PCI -> M.2 Adapter worth it? / Move everything to new drive

[Bowzaa]

Hey guys, so I've been looking at getting a new storage solution to replace my old 60GB Kingston. Frankly, I'm tired of running out of space due to numerous programs not providing an option to install elsewhere, and it doesn't help that Windows takes up a fair bit of it as well.

 

I've been looking at things like M.2 and PCI for storage, but I have absolutely no idea what I'm looking at, and with a budget of $250 or so (preferably less) I'm fairly lost. Combine this with the fact that I don't really know how to move all my files off my current SSD.

 

Anyone think they could help?

[cynicaldriver]

Just get a bigger SSD and clone your current drive to it using MiniTools Partition Wizard Free.

With a $250 budget, you can get a Samsung 850 Evo 500GB, and still have money to buy games or something (assuming the sale price I am seeing isn't Prime exclusive.)

[Bowzaa]

Just get a bigger SSD and clone your current drive to it using MiniTools Partition Wizard Free.

With a $250 budget, you can get a Samsung 850 Evo 500GB, and still have money to buy games or something (assuming the sale price I am seeing isn't Prime exclusive.)

 

Huh. Never saw this SSD when I was looking. I'll probably get this and look at M.2 in the future if I do another build, thanks mate!

[Bowzaa]

Just get a bigger SSD and clone your current drive to it using MiniTools Partition Wizard Free.

With a $250 budget, you can get a Samsung 850 Evo 500GB, and still have money to buy games or something (assuming the sale price I am seeing isn't Prime exclusive.)

 

I forgot to ask, when I clone my drive, will I have to reactivate windows?

[cynicaldriver]

I forgot to ask, when I clone my drive, will I have to reactivate windows?

No, the Windows activation is tied to the motherboard, not the drive. It should be just fine as long as the motherboard is the same.

[Bowzaa]

No, the Windows activation is tied to the motherboard, not the drive. It should be just fine as long as the motherboard is the same.

 

Okay, good to know. I hope you don't mind if I ask you more questions.

 

I got the SSD in, now I need to format it. Should I do MBR or GPT? Also, once that's done, what do I even do with Partition Wizard? I've never done this before and I really don't want to screw up  :unsure:

[cynicaldriver]

Okay, good to know. I hope you don't mind if I ask you more questions.

 

I got the SSD in, now I need to format it. Should I do MBR or GPT? Also, once that's done, what do I even do with Partition Wizard? I've never done this before and I really don't want to screw up  :unsure:

It's easy...

 

Just copy the drive you need to copy onto the new drive. Don't even have to mess with the new drive first.

1. Right click your old drive (with the OS on it - click the icon in the top list, below the properties icon.)
2. Select Copy
3. Then choose your new drive as destination (You'll see selectable options - Select the one that is 465GB - Disk 5, in Partition Wizard, for your case)
4. Then click next

 

The rest should be pretty self-explanatory. I can't continue step-by step, as I do not have a blank drive to test it through at the moment, but I don't recall any difficulties or confusing instructions/options.

 

Pretty sure you only need to mess with the GPT/MBR if you were setting it up as a new drive to do a fresh install on. For this case, you just want to do a straight copy. You can make the "C" partition much larger later, once the cloning is complete, and that process is very easy as well. You just need to drag the partition block to the right to make it take up more of the drive.

 

Note: Do make sure all the partitions from your old drive (Disk 1 in Partition Wizard - Disk 0 in Windows Disk Management) are copied to the new one. They can be different sizes, but they all need to be there. I see that you have 3, so your new drive should be set up something like this:

• System Reserved (350MB) || Main (464GB) || NTFS (450MB)

Those two tiny partitions that only show up in partition management software are important.

You can put any additional free space that it says you have on the Main partition.

 

For future knowledge...

 

Disk Drive Terms:

• MBR = Master Boot Record: Old standard introduced in the early 80's. Most common setup, but outdated.
• GPT  = GUID Partition Table: New standard for use with UEFI motherboards (the GUID = "Globally Unique ID" - Acronyms inside acronyms!)

Motherboard Terms:

• BIOS = Basic Input-Output System: The base code that makes your computer wake everything up before giving control to the OS.
• UEFI = Unified Extensible Firmware Interface: Essentially a new type of BIOS, which allows much more intuitive menus, including graphical user interfaces and mouse support (though not all new UEFI systems actually have fancy graphics, and many still look just the same as old BIOS systems when using the menus.)

You would generally want to use GPT with Windows 7 or higher, unless you are using an old motherboard without UEFI. GPT has several advantages over MBR, but I will avoid getting into all that here, because this post is getting a bit too technical already. If you're curious, google "GPT vs MBR" and "BIOS vs UEFI".

[Guest]

As far as I am aware you need one of the Z97+ era boards from Intel for desktop support of NVME drives. I don't believe that has changed since.

[Bowzaa]

-snip-

 

All right, thanks. My biggest problem was using a tool I've never heard of and the whole cloning operation. Thanks for the tips.