Easiest Way To Swap A m.2 Drive (with OS) On My Laptop

[PCPartPickerPro9171787]

What is the Easiest Way To Swap my m.2 Drive (with OS) On My Laptop.

-I only have only 1 m.2 slot available on the laptop. (It has the OS on it)

-I do, however, have another a gaming desktop with a m.2 slot available.   

[moriel5]

Don't you mean that you have 2 M.2 slots?

One for the drive, and another for WiFi/Bluetooth?

[PCPartPickerPro9171787]

1 minute ago, moriel5 said:

Don't you mean that you have 2 M.2 slots?

One for the drive, and another for WiFi/Bluetooth?

WiFi/Bluetooth uses an m.2 slot?

[x360_freak_4life]

Clean install is always a good choice. You could also try to clone the drive on the desktop. Saving to HDD then install new m.2 and move the clone onto it. Im sure there is something out there that can clone a full drive. Similar to how VMware transfers a physical PC to a virtual one works.

[Firewrath9]

9 minutes ago, moriel5 said:

Don't you mean that you have 2 M.2 slots?

One for the drive, and another for WiFi/Bluetooth?

an m.2 ssd wont fit in an wifi/bluetooth slot. please learn what you are talking about.

 

 

Original Poster: you can get an SSD/HDD/Flash Drive, then copy the original M.2 to the  SSD/HDD/Flash Drive on your PC, then plug in the new M.2, and copy from the SSD/HDD/Flash Drive to the new M.2

[moriel5]

10 minutes ago, PCPartPickerPro9171787 said:

WiFi/Bluetooth uses an m.2 slot?

NGFF cards do.

[moriel5]

2 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

an m.2 ssd wont fit in an wifi/bluetooth slot. please learn what you are talking about.

 

 

Original Poster: you can get an SSD/HDD/Flash Drive, then copy the original M.2 to the  SSD/HDD/Flash Drive on your PC, then plug in the new M.2, and copy from the SSD/HDD/Flash Drive to the new M.2

Technicially, you are correct, and unless the OP decided to use an adapter (yes, adapters for different sized M.2 cards exist) or find one of those extremely rare "mini" SSDs, they won't be able to use that M.2 slot for storage.

[Firewrath9]

Just now, moriel5 said:

Technicially, you are correct, and unless the OP decided to use an adapter (yes, adapters for different sized M.2 cards exist) or find one of those extremely rare "mini" SSDs, they won't be able to use that M.2 slot for storage.

They Keying system won't work, wifi has the E key, while M.2 SSD's have B or B+M. the m.2 wont physically fit. Even if adapters exist, The computer/bios may still try to read it as a wifi adapter, so it might not recognized anyways.

[moriel5]

Just now, Firewrath9 said:

They Keying system won't work, wifi has the E key, while M.2 SSD's have B or B+M. the m.2 wont physically fit. Even if adapters exist, The computer/bios may still try to read it as a wifi adapter, so it might not recognized anyways.

That is certainly true, but from what I had read, SSDs generally work fine with the adapters (i.e. are recognized by the O.S., and work as they should), so long as you do not touch the wireless settings in the firmware.