Cloning nvme m.2

[dperabeles]

Hi everyone ! I’m posting this because I bought a new nvme m.2 drive to replace my slow one as my boot drive.

 

i know it possible but I really not know how to do it. 
 

What software is recommended to do the cloning ? 
 

My mobo has two m.2 slots.

 

New one is pcie 4.0 at 7000mbs and the old one is pcie 3.0 at 2400mbs.

[Weezy]

I used Macrium Reflect and it worked flawlessly for me. If you're not sure how to use it, they have an instructional video which I recommend watching as many times as you need

[RONOTHAN##]

My go to is always Clonezilla, it does a bit for bit copy of the old drive to the new one, including the partition structure and everything. It's usually the most reliable of the cloning software in my experience and runs off a flash drive, though there are some features in the in Windows software suites that you will be missing if you need them (say copying from a larger drive to a smaller drive is rather annoying on Clonezilla, though rather easy on something like Macron). 

[tdkid]

i haven't tried it myself so i have no idea what I am talking about but for USB flash drives, all you have to do is highlight what you want, right-click to copy (ctrl+c), go to the other drive, and right-click to paste (crtl+v) the info. so no additional hardware or software is needed. but like I said I have no idea what I am talking about so I don't know if it's this easy to do or not with m.2s that are on the same board.

[dperabeles]

32 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

My go to is always Clonezilla, it does a bit for bit copy of the old drive to the new one, including the partition structure and everything. It's usually the most reliable of the cloning software in my experience and runs off a flash drive, though there are some features in the in Windows software suites that you will be missing if you need them (say copying from a larger drive to a smaller drive is rather annoying on Clonezilla, though rather easy on something like Macron). 

Will give it a try after work !

I’m cloning a 1tb (with about ~700gb used) to another 1tb. So it shouldn’t be a problem right ?

[Tan3l6]

Macrium Reflect has the advantage that you can clone while using OS...

Clonezilla has it's own environment you need to boot to afaik.

[RONOTHAN##]

2 minutes ago, dperabeles said:

Will give it a try after work !

I’m cloning a 1tb (with about ~700gb used) to another 1tb. So it shouldn’t be a problem right ?

It shouldn't. In theory there can be a small problem depending on right where the cutoff was (there can be a few MBs more on one than the other), though Clonezilla should be able to take that into account. 

[Weezy]

13 minutes ago, tdkid said:

i haven't tried it myself so i have no idea what I am talking about but for USB flash drives, all you have to do is highlight what you want, right-click to copy (ctrl+c), go to the other drive, and right-click to paste (crtl+v) the info. so no additional hardware or software is needed. but like I said I have no idea what I am talking about so I don't know if it's this easy to do or not with m.2s that are on the same board.

If all you want to do is copy files (documents, photos, videos, etc..) this would be fine. But if you are transferring your operating system, programs, etc... cloning is the only way everything will work when you're done. Just copying programs and operating systems files over won't work unfortunately

[dperabeles]

3 hours ago, Tan3l6 said:

Macrium Reflect has the advantage that you can clone while using OS...

Clonezilla has it's own environment you need to boot to afaik.

So for a total newbie like me, would macrium be better and easy to use that Clonezilla?

[dperabeles]

It is currently clonning my m.2, so after finishing I just swap m.2 slots and thats it? Next I procced to format the old disk? How do I know if im booting from the new m.2 and not the old one?

[C2dan88]

3 hours ago, dperabeles said:

How do I know if im booting from the new m.2 and not the old one?

Choose the new m.2 as first boot device in the bios.