Upgrading SSD on brand new laptop

Jonty214 · 18 Nov 2021 at 20:50

Hi all,
I've just bought a brand new laptop which has a 256gb SSD. Alongside I ordered a 1TB SSD Samsung 970. (This worked out much cheaper than buying the 1TB laptop).
There is only one 1 SSD slot in the laptop, so I am going to swap out the 256gb one.

Basic question, but do I have to first set up Windows 10 on the laptop out of the box, then clone it to a USB pen drive, and then install the 1TB SSD, then copy Windows 10 from the USB on to that?

Appreciate any help as I'm reading so much I'm getting myself confused!

ANDARIAL · 20 Nov 2021 at 08:50

you could use the new nvme and fresh install windows
or
get a usb caddy for the new nvme and use the original nvme,update and setup then clone the old to the new using macrium

Minstadave · 20 Nov 2021 at 08:54

Yeah I'd just get an NVME to USB caddy, clone to the bigger drive and then swap them round. That way you can use the smaller drive as a USB drive.

jrwagh333 · 28 Nov 2021 at 07:33

Just to jump in on this post as I am in the same boat.

I have a single.NVME in my system that is dual booting Windows and Linux.

If I do the external caddy method, will it copy all the partitions so I can continue to dual boot?

Minstadave · 28 Nov 2021 at 08:14

jrwagh333 said:
Just to jump in on this post as I am in the same boat.

I have a single.NVME in my system that is dual booting Windows and Linux.

If I do the external caddy method, will it copy all the partitions so I can continue to dual boot?

Yes.

jrwagh333 · 29 Nov 2021 at 17:02

Looks like Clonezilla is the best to use

chrcoluk · 29 Nov 2021 at 17:19

Back up the image to external/spare storage, I prefer this to cloning as its an actual backup.
If its sata to sata or nvme to nvme, then restore to the new device and it should just boot right up.
If its sata to nvme, then after restore, boot up in safe mode once, then reboot.

The reason for this if you previously booted of sata, the nvme drivers are "not" in the early boot sequence and windows wont boot, safe mode has all the drivers in early boot, and if it detects the boot drive on a new driver it will automatically enable it in early boot.

RallyMotor · 21 Dec 2021 at 16:11

If I were you, I wouldn't clone anything, but rather install Windows on the new SSD from the very beginning. Back up is a must, I agree. Then you can transfer all important data to SSD. And if you ask me, I separated SSD from data drive whatsoever. Meaning that system files are on SSD and photos, documents are on typical HDD with cloud drive back up. So if anything happens to SSD I just throw it to the garbage bin without losing any data.