    Zeroel Member Posts: 50 Devotee WiFi Icon
    Thank you all for the answers... :)
    Love you all