Help on Upgrading to an NVMe SSD for My Laptop

HairyChickens on 18/09/2021 - 22:53
Last edited 20/09/2021 - 11:46

Hi everyone, right now I am planning on upgrading my laptop to an NVMe SSD and there are just a few things I want to ask.

The NVMe SSD I want buy is a 500gb Kingston A2000 just waiting for it to go for a bit cheaper. My laptop is an ASUS Zenbook Flip 14 UX461UA which currently has a M.2 SATA SSD. I think the A2000 should work on the ASUS based on my research although I am not sure.

Regarding the software which will be cloning my current drive, are there any recommendations? Free is best. Macrium Reflect? Acronis True Image (which I think Kingston offers it for free).

Also with connecting the A2000 for cloning is it fine if I use something like this?. I have a Dell Inspiron 3670 which has an empty M.2 slot so I am planning to put my current SATA SSD into that motherboard and then use the PCIe adapter thing and connect the A2000 to do the cloning. Im trying to save a buck and I'm willing to wait but just wondering if it would be better if I just bought an M.2 NVMe to USB adapter. Again the Dell with the PCIe adapter should work with the A2000 but please let me know otherwise.

Lastly are there any tips/things I should look out for when doing this upgrade? This is my first time doing this so any advice would be great.

Thanks!

Edit: There's this guy on YouTube who did an SSD upgrade on my exact laptop and got an INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE BSOD error. I Googled it briefly and its something to do with MBR and GPT partitioning schemes (quite nooby at this stuff so maybe not). I checked my current drive and its GPT. If I were to get this error what would I do without having to install a fresh copy of Windows?

Computing Computer Component SSD

Comments

  • plmko on 19/09/2021 - 01:53

    You are confused. NVME and SATA are not the same thing but they share the same type of plug called M.2. You need to make sure your laptop can take NVME but it included SATA then it is likely limited to SATA M.2.

    • HairyChickens on 19/09/2021 - 02:00

      No, I am aware of this I'm pretty sure my laptop can take both SATA and NVMe

  • redfox1200 on 19/09/2021 - 09:46

    probably need a usb with windows/linux with some boot recovery software

  • vince088 on 19/09/2021 - 10:46
    +3

    I did this recently for a mate

    The best software for me is the Samsung migration tool if both drives are Samsung branded.(will not clone if one of the drives is another brand like Kingston)
    Samsung Migration tool pretty much does everything for you with one click

    2nd best for me is Macrium Reflect. I clone this on my desktop PC and then moved the new NVMe to my mates laptop and it booted with new drive
    The biggest hick up is if you just straight clone the old 256gb drive into a 1TB nvme drive, you will only have 256gb accessible storage.
    There is a method in Macrium Reflect to unlock the extra space, but its hard to explain… you just have to figure it out

    • HairyChickens on 20/09/2021 - 11:39

      I think AOMEI partition assistant does the extra space thing as well.

  • Transient on 19/09/2021 - 11:38

    I've used Macrium to clone my old HDD to SATA but not yet to M.2. If your Dell already has an empty M.2. slot, have you tried putting the Kingston there for cloning? Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Aepbngz-E - 10 min mark.

  • Transient on 19/09/2021 - 11:56

    Regarding the BSOD error, as you already have GPT you may not have the same problem. The author of this article had the same problem and provides a fix: https://faststorage.eu/how-to-clone-windows-10-from-sata-ssd…

    • HairyChickens on 19/09/2021 - 12:02

      Yeh I came across this article last night. Hopefully, it doesn't happen otherwise it will be pretty annoying to try and fix it. The fact that the guy in that video who has the same laptop as me doesn't fill me with confidence that it won't happen even though it's GPT.

      • Transient on 19/09/2021 - 12:19

        You are doing your research now as to possible issues, which I think is admirable. Even when I went from HDD SATA to SSD SATA I had a few issues. I wanted to keep the old HDD as extra storage but the cloning even cloned the HDD ID so I had to change the ID to something different. At least you know someone must have had the same problem before so hopefully a few people have posted solutions on the net. Good luck!

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