Finally upgrading to NVME. Help Clone / Migrate windows 10 from SATA SSD

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Hi everyone (English is my second language so sorry for any mistake and thank you for your patient)

So I followed Wendell’s pick for the holidays, and purchased the Intel P4500 4GB NVME drive, along with Intel’s U.2 to M.2 adapter cable, and I ask for help making it the main bootable drive for windows 10 64 (currently installed on 500GB 850 EVO; 1st time for me cloning/migrating).

I read solutions from different sources, but didn’t find all the answers, and the more I read the more questions arise… I really wish there was a reliable thorough guide on this matter, such as a tutorial video in level1 standards of experience and advance thinking, that would be amazing. There’s plenty of things to consider before diving into this, with risks involved…

So here’s my questions from the very start, and I’m sure I’ll miss a few important ones, so please feel free to address anything I’ve missed:

I fresh installed windows 10 64 when I bought the 500GB 850 EVO two years ago.
Recommendations for fresh installation of operating system are common,
— but just how big of an impact is there to cloning boot drives from SATA SSD to NVME SSD?
— From the operating system point of view, what is it that makes the OS tell apart between being installed (cloned) on NVME instead of SATA SSD?

I installed the hardware, and the drive shows in Disk Management as Disk3 Unknown. I’m asked to initialize it in either MBR or GPT (Disk0 850 EVO is in GPT style).

Since cloning from a large drive to a smaller one complicates things, I’m thinking, whether it’ll be wise to partition a part (500GB or 1TB) of the 4GB, and install the OS on it, because, those capacities are more common in NVMEs, and will allow cloning again in the future, from this partition to a future same size or bigger NVME (maybe GEN4).
— Is there truth in this theory?
— GPT is for larger than 2TB drives, so if the partition idea will be implied, should I choose GPT or MBR now using windows Disk Manager, or should I let the cloning software handle it? (Does it even matter?)

— Which cloning software do you recommend the most?
— Some software allow cloning withing the windows environment, some software asks preparation of a bootable USB drive for this, some allow both… Which is the best method? A bit of a walkthrough definitely will be very helpful.

I read in one scenario, that a source Samsung SATA SSD drive needed driver update before the cloning, in order for the destination NVME to boot.
— Does the Intel P4500 needs special/updated driver? Please help finding it if so.

— Does disconnection of the source drive is needed after cloning?

— In the bios (mine is ASUS), what configuration needed for the NVME to boot?

— Are there any procedures after first booting from the NVME needed?

……

I’m sorry this is such a long topic, but I hope it’ll help all people who are worried from upgrading to NVME drives, instead of SATA, because cloning SATA to SATA is much easier (like with those two bay stations that does it automatically with a press of a button).

Thank you very much! Happy holidays!
T

P.S.
Level1Techs group to me are one of the smartest and safest social channels on the web. With every interaction on any platform you demonstrate the highest levels of care and consideration towards everyone and each other. You guys really are admirable human beings, true roll models. Your news videos should be live broadcast globally. Take care of yourself, and keep up the excellent work.

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no no no no. New install

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X2 on the above. Fresh install. Sorry I skimmed your post, it seems very verbose for the task of upgrading storage.

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I was in a similar situation. Upgrading to a single SSD from a 10 year old SATA raid. Use EaseUS it will copy raid to single disk and active disk, anything. I used to use partition wizard server but it couldn’t do RAID and wasn’t extremely SSD friendly as in it didn’t work every time… EaseUS works. I didn’t think it legit due to the name for a while and didn’t try it for a while as a result. But it is legit and it does work.

Most people will say do backup and restore from Windows. But the first thing I do in Windows is disable Vollume Shaddow Copy to save my drive 50% of its read write cycles over its life. Not only that but you reclaim 50% of your drives bandwidth if SATA and avoid it seems like it used to be 50% of exploits on Windows just by having it turned off. So I had to go third party software.

All that aside Windows really should just have an active drive copy utility built in that is not based on Shaddow Copy…!

Check for a bios update and install it unless your OS is on a drive using the on board RAID controller and is on a RAID array. A bios update will usually require you to wipe the array. If your hardware it so old for NVME you can use an NVME to SATA adapter. You might want to get familiar with DISKPART as well. Disk management can be annoying to work with and glitch. I wouldn’t use disk management to be honest, I have lost data that way…

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If you have an upgraded version of Windows you will loose features with a new install. Microsoft removed a lot of very useful things in Windows 10 but if you upgraded from 8 or even 7 you still get to have those things.

