Bought a new laptop with 128gb ssd - moving to a 512gb ssd - how?
I bought Acronis True Image 2017. I bought a new Alienware laptop with a 128gb ssd m.2 nvme card - much too small!
I bought a replacement 512gb ssd m.2 nvme card that arrives in a few days. I will install this in place or in addition to the current 128gb ssd.
I will need to clone the 128gb ssd to the 512gb ssd. How is this done without backing up to a hard drive? I want to preserve the OS and Dell Alienware extras and stuff that came with the laptop not to mention the Windows 10 Key which is nowhere to be found on the outside of the laptop (I am used to the CD Key being somewhere, but this seems to not be the case with Windows 10 laptops). I have no optical drive either. Just four USB ports and multiple SSD slots. I also have a 1TB HDD as well.
How is partitioning handled? If this was a HDD to HDD I would understand more, but SSDs confuse me.
Thank you for your help.
Mike


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Ayy. A bit too technical for me. Any way to make it a bit easier to understand. I was hoping to just backup the system and restore it to the new ssd. I now see that it won't be that simple.
I appreciate a more step-by-step approach.
Thank you.
Mike
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Install the new disk in the computer
Boot the computer on the Acronis recovery USB stick you will have created
Verify that Acronis can see both disks. If yes, simply clone your existing disk to the new disk. If no, you will have to create a WinPE based Acronis recovery USB stick. Let us know how it goes.
IMPORTANT: Disconnect the old disk
Boot the computer.
I went through the same operation with a new motherboard, and it went flalessly.
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Thank you. THAT I can follow.
Mike
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My SSD arrived, so it's time to do this. What TOOL do I use to create the Acronis recovery USB stick? Is it the Rescue Media Builder?
How large of a thumb stick will I need? Is 8gb enough or will I need much larger?
Mike
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Yes, build the rescue media with media builder in the application - your 8GB drive is plenty big - 1GB is all you need, but hard to find these days - 8Gb is fine. Make sure it's formatted Fat32 and Acronis will let you use it to build your media.
ONce built, powerdown completely, attach USB and power up - press F12 or whatever you need to to get to your one time boot menu. Pick the USB drive and boot to it. Make sure you can see the new and the old drive and take a backup of the old drive and save to a 3rd location. Restore the backup to the new drive.
Power down completely.
Pull the original drive and rescue media. Make sure the new drive is in teh same connector as the original used to be.
Boot directly to the bios and make sure the boot order has the drive listed first - move it to first prioirty if it is listed as something else.
Boot Windows.
Should be good to go.
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NOTE: Please check how your current OS is installed first - legacy or UEFI. If you have a legacy OS, boot your rescue media from acronis in legacy mode, if you have a UEFI OS, boot the rescue media in UEFI mode.
Examples of what to look for to determine your OS install type and how you can tell if you've booted rescue media in legacy media or UEFI.
Verify - Is OS installed legacy or UEFI
Verify - booting rescue media in UEFI or legacy mode (examples)
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OK, problems:
First, the 128GB SSD is a SATA AHCI (m.2 2280) Non-Raid disk - on Port 0.0
The new 512GB SSD is a PCIe NVMe Non-Raid disk - on Port 1.0
I also have a 1TB HDD SATA drive on port 0.3
The new SSD shows up properly in the BIOS (American Megatrends)
It DOES NOT show up in the Clone Tool list when using the USB boot stick.
It seems like everything is UEFI in the BIOS. SATA operation is RAID on - not AHCI and it tells me if I change this to AHCI the drive could not boot properly.
In BIOS Boot List Option is UEFI.
Now what? I cannot clone the 128GB to the 512GB because the 512GB does not show up as a choice!!!
Mike
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I tried formatting the 512 SSD in Computer Management (NTSF - 1 Primary Partition)
Shows up in Windows 10 as a valid drive.
Still does not show up in Linux Boot USB stick as a hard drive choice.
In Windows Acronis True Image 2017 Clone Tool it DOES show up.
I'm trying to re-do the rescue USB drive to see if maybe it shows up in the Linux version now.
Mike
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OK - RAID on is the problem - the default linux boot media just doesn't have the necessary IRST dirvers to support RAID. WinPE rescue media built with the MVP winpe builder tool (and selecting to add custom drivers) will supply the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers to support the RAID mode for the PCIE NVME drive.
Clone has it's own limitations. If you build the WinPE with our MVP tool and it detects the drive, but won't let you clone, do a backup and restore the backup to the PCIE drive instead of cloning. This is what I did when I moved from my 950 EVO to my 960 Pro and it worked fine.
As for the restore though, make sure to specifically boot yoru rescue media in UEFI mode (use your bios one time boot to pick the UEFI boot - Verify - booting rescue media in UEFI or legacy mode (examples) - that will be key in restoring a UEFI legacy OS to another drive as the way you boot the rescue media, determines how the OS will be patitioned during the restore - UEFI OS needs to be restored in UEFI mode. A legacy OS should be restored in legacy mode, but can be made UEFI (UEFI cannot be reverted to legacy with Acronis).
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