Move Windows from SATA SSD to M.2 SATA SSD on laptop

wolfwalker78

New Member
Messages
2
My new laptop has currently 8.1 installed to a 500gig 840 EVO SSD, I replaced the 1tb hard drive it came with and did a clean install.

I'd like to utilize the M.2 sata port with a Crucial M550 500gig drive for windows, and re-install the 1tb hard drive for storage.

I have an external USB 2.5" SATA enclosure I can create an image of my current SSD/8.1 to, then I assume using Acronis or some such, restore the image to the M.2 SSD once it's installed.

I suspect Windows is going to object to having been moved from a regular SATA SSD to the M.2 SSD.
I'm not sure how Windows see's a M.2 (non-pcie, it's regular SATA M.2) VS a "regular" SATA port.
It's an HP Envy i7 laptop fwiw so it should be all Intel hardware.

Any thoughts/experience? Am I over-thinking it?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1 and pro
That should work fine, as long as bios recognizes the M2 drive. Have done similar with many msata's, all went well. Restore the image, remove the original drive, and see if it boots, no harm can be done by this.

Am recommending having a windows installation usb stick available, can be used to fix windows boot settings if needed. And keep the original image safe for some time until one is 111% sure all is well. Good luck.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W8.1, W7
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP \ Toshiba \ Lenovo \ Dell E7440
    Browser
    FF
Well, if you use a disk cloner and try to boot from the msata it should work fine. You will need to go to the BIOS and change the boot to the msata. Use this disk cloner as I have used it in the past and it works great and best of all its free.

Just be sure that the source drives windows partition that is being copied is smaller than the total size of the msata drive so it copies correctly.

Link:
EaseUS Disk Copy Freeware - Free Disk Copy, Disk Clone Software download to Clone Hard Drive

Posted via Blue Vivo IV Smart phone.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus UX51VZ-US71T
    CPU
    Intel Core i7
    Motherboard
    Asus
    Memory
    8 Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 650m
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1
    Screen Resolution
    1080p
    Hard Drives
    RAID 0 256 GB Gumstick SSD drives totalling 512 GB
    Mouse
    Razer Orochi Bluetooth
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Yeah, I'm about to reinstall my windows to my m.2 NGFF drive.. (64gig) ..


and i want to use my Samsung 840 Evo (250gig) for applications/games etc..

the only thing i'm a little concerned with is that the m.2 card is slightly slower than the samsung evo.. so maybe windows will boot slightly slower as well.. boo..
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 (HOME not Pro) 64bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    (So not very nice) Lenovo Y410P
    CPU
    i7 quad 2.4Gig
    Memory
    16G ram
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 2gig 755m
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 Evo

    supercache2 m2. mini card.
    Antivirus
    Win Defender
The only M.2 SATA/NGFF drive I've found that seems to perform about as well as a regular 840 evo ssd is that
Crucial M550. Not cheap though.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1 and pro
Back
Top