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Thank you all for your answering

@thevillageidiot @gordonthree,
I haven’t done any hardware changes. Only wish to use a new hard drive.
— Would the OS functionaliy will be impacted, when hardware is the same?

@orbitalinx,
I’ve disabled File History as well. My backup is on another hard drive (which is is in raid 1). I sure can fresh install windows on the new NVME, and then try restoring from this backup.
— Does restoring from backup method will be better than cloning?

— What about partitioning the 4GB NVME, Should clone/install the OS on a smaller partition, or leave the NVME as one 4GB OS drive?

thanks!

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Maybe I misread? I thought you were changing the system drive from SATA to PCI Express? That’s a hardware change in my book.

If you don’t want to reinstall, use the new drive for apps and keep the existing drive for OS and boot?

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Hi Gordon :slight_smile:

You are correct, and didn’t misread. The change will be from SATA SSD to NVME SSD. But that’s the only change.
— Does windows so intolerable to this change that it removes cloning completely off as an option?
— Does restoring from backup – after fresh installing windows on the NVME SSD – will have better affect to degree this is an option to go with?

The NVME SSD is faster (and much larger), I want to benefit from its speed as much as I could.

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I’m surprised the new drive didn’t come with imaging software?
I think I have like 4 acronyms cd’s branded “Samsung drive copy” or whatever the put on

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Hi Trooper_ish :slight_smile:

Intel does have a software for data migration:
Intel® Data Migration Software

— Does cloning better strategy than fresh install and than restoring from backup?

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I would personally bakup, fresh install, and drag files across, but that’s me.

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Reinstalling when changing boot drive is definitely not necessary. Just use a disk clone tool. A free option that I’ve used a lot with much success is Clonezilla (just google it and it’ll come up). Plop it on a usb drive and reboot with it. One caveat is to make sure to remove the old disk or clear it before starting windows since the cloning process also clone partion GUID’s which might confuse things.

It’s Linux based and rather easy to use.

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Definitely just use clonezilla like @NeoTr0n suggested if you want everything to be identical.to your current drive. The instructions clonzilla gives you when you boot off of a USB are very simple and totally guided with no risk to somehow losing anything on the current drive. after that you can add more partitions with all the free space from inside Windows with Disk Management.

If you go with a fresh install, do this first so you don’t have to worry about not being able to reuse your current windows key: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

That said I haven’t ever noticed a big difference between booting from SSD sata vs nvme. maybe you save 1 second?

EDIT if you are like me and are a bit of an organizational neatfreak with wanting your drives numbered in the correct order (if you do the clone with both drives connected.internally, the new drive may forever be listed as something other than the first drive by windows), take out your current sata ssd and do the cloning process with it connected to your computer by USB.

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X2 on this, nvme isn’t going to be a drastic improvement

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A disk clone tool will take care of the job with little trouble. Just back up first. A fresh install is not necessary but sometimes a clean start is nice. Don’t worry too much it’s a relatively simple exercise. I’ve used Macrium Reflect in the past and it’s pretty good.

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I have copied Windows to different drives many times. You just boot wait a few minutes for it to detect the change and do its thing and reboot when it notifys you to. Done.

The only time you might run into trouble is with Windows 7 and going from a westchester drive to an SSD. Getting trim to work can be a problem. Other than that it will be no problem as long as your motherboard / BIOS supports NVME boot.

Personally I would rather clone the drive. Theirs no telling what would brake with backup / restore…

If you use good cloning software you will be able to transfer the OS to a smaller drive. Just be mindful of the cloning options in software. Some will have an SSD option and a smaller drive option. If it doesn’t work the first time just check your options and re-clone… And remember to select the new drive to boot from LOL.

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SOLVED!

I made a boot flash USB with the data migration tool (as recommended by the developers)
installed the NVME in the system, updated its driver, and left it unpartitioned.
removed the OS SATA SSD from the system, and plugged it with USB enclosure.
changed the boot sequence to USB flash first.
cloned from the SATA SSD to the NVME (left the recovery and EFI partitions the same size, and expanded the primary partition to the full NVME capacity).
disconnected the SATA SSD USB.
changed the boot sequence to NVME first.
everything works ok, and system is noticeable snappier :slight_smile:

Thanks ALL for your kind help, happy holidays!

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I guess that is one way :slight_smile:

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Your welcome. You are a little lucky it worked via USB enclosure. I have had some enclosures become unhappy with large / long term data transfers and destroy the data on the drive contained with in it and then die… More than once LOL! Happy holidays!

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