can I clone/swap an NVMe SSD with only 1 slot and an HDD

[Rosa Laminae]

hi, I have an 128GB SSD that I use both as a bootdrive and have some other programs installed on it that I wish to keep there, and keep the pathways...

 

however I just bought a 980 PRO to replace it, but as I said, I would like to keep all my files/programms

 

I have tried watching a few videos and forum posts but none could properly explain to me how to do it without external devices like USB or some cable to have the new SSD installed like an external drive before swapping it...

simply put I would like to use my internal HDD (3TB free space, and i could make partitions etc with ease) to save an image of my old NVMe drive and then put it on the new drive from there... I just can't figure out how I am supposed to do this (seriously, people just say 'oh save the image, then swap, then mount the image on new drive' and I'm just like... where is the rest of the owl?

if someone could help me with a guide or lead me to a proper guide, that would REALLY be appreciated

especially the re-installing process is a mystery to me, though making the image itself is not something I have done prior to this either...

ps. I originally had a stupid idea of maybe just ctrl+C ctrl+v to my second drive, boot from there, and then copy it to the new drive, but I am afraid I would lose files in the process due to permissions... so i thought, maybe i can do it with an USB ubuntu drive using, say, rufus, but I am not sure if that is a safe idea  and it sounds like a lot of work.

[IbraTech04]

The best way to do this in my opinion is to use a program called Macrium Reflect. You've probably read about it in the forum posts/guides you read about. However, my idea of it's usage is different.

 

Firstly, download Macrium Reflect from here: 

Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

Install it, then launch it

 

Now, you're going to create a "Macrium Rescue Media". This is essentially a bootable USB with a very light Windows PE image on it, and Macrium Reflect installed. We're going to do everything inside of this environment, to avoid permission issues. 

 

Make sure you have Rufus before continuing: Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

 

Once you have Macrium installed and launched, navigate to Other Tasks (in the top bar) > Create Rescue Media > ISO File > Build. This will create an ISO in C:\ called Macrium Rescue. This is the file you will burn to the USB with Rufus

 

Once the Macrium Rescue build is done, use Rufus and burn that image to the USB:

Make sure that under "Device" in Rufus you have your USB drive that you want to use selected. Then press START and wait for the process to finish

 

Then boot to that USB. You will be greeted with a similar windows environment. When it boots up, Macrium Reflect should automatically launch. It will default to the "Restore" Tab. Make sure you switch that to "Backup". Now, select your 128GB NVMe in the menu and select "Image this disk":

 

You should see your 3TB drive among the list. I'm running this in a VM so I only have the formatted virtual drive showing up. 

You should see a dialog box pop up. Under destination, ensure Folder is selected and click the 3 dots:

 

A file selection box should pop up. Select your 3TB drive in that box, then select OK. The root directory will probably suffice, but if you wanted to you could save it to a folder

Select Next, then finish. It will then start to image your NVMe drive to your Hard Drive. This process may take some time, so be patient and let it do its thing.

 

Now power off your machine, remove the old NVMe and install the new one. Reboot into the Macrium Rescue Media. This time make sure the Restore tab is selected. 

Select "Browse for an image file..." :

 

Then navigate to the image you created earlier. Once it is selected, select "Restore Image" under its properties:

Click "Select a disk to restore to..." and select your new NVMe drive. It should look like this:

 

Hit next, then finish. This will restore the image from your 128GB NVMe drive to your new NVMe drive. It may take some time. Just let it do its thing. Last time I did a restore it took about an hour for about 250Gb of data from a hard drive, so be patient and let it do its thing. When its done, you should be able to boot to it, and your computer should be like it was before. 

Hope this helped

[Rosa Laminae]

33 minutes ago, IbraTech04 said:

The best way to do this in my opinion is to use a program called Macrium Reflect. You've probably read about it in the forum posts/guides you read about. However, my idea of it's usage is different.

 

Firstly, download Macrium Reflect from here: 

Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

Install it, then launch it

 

Now, you're going to create a "Macrium Rescue Media". This is essentially a bootable USB with a very light Windows PE image on it, and Macrium Reflect installed. We're going to do everything inside of this environment, to avoid permission issues. 

 

Make sure you have Rufus before continuing: Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

 

Once you have Macrium installed and launched, navigate to Other Tasks (in the top bar) > Create Rescue Media > ISO File > Build. This will create an ISO in C:\ called Macrium Rescue. This is the file you will burn to the USB with Rufus

 

Once the Macrium Rescue build is done, use Rufus and burn that image to the USB:

Make sure that under "Device" in Rufus you have your USB drive that you want to use selected. Then press START and wait for the process to finish

 

Then boot to that USB. You will be greeted with a similar windows environment. When it boots up, Macrium Reflect should automatically launch. It will default to the "Restore" Tab. Make sure you switch that to "Backup". Now, select your 128GB NVMe in the menu and select "Image this disk":

 

You should see your 3TB drive among the list. I'm running this in a VM so I only have the formatted virtual drive showing up. 

You should see a dialog box pop up. Under destination, ensure Folder is selected and click the 3 dots:

 

A file selection box should pop up. Select your 3TB drive in that box, then select OK. The root directory will probably suffice, but if you wanted to you could save it to a folder

Select Next, then finish. It will then start to image your NVMe drive to your Hard Drive. This process may take some time, so be patient and let it do its thing.

 

Now power off your machine, remove the old NVMe and install the new one. Reboot into the Macrium Rescue Media. This time make sure the Restore tab is selected. 

Select "Browse for an image file..." :

 

Then navigate to the image you created earlier. Once it is selected, select "Restore Image" under its properties:

Click "Select a disk to restore to..." and select your new NVMe drive. It should look like this:

 

Hit next, then finish. This will restore the image from your 128GB NVMe drive to your new NVMe drive. It may take some time. Just let it do its thing. Last time I did a restore it took about an hour for about 250Gb of data from a hard drive, so be patient and let it do its thing. When its done, you should be able to boot to it, and your computer should be like it was before. 

Hope this helped

WOW, thanks for the detailed guide!

it's seems pretty clear to me how to do this, i'll try it out asap, many thanks!

[IbraTech04]

28 minutes ago, Rosa Laminae said:

WOW, thanks for the detailed guide!

it's seems pretty clear to me how to do this, i'll try it out asap, many thanks!

No worries :). Best of luck!