Clone triple boot HDD to M2 SSD
I have a Lenovo P52S laptop. This has a single HDD which can be changed to a M2 SSD (uses special tray !) The 512 GB Hard Drive has 4 partitions (Win 10 64-bit, Win 7 64-bit and Win 7 32-bit and a spare). I would like to replace the HDD with a M2 SSD (Samsung SM961) and clone the existing system. Can Acronis True Image 2020 do this and if so what is the recommended approach ?


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Brian,
Win 7 does not support NVMe drives natively as Steve points out. As a result you must update Win 7 so that NVMe drives can be used with Win 7 no matter if they are used for boot drives or not.
The next hurdle you face is that NVMe drives can only be used as boot devices when formatted as GPT file system and booted via UEFI. So your PC must be UEFI capable to use an NVMe drive as a boot device. To complicate things further booting an NVMe drive must be supported in your PC bios setup to work as well so updating of the bios may be in order or, it may just not be possible to boot an NVMe drive from your PC if not supported.
If it turns out that your PC will support such a migration then it would be wise to first convert your current installs to boot using UEFI prior to attempting a migration to the NVMe drive. I would not recommend attempting a clone in your situation in any form.
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Thanks Steve and Enchantech for you quick and considered responses.
As you indicate UEFI and Win 7 (especially 32-bit) are not comfortable bedfellows.
The P52s supports only one drive (HDD or SSD) so cannot have both drives in situ. Lenovo only support Win 10 64-bit on the P52s and do not provide drivers for other OSes !
Our work involves the repair and services of large format scanners and digitizers and some of these use SCSI which is only supported on 32-bit systems - hence Win 7 32-bit. The 64-bit win7 makes it easier to handle the necessary drivers for the scanners.
Following your responses I did some research and came across WinToUSB ( https://www.easyuefi.com/index.html ) and am going to have a look at running Win 7 32-bit from a USB stick.
I will have a play with this over the coming week and get back to you.
Thanks again
PS: Does Acronis Universal Restore boot media support Win 7 32-bit ?
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Does Acronis Universal Restore boot media support Win 7 32-bit ?
Yes, it is based on a small Linux OS that will boot on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
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Brain,
I have good news for you. It bothered me that you were told that M.2 NVMe could only boot in UEFI/GPT format. I just did an experiment and put a Win7 32 bit MBR system on a Samsung PM961 and it boot fine.
The first step was to install the Microsoft hotfix to add NVMe support to Windows 7. Second, I backed up the full Windows 7 32 bit disk. Third, I converted the PM961 from GPT to MBR. Forth, I restored the backup to the PM961. Fifth, I set the BIOS to put the PM961 in the first boot position. It booted into Windows 7 on the first try.
Microsoft has discontinued the Windows 7 hotfix for NVMe support. However, you can easily get it. Download the MVP ATIPEBuilder and you will find the hotfixes for both NVMe and USB 3.0 support in the Drivers_Custom folder. Look in the x86_Windows_7 and x64_Windows_7 sub-folders. Just double click the hotfixes in Windows 7 and they will install.
NOTE:
I had the PM961 in the computer when I installed the hotfixes. This allowed Windows 7 to see the disk and add the Standard NVMe controller to Device Manager. I'm not sure what would have happened if the PM961 was not present when the NVMe hotfix was applied.
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Thanks Mustang
Will certainly give that a try. (need to wait for SSD tray from Lenovo to fit the SM961 !!)
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