How to clone when upgrading to larger M.2

mattyg · 19 Jul 2020 at 16:24

So my Sabrent 2Tb M.2 has just turned up. and heres me thinking the bundled software would make it easy But no turns out I also need a usb adapter..

So whats the alternative way to upgrade my M.2 when I only have 1 slot (the my Current M.2/OS in using)

I have Macrium Reflect. Is it as easy as cloning, then creating a bootable USB then swapping the M.2 over. Booting using the USB..

Grimley · 19 Jul 2020 at 17:59

mattyg said:
I have Macrium Reflect. Is it as easy as cloning, then creating a bootable USB then swapping the M.2 over. Booting using the USB..

Cloning is the easy bit. Trouble is Macrium will see the new larger drive the same size as the old one. Much as I tried & with much head scratching I just could not increase the partition size as it clones all the windows partitions on the old disc & installs the system reserved partition between the main partition and the unpartitioned space. There may well be partitioning software out there that will let you add the unpartitioned space to your cloned partition, I couldnt find any in one afternoon of surfing the web that's capable of performing that task and that was last year. I gave up in the end, I just created a new partition out of the unpartitoned space on the drive & gave it a drive letter.

jsbombjack · 19 Jul 2020 at 20:09

I used Easus partition manager. Cloned the original drive, then merged the partitions together on the new drive. Worked like a charm

robj20 · 19 Jul 2020 at 20:31

Can't you extend the partition from within windows, Disk Management sure I've done that before.

bremen1874 · 19 Jul 2020 at 20:46

Macrium is perfectly capable of resizing partitions (up or down) during the process.

If you only have a single slot for the NVMe drives you can use a USB HDD as a stepping stone.

With Macrium (which is capable of resing partitions during the process):

1. Image the existing drive to the USB HDD drive.
2. Create a bootable USB stick from within Macrium.
3. Install the new NVMe drive in place of the old one.
4. Boot using the USB stick you created.
5. Store the image from the USB HDD.

roddypoddy · 19 Jul 2020 at 21:02

Acronis true image,from the Sabrent website.

mattyg · 19 Jul 2020 at 22:25

roddypoddy said:
Acronis true image,from the Sabrent website.

I've got to have a sabrent drive plugged in for the licence.

I've ordered a usb M.2 enclosure from the rainforest as that seems to be the easiest option.

bremen1874 said:
Macrium is perfectly capable of resizing partitions (up or down) during the process.

If you only have a single slot for the NVMe drives you can use a USB HDD as a stepping stone.

With Macrium (which is capable of resing partitions during the process):

1. Image the existing drive to the USB HDD drive.
2. Create a bootable USB stick from within Macrium.
3. Install the new NVMe drive in place of the old one.
4. Boot using the USB stick you created.
5. Store the image from the USB HDD.

That was my plan but it came unstuck as I only have a smaller spare 250gb SSD....

bremen1874 · 19 Jul 2020 at 22:40

Did you make sure the USB to M.2 enclosure was for NVMe? Many of them are for M.2 SATA drives?

mattyg · 20 Jul 2020 at 00:07

bremen1874 said:
Did you make sure the USB to M.2 enclosure was for NVMe? Many of them are for M.2 SATA drives?

Yeah.. Although the first one i was going to buy no.. Luckily it had a picture....The one I've gone for is 2280 same as the sabrent Rocket

bremen1874 · 20 Jul 2020 at 00:24

2280 is the physical size. It doesn't tell you anything about the interface.

mattyg · 20 Jul 2020 at 18:29

bremen1874 said:
2280 is the physical size. It doesn't tell you anything about the interface.

Supports M.2 NVMe SSDs 2280 2260 2242

It'll be here in a couple of hours so I'll defo know for sure then..

mattyg · 20 Jul 2020 at 23:59

Grimley said:
Cloning is the easy bit. Trouble is Macrium will see the new larger drive the same size as the old one. Much as I tried & with much head scratching I just could not increase the partition size as it clones all the windows partitions on the old disc & installs the system reserved partition between the main partition and the unpartitioned space. There may well be partitioning software out there that will let you add the unpartitioned space to your cloned partition, I couldnt find any in one afternoon of surfing the web that's capable of performing that task and that was last year. I gave up in the end, I just created a new partition out of the unpartitoned space on the drive & gave it a drive letter.

So. It did exactly as you said. The issue was the unallocated space wasn't next to the ne "C:" partition. I had to install a partition manager https://www.diskpart.com/
Worked a treat.

Can install win10 on an NVMe in about 6 mins but 3.5 hrs to move 500Gb over usb...lol

bremen1874 · 21 Jul 2020 at 00:11

If you get this situation with Macrium select the partitions you want to copy individually instead of all at once. As you add each partition you want to copy you can set the target properties including the new size.

mattyg · 21 Jul 2020 at 12:15

bremen1874 said:
If you get this situation with Macrium select the partitions you want to copy individually instead of all at once. As you add each partition you want to copy you can set the target properties including the new size.

Cheers mate. i wasn't sure if copying them would be just as good as a clone..

But I'll try and remember that for when I fill up this drive

Grimley · 21 Jul 2020 at 15:00

bremen1874 said:
If you get this situation with Macrium select the partitions you want to copy individually instead of all at once. As you add each partition you want to copy you can set the target properties including the new size.

I'll try & remember that next time I use it, thanks for the tip.