Aspire A515 Moving the OS image of a dual-boot Windows 10 & Ubuntu 16 LTS laptop NVMe SSD M.2 slot

Dwaipayan
Dwaipayan Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
edited June 2023 in Aspire Laptops

Dear Community,

I have an  Acer Aspire A515-51G which is a 2017 model.

I wish to install a NVMe SSD in the M.2 slot.

After buying the SSD, I would like to take an image backup of the OS from my existing SATA HDD and restore it to the SSD so that my OS config and software remains as before and I don’t have to reinstall and reconfigure everything (for both Windows & Ubuntu).

Do you think that is possible? If yes, what tools/software do you recommend?

My laptop is a dual-boot Windows 10 & Ubuntu 16 LTS. I have attached the CPU-Z report and laptop data sheet.

Acer CPU-Z report 2023.txt
Acer Datasheet PN_ NX.GP5SI.002.pdf 
[Edited the thread to add model name]

Best Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,891 Trailblazer
    edited June 2023 Answer ✓

    Yes it's possible. But usually grub and Windows boot loaders will have to be modified/repaired to accomodate the different hardware. First use a cloning/migrating freeware tool such as AOEMI BackUpper or Macrium Reflect. It can also be done with GPartEd live stick which I usually use for my dual boot systems. GPartEd live also can be used to repair the grub bootloader after migration.

    Then temporarily disconnect the old drive. Try to boot from the new m.2 card. It will usually fail. Then shutdown and boot from the GPartEd live stick. Then right click the /DEV/NVMEx EXT4 Linux boot partition. Click 'check' option. This will repair the bootloader and check other system files needed for the boot process.

    Linux should then boot OK. But Windows usually won't and will attempt to automatically repair itself and reboot. It often fails the 2nd time but will continue to try to auto repair and reboot. Sometimes 3 or 4 auto repair and reboots are necessary.

    Once you're back to normal dual-booting with the new m.2, you can then re-connect the old drive. It should show up as D in Windows and as a regular SDx in Linux. It takes a while and a few nervous bumps in the road, but usually successful.

    Jack E/NJ

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,891 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓

    Yes, GPartEd should work fine from the live Ubuntu stick. Easy, simple & straightforward interface. Right click on partitions for copy/paste, check/repair and other operations. Just be careful that you're applying the operations to the intended storage device or partition, for example /dev/sdNVME0 or /dev/sda0 or /dev/sdb1 or etc.

    Jack E/NJ

Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,891 Trailblazer
    edited June 2023 Answer ✓

    Yes it's possible. But usually grub and Windows boot loaders will have to be modified/repaired to accomodate the different hardware. First use a cloning/migrating freeware tool such as AOEMI BackUpper or Macrium Reflect. It can also be done with GPartEd live stick which I usually use for my dual boot systems. GPartEd live also can be used to repair the grub bootloader after migration.

    Then temporarily disconnect the old drive. Try to boot from the new m.2 card. It will usually fail. Then shutdown and boot from the GPartEd live stick. Then right click the /DEV/NVMEx EXT4 Linux boot partition. Click 'check' option. This will repair the bootloader and check other system files needed for the boot process.

    Linux should then boot OK. But Windows usually won't and will attempt to automatically repair itself and reboot. It often fails the 2nd time but will continue to try to auto repair and reboot. Sometimes 3 or 4 auto repair and reboots are necessary.

    Once you're back to normal dual-booting with the new m.2, you can then re-connect the old drive. It should show up as D in Windows and as a regular SDx in Linux. It takes a while and a few nervous bumps in the road, but usually successful.

    Jack E/NJ

  • Dwaipayan
    Dwaipayan Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1205611#Comment_1205611

    Thank you @JackE for the steps and suggestions 👍🏻 I will keep them in mind.

    Since my laptop is a 2017 model (BIOS updated to 20190301 release), so while buying a NVMe SSD should I focus on models which were released close to that year, e.g. 2019/2020/2021 ? Just to make sure the SSD works with my laptop. Or that doesn't matter?

    I have short-listed the below SSDs after doing some research and reading tech reviews for the past 2 weeks :

    ADATA SWORDFISH 1 TB

    ADATA LEGEND 750 1 TB

    ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB

    WD Blue SN570 1 TB

    I found these were value for money, entry/mid rage SSDs which will cost under PLN 250 (I am in Poland) and have good warranty, MTBF, TBW, p-SLC, Thermal stability.

