How to copy SSD?

[sk1ttl3.]

Hello! I'm about to upgrade my PC from a ryzen 5 3600x to a ryzen 5 7600x, a full platform upgrade. As I will be swapping my motherboard, I realize it will likely be necessary for me to do a full reinstall of windows to get all of the drivers working. I am worried though about losing my data, and I think I came up with a solution. As I have two separate M.2 NVMe SSDs, I'm hoping to uninstall all large programs and then condense all other information onto one ssd. This would allow me to do the fresh install on one ssd, while keeping the other as a backup. Does anyone know a simple method of copying data between storage devices in a way that my pc would continue to run exactly the same?

 

[Timme]

Use AOMEI Partition Assistant to clone the drive.

[Ha-Satan]

You could clone the drive but personally I find that more annoying than just starting fresh. So what I would do is, before upgrading, move all your documents and files (i.e. anything that's not a program or system file) onto the M.2 that you won't be using as a boot drive. Then, when you re-build the PC with the new components, don't install the drive with your data at first. Do the OS install with only the drive you intend to have the OS on installed.

 

After the OS is installed, power down and install the drive with your documents and they should be accessible.

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, sk1ttl3. said:

5 3600x to a ryzen 5 7600x

You don't need to reinstall windows for that, it's almost the same chip lol.

 

Just deinstall drivers *before* swapping components (but download them beforehand in case you don't have Internet after the swap) then install them as normal.

 

You need: 

chipset drivers

network drivers (just in case) 

 

... this takes about 3-5 minutes, far more convenient than reinstalling windows

[Needfuldoer]

If either of your SSDs is from a name brand, they usually give you a drive utility that can clone your data. (Samsung has Samsung Magician, just about everyone else gives away a branded version of Acronis True Image.)

[BiotechBen]

3 hours ago, sk1ttl3. said:

Hello! I'm about to upgrade my PC from a ryzen 5 3600x to a ryzen 5 7600x, a full platform upgrade. As I will be swapping my motherboard, I realize it will likely be necessary for me to do a full reinstall of windows to get all of the drivers working. I am worried though about losing my data, and I think I came up with a solution. As I have two separate M.2 NVMe SSDs, I'm hoping to uninstall all large programs and then condense all other information onto one ssd. This would allow me to do the fresh install on one ssd, while keeping the other as a backup. Does anyone know a simple method of copying data between storage devices in a way that my pc would continue to run exactly the same?

 

I've used (free) Macrium Reflect in the past for cloning, not sure exactly which version, as it's been a while, but I will say it's definitely an RTFM type of program, but easy to follow the instructions.

Think of the process as giving a toddler instructions on how to do something, very stepwise, but explicit. 

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, BiotechBen said:

I've used (free) Macrium Reflect in the past for cloning, not sure exactly which version, as it's been a while, but I will say it's definitely an RTFM type of program, but easy to follow the instructions.

Think of the process as giving a toddler instructions on how to do something, very stepwise, but explicit. 

Kind of yeah because the UI is confusing, it's not *really* obvious which drive(s) are selected, and the same for the destination drive, *if you don't read* ... Hence the UI is a mess (things should be way more visible) but the program itself works well and fast. 

[BiotechBen]

33 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Kind of yeah because the UI is confusing, it's not *really* obvious which drive(s) are selected, and the same for the destination drive, *if you don't read* ... Hence the UI is a mess (things should be way more visible) but the program itself works well and fast. 

My reaction after ACTUALLY reading the instructions fully the first time. (5:12-5:42)

[Kisai]

12 hours ago, sk1ttl3. said:

Hello! I'm about to upgrade my PC from a ryzen 5 3600x to a ryzen 5 7600x, a full platform upgrade. As I will be swapping my motherboard, I realize it will likely be necessary for me to do a full reinstall of windows to get all of the drivers working. I am worried though about losing my data, and I think I came up with a solution. As I have two separate M.2 NVMe SSDs, I'm hoping to uninstall all large programs and then condense all other information onto one ssd. This would allow me to do the fresh install on one ssd, while keeping the other as a backup. Does anyone know a simple method of copying data between storage devices in a way that my pc would continue to run exactly the same?

