Help installing a Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA SSD in a Acer TC-780-acki5

First, I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to computer stuff but my direction following skills make up for it somewhat. lol

What I'm wanting to do:

Install a Samsung 860 M.2 SATA SSD into the open M.2 slot and clone the contents of the hdd to it and then use the hdd as a storage drive.

I've read that there are limited options for the TC-780 since the boot order is pretty much locked down and with the only 2 sata slots already being used by the hdd and optical drive (which I would like to keep both).

My plan:
1. Make a recovery usb drive.
2. Install the ssd into the m.2 slot and use the Samsung software to clone the hdd to it.
3. After clone is done I will shut the computer down and disconnect the hdd.
4. Start the computer back up and test if the m.2 ssd boots and that the cloning worked.
5. If step 4 works, then shut down again and reconnect the hdd.
6. See if the computer boots from the ssd and take the steps to make the hdd a storage drive.

Questions:

Should the computer automatically boot from the Samsung 860 EVO in the M.2 slot after the cloning and reconnecting the hdd?

I understand that the cloning will erase the contents of the hdd but if something did go wrong with the ssd install can I use the usb recovery drive to restore the os.... back onto the hdd?

Any other steps or precautions I should take before tackling this?

I guess the worst case is that the computer won't boot from the ssd with the hdd connected so I have to leave the hdd disconnected.

Thanks in advance

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brummyfan2

Hi,
Your preparation seems fine but I would add few more things, how are you making the recovery USB drive?
I would use a program like Macrium Reflect free to backup the HDD image to an external HDD and create a recovery disk using the same program to be on the safe side. Nothing wrong with your method but this is an alternate method.
As for your question about 860 EVO booting after cloning and reconnecting the HDD, you have to change the boot order in BIOS to make M.2 SSD as your first Boot device.
1. Install Macrium reflect free.
2. Backup the HDD image to an external HDD.
3. Create a recovery USB with Macrium reflect.
4. Install the M.2 SSD and remove the HDD.
5. Insert the recovery USB
6. Go to BIOS, move to Boot tab and change the boot order to make USB drive as your first boot.
7. Connect the external HDD which has the backup image.
8. Recover the image on to the M.2 SSD.
Once you are satisfied that everything works, you can delete the original HDD and use it for storage.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
https://reflect.macrium.com/webtutorial/tutorial.asp

milom98

Thanks for the reply brummyfan2

I've read that cloning the hdd on this machine is difficult except when cloning with the Samsung Data Migration Software, is the same true for making a backup image of the hdd?

Any way like I said, i'm kind off a noob with this kind of stuff so let me see if I understand what you suggested. If I'm wrong then please feel free to school me.

With what you suggested it sounds like I wouldn't need to clone the hdd to the m.2 ssd but instead just recover the hdd image on the external hdd onto the m.2 ssd? Is that correct?

If so, could you give a little more detail about how to do steps 6-8?
6. Go to BIOS, move to Boot tab and change the boot order to make USB drive as your first boot.
7. Connect the external HDD which has the backup image.
8. Recover the image on to the M.2 SSD.

brummyfan2

Hi,
Yes, that's correct.
6. Press F2 button as soon as you press the Power button to start, when in the BIOS screen, move to Boot tab with right arrow button, then move down to USB drive which is the macrium reflect Recovery drive(again with down arrow button), then move the USB drive to the first boot position by pressing F6 button.
7. You need a SATA adapter like the one in the link below so that you can connect the external HDD in which you have backed up the original HDD image.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/USB-SATA-Adapter-Cable-Drives-en-GB-SATA-USB-3-0-converter/dp/B01N2JIQR7
8. Please read this tutorial about recovering image on to a drive:https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Restoring+an+image+from+Windows
Other useful tutorials:https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Creating+a+backup+image+of+your+computer,+drive+or+partitions
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Creating+rescue+media

milom98

Thanks again for the reply but I'm afraid this might be beyond my abilities.

Let's say I just did the things below, could you tell me what other steps would be needed to get things working?
Just a reminder: I want to clone the internal hdd to the m.2 ssd and then use the internal hdd for storage.

1. Use Macrium reflect free or another program to backup the HDD image to an external HDD and create a recovery USB. These need to be done regardless in case something goes wrong.
2. Install the m.2 ssd into the m.2 slot and use the Samsung Data Migration Software to clone the hdd to the ssd.

So now the hdd is cloned to the installed m.2 ssd, what's needed next?

Couple comments and questions
Are you certain the boot order on this machine can be changed?
What's the function of the SATA adapter you mentioned? I only have a WD portable hdd that appears to uses a USB 2.0 micro b so will said cable work on my WD portable hdd?

milom98

Posting this in case anyone else might need help like I did and got a much more complicated answer than is needed.

Note that this is what I did to install a Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA SSD but I assume it's basically the same process for other Samsung M.2 SSD's.

What I was looking to do was install the Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA SSD and clone the 2TB HDD that came installed in the machine and then use the 2TB HDD as a storage drive.

1. Use Macrium reflect free or another program to backup the HDD image to an external HDD and create a recovery USB. These need to be done regardless in case something goes wrong
2. Install the Samung M.2 SSD into the m.2 slot and use the Samsung Data Migration Software to clone the hdd to the ssd. The Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA SSD showed up in the Samsung Data Migration Software without having to do anything and the cloning process was super easy.
3. Shut down the pc and disconnected the 2tb hdd before powering it back up just to make sure it would boot from the Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA SSD and that the cloning worked. It did with no problems.
4. Shut down the pc again and reconnected the 2tb hdd before powering it back up. Pc started up and booted from the Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA SSD without any change need in the bios.
5. Set the 2tb hdd as a storage drive. If you open Disk management you will notice it shows the 2tb hdd as offline because of a signature collision and that there are still partitions on the drive. Now there are a few ways to set it up as a storage drive and I'll let you find what works best for you but I used a free program to remove the partitions and formatted the drive.

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