    I don't need a very high performance SSD or for gaming purpose.

    What do you feel about these short-listed SSDs for my laptop?

    @brummyfan2 have a look at this and feel free to share your thoughts as well. You had helped me on a previous topic as well.

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,891 Trailblazer

    my laptop is a 2017 model

    WD Blue SN570 1 TB

    One of my favorite nvmes for older machines with a single M-key bump m.2 socket.

    Some early mainboards might've shipped with the dual B+M key bump sockets. So double check that your m.2 socket looks like the single M-key bump as shown below.

    wdnvme-1.jpg

    m2socket1.jpg

    Jack E/NJ

  • brummyfan2
    brummyfan2 ACE Posts: 28,468 Trailblazer

    Hi,

    Yes, I also like WD SN 570, it's a good and reliable SSD🙂

    Acer Predator PT516-51s Performance Results - UserBenchmark

  • Dwaipayan
    Dwaipayan Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1205867#Comment_1205867
    Untitled Image
    Untitled Image

    Thank you @JackE and @brummyfan2 for responding with your recommendation.

    Yes, I believe I have a M-Key M.2 socket. I have attached a couple of photos of the laptop board.

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,891 Trailblazer

    Looks good to me. The NVME should work fine. Good luck. 🙂

    Jack E/NJ

  • Dwaipayan
    Dwaipayan Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1205890#Comment_1205890

    Thank you @JackE.

    I missed to ask earlier, if I understand correctly, on your first response did you mean that “Gparted” can be used both for cloning and repair purposes?

    And I have a bootable Live Ubuntu 18.04 USB. Can I use Gparted from Ubuntu Live USB or should I make a dedicated Gparted Live USB?

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,891 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓

    Yes, GPartEd should work fine from the live Ubuntu stick. Easy, simple & straightforward interface. Right click on partitions for copy/paste, check/repair and other operations. Just be careful that you're applying the operations to the intended storage device or partition, for example /dev/sdNVME0 or /dev/sda0 or /dev/sdb1 or etc.

    Jack E/NJ

  • Dwaipayan
    Dwaipayan Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter

    Guys, I finally upgraded my Laptop storage with the WD Black SN770 NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 1TB SSD 🕺 (as per a recommendation from the Editor of TechPowerUp and Tom's Hardware reviews). The Gen4 SSD works like a charm on my PCIE Gen3 board 😃 and will give some future proofing too if I buy a new laptop with PCIE Gen4 board in the next couple of years 😎

    WDSN770-2.jpeg
    WDSN770.jpeg


    I tried to clone with Macrium first but it failed with "Cyclic Redundancy Check" error for the 7th partition, in Ubuntu Disk report there was just 1 bad sector on the HDD.

    Macrium.jpeg


    While cloning my dual boot Win+Ubuntu HDD using WD's version Acronis True Image to the SSD I got some CRC errors too but the process completed successfully. I used the Bootable image for both Macrium and Acronis to clone the HDD offline.

    Acronis.jpeg
    Acronis2.jpeg

    Win 10 booted without issues but had a minor hiccup with the Ubuntu (only the GRUB shell will show).

    So checked some forums and used Ubuntu Boot-Info tool which showed the issue was during cloning GRUB was installed in partition1 instead of partition7 where my Ubuntu installation was
    So used  Ubuntu Boot-Repair tool which reinstalled GRUB in the correct partition and voila! 😎 My Ubuntu was back in business and Grub loaded working as before 🕺

    Boot-Info :

    Boot-repair.jpeg


    And I tested copying two streams of data files from my external HDD to the SSD, 13 GB and 16 GB respectively, and it surpassed the max theoretical speed for 1x (lane) for a Gen3 which is 985 MB/sec... I got 1000 MB/sec top speed while copying. Copy took 123 secs and 166 secs respectively 😃

    My UserBenchmark results!

    https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/62192485
    https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/62191010


    My old laptop 💻 got a new life! Booting under 15 seconds instead of 4-5 minutes previously. Apps are launching fast and working properly and Drives seek time is almost 0.

    Thank you @JackE and @brummyfan2 for your responses and guidance.

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,891 Trailblazer

    Thanks for the report on your success! 🙂

    Jack E/NJ

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