 

The easiest, least-involved way:

1 Make sure full disk encryption/bitlocker is turned off

2 install both drives

3 create a raid mirror in disk management

Make sure that you do NOT format the destination drive first.

Then once it duplicates the drive, turn the PC off and remove the old drive and put the new drive in the old drive's port (this is optional, but most MB's only have PCIe4/PCIe5 on the CPU pci lanes, not the chipset (which might be PCIe3)

- Boot the PC and "break the mirror" if you want to use both drives as separate storage.

 

This is generally OK as long as the capacity on the new drive can take the capacity of the old drive. You can then extend the volume if it wasn't the full disk.

 

The hardest part about doing this is making sure that that you're booting off the correct drive. Windows will not automatically move the boot drive in the BIOS, hence why moving the port the drive is plugged in should be done even if it doesn't matter.  Hence booting the new drive by itself is required, not simply turning it off in the BIOS.

 

That is the "easy way". 

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/backup-and-storage/establish-boot-to-gpt-mirrors

Harder way, same idea. Create mirror, change boot drive from command line tools, then break/remove the mirror after.

 

There are other tools that do this as well, but the drive mirroring way doesn't require purchasing any software you're only going to use once.

 

 

[Pusbucket]

6 hours ago, Kisai said:

The easiest, least-involved way:

1 Make sure full disk encryption/bitlocker is turned off

2 install both drives

3 create a raid mirror in disk management

Make sure that you do NOT format the destination drive first.

Then once it duplicates the drive, turn the PC off and remove the old drive and put the new drive in the old drive's port (this is optional, but most MB's only have PCIe4/PCIe5 on the CPU pci lanes, not the chipset (which might be PCIe3)

- Boot the PC and "break the mirror" if you want to use both drives as separate storage.

 

This is generally OK as long as the capacity on the new drive can take the capacity of the old drive. You can then extend the volume if it wasn't the full disk.

 

The hardest part about doing this is making sure that that you're booting off the correct drive. Windows will not automatically move the boot drive in the BIOS, hence why moving the port the drive is plugged in should be done even if it doesn't matter.  Hence booting the new drive by itself is required, not simply turning it off in the BIOS.

 

That is the "easy way". 

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/backup-and-storage/establish-boot-to-gpt-mirrors

Harder way, same idea. Create mirror, change boot drive from command line tools, then break/remove the mirror after.

 

There are other tools that do this as well, but the drive mirroring way doesn't require purchasing any software you're only going to use once.

 

 

that's the "easy" way?

I'm sure it's certainly much, much easier than using 3rd party program and making a few mouse clicks. 

 

 

[Kisai]

21 hours ago, Pusbucket said:

that's the "easy" way?

I'm sure it's certainly much, much easier than using 3rd party program and making a few mouse clicks. 

 

The easy way is the one that requires the least amount of friction. All third party software is essentially an "unofficial" means of transferring data, and makes no gaurantee that it will be fast or successful. 

 

Windows has this strategy. Linux/FreeBSD has DD. These work, and are the fastest means of doing that. 

 

Hell, do you know how many external drive chassis will will just die on you if the drive capacity is too big? If you are copying data with pretty much anything, how do you know it copied it correctly?

 

If you mirror the drive, you get a 1:1, if you use DD, you get a 1:1 . Everything that was on the drive, is copied at the device level. 

 

If you want to use third party software, go right ahead, but you're wasting money on something your PC already can do.

[BahnStormer]

I'd recommend a re-install on a new SSD/NVME... you can almost certainly boot on the old one, but there's so much hassle to get it to work cleanly and to clear out all the Windows bloat, I simply would not recommend using your old install to boot unless you specifically need to retrieve something from it.

 

And remember that Microsoft locks the licences to the UEFI (BIOS), so you will need to buy Windows, etc again however you proceed - even a perfect clone or the same drive will be de-registered due to the new UEFI.