Cloning drive from dead laptop
My Dell laptop went dead. I need to recover info on my drive (an M2 NVMe SSD) and unfortunately I haven't backed it for a long time :-( This is a big reminder to me to ALWAYS back up!!! My OS is Windows 10
How can I clone the drive? I have Acronis True Image 2019 (I'd be happy to upgrade to the 2020 edition, or purchase the appropriate Acronis product). I have not taken out the drive yet from my deal laptop for fear that I might lose my data.
This question may have been answered in the past, but I can't find it Please let me know the link to the discussion. Thank you very much in advance.
Thanks for the response. Yes, I do have access to another computer. I'll use an external case for the drive from my deal laptop (let's call this "drive#1" for easy reference)..
I think my main concern is that because drive#1 is Bitlocker protected (I do have the password and if that fails, I have the access key), I may inadvertently lock drive#1 when I access it in another computer. Is my concern without any basis?
When I'm able to see the files on drive#1, do I simply use the regular "copy" command in Windows? Is drive#1 treated as another drive?
Thank you in advance for your patience, I appear to be so newbie but that is exactly what I am. :-)
I think my main concern is that because drive#1 is Bitlocker protected (I do have the password and if that fails, I have the access key), I may inadvertently lock drive#1 when I access it in another computer. Is my concern without any basis?
Manny, what is your intention for the drive from the failed laptop, assuming that the laptop is truly dead and ready to be buried?
You will definitely need to either unlock BitLocker on that drive or else remove BitLocker completely which would then allow you to work with the drive more easily.
In terms of cloning, then what are you intending to clone to and then what are you intending to do with the cloned drive?
If the cloned drive is to be used in a different laptop, then I would recommend forgetting about using cloning, and make a Disks & Partitions backup image of the drive, then restore that backup to a drive that is already installed within the second laptop, as this is more likely to result in a working system after doing the restore.
When I'm able to see the files on drive#1, do I simply use the regular "copy" command in Windows? Is drive#1 treated as another drive?
If all you want to do is to recover your files from the dead laptop drive, then unlocking the BitLocker encryption and copying those files to a new location should be enough. The main caveat with doing this is simply that Windows security probably won't let you access files that are stored within the C:\Users\[Name]\ folder path because your user does not have permission to access them!
I hit a similar problem a few days ago on a failed Dell laptop when I brought the drive to my own laptop and Windows simply said the User folders were 'empty' even though I knew that wasn't the case! I took the same drive to my Netbook running Ubuntu linux and it let me copy the files with no problem (all 60 GB of them!!). Note: BitLocker should be removed before taking the drive to another computer, especially to one using Linux as it doesn't have support for unlocking the drive in that OS. You can create a Live boot Linux USB stick or DVD to avoid the need to install that OS if you need to go that route.
Can anyone recommend a USB 3 M.2 case that supports both NVMe and SATA drives? Thanks.
Sorry Bill, but have never used / needed a case for M.2 card drives, have just used Backup of the in situ drive, then recovered that to a new M.2 drive after installing it, using the rescue media.
William, sorry I cannot help. I remember seeing some that only support SATA M.2 drives. Not sure if there are ones that support NVMe and SATA M.2 drives.
There are some PCIe addin cards that have 2 M.2 slots, one for NVMe drives and the other for SATA drives - for the latter you need to run a SATA cable between the card and anSATA port on the motherboard.