[dynrat]

I have a couple year old ASUS ROG GL552V.  My wife is a bit of a shutterbug and has filled the 1 TB harddrive to capacity.  With less than 20 GB free the computer is incredibly sluggish.  My plan is to add a 1 TB M.2 SSD to the unit, but admittedly I'm one of those "I know just enough to be dangerous" folks.  My current HDD is actually in two partitions.  The C: drive which is my primary with my OS and software, and a D: partition that I use for storage.  Now I know that the M.2 drive will physically plug in. 

 

My question are...

• Once the drive is physically installed how do I clone the C: partition from my HDD to the SSD so that my computer boots from it and the OS and software resides there?
• Once the partition is cloned how do I remove the original from the HDD so that I can make the entire drive storage?

Sorry for asking what is probably a basic question, but I want to make sure this is done right.  I did find some discussions similar to this, but most seemed targeted at either removing the HDD and replacing it, or were old enough that I wasn't confident the info still applied.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Best Answer

Hello dynrat,

 

A good quality brand will provide you with the software that you need, Samsung Magician being one such an example, see info here regarding the Samsung Data Migration software.

 

You can format the original drive in various ways with one way being within Windows once you are running from the new SSD.

 

Tell me to mind my own business if you like but if I was doing such an upgrade I would clean install Windows 10 on its own partition on the SSD using the latest ISO from Microsoft and leave the original OS on the HDD as your back up, you can then clone what you want software wise to the data only partition on the SSD, just a thought 

[phillpower2]

Best Answer

Hello dynrat,

 

A good quality brand will provide you with the software that you need, Samsung Magician being one such an example, see info here regarding the Samsung Data Migration software.

 

You can format the original drive in various ways with one way being within Windows once you are running from the new SSD.

 

Tell me to mind my own business if you like but if I was doing such an upgrade I would clean install Windows 10 on its own partition on the SSD using the latest ISO from Microsoft and leave the original OS on the HDD as your back up, you can then clone what you want software wise to the data only partition on the SSD, just a thought 

[dynrat]

Hello dynrat,

 

A good quality brand will provide you with the software that you need, Samsung Magician being one such an example, see info here regarding the Samsung Data Migration software.

 

You can format the original drive in various ways with one way being within Windows once you are running from the new SSD.

 

Tell me to mind my own business if you like but if I was doing such an upgrade I would clean install Windows 10 on its own partition on the SSD using the latest ISO from Microsoft and leave the original OS on the HDD as your back up, you can then clone what you want software wise to the data only partition on the SSD, just a thought 
 

I bought a Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe 1TB.  So I will look into the Samsung software.  Thanks for the tip.

 

 

I'm open to all possibilities I suppose.  Would that require me to purchase a new copy of Windows 10?  Would it allow me to keep all of my original software and licenses?  To be honest, I'm not sure I have all the software licensing info.  That is what kept me from looking for a fresh install in the first place.  I really don't want to have to re-purchase all of my software.

[phillpower2]

No need to purchase a new product key for anything as you are only upgrading a storage device and not a motherboard + all your programs will still be on the HDD, you will not even need to enter a product key for Windows as the product key that is in use is stored on the MS servers and when the system checks for updates as part of the installation procedure the MB and product key will match the information stored on the MS servers and given the green light.

 

You can download a Windows 10 ISO from here for free

 

When you are ready to do the clean install, change the boot sequence so that the computer will boot from your ISO, shut down the computer, fit the new SSD, reassemble the computer, if you use the USB method, insert the device into a USB 2.0 port (not a USB 3.0 port) restart the computer and making sure that Windows will be installed to the new SSD and not the original HDD follow the on screen messages to install Windows, up to you but if me I would create a 200GB partition on a 1TB drive just for Windows, drivers and your most often used software.

 

Please note that you may need to disable secure boot if you choose to install from USB and it would be helpful to you if before you started the process you created a new folder on the present HDD and saved any drivers to it, after clean installing Windows install the drivers that you need and be sure to start with installing the chipset drivers first.

[dynrat]

No need to purchase a new product key for anything as you are only upgrading a storage device and not a motherboard + all your programs will still be on the HDD, you will not even need to enter a product key for Windows as the product key that is in use is stored on the MS servers and when the system checks for updates as part of the installation procedure the MB and product key will match the information stored on the MS servers and given the green light.

 

You can download a Windows 10 ISO from here for free

 

When you are ready to do the clean install, change the boot sequence so that the computer will boot from your ISO, shut down the computer, fit the new SSD, reassemble the computer, if you use the USB method, insert the device into a USB 2.0 port (not a USB 3.0 port) restart the computer and making sure that Windows will be installed to the new SSD and not the original HDD follow the on screen messages to install Windows, up to you but if me I would create a 200GB partition on a 1TB drive just for Windows, drivers and your most often used software.

 

Please note that you may need to disable secure boot if you choose to install from USB and it would be helpful to you if before you started the process you created a new folder on the present HDD and saved any drivers to it, after clean installing Windows install the drivers that you need and be sure to start with installing the chipset drivers first.

 

Got the drive installed.  Setup a 250 GB paritition for the OS and other apps that Windows won't let me put anywhere else.  Setup the other 3/4 of the 1 TB SSD for data.  Did the clean install of Win10 on the new primary partition.  Holy cow is there a difference in speed.  I used to turn the computer on and walk away to give it a few minutes to boot up.  Now it boots up before I can get my oversize self out of the chair  .

 

Now comes installing all of the software.  Is cloning the original HSDD to the SSD data partition the most effective way to do this and/or is the Samsung Data Migration software the best tool?

 

Also curious once I am done... if I clone this will leave the original Windows OS on my original HSDD and in the clone on the SSD data partition.  Is there a way to remove it from the SSD data partition?  And is there a way to set the laptop so that it will automatically boot to the new SSD primary location instead of giving me multiple options and waiting for me to pick?

 

Really appreciate all of your advice here on this.

[phillpower2]

Never used Samsung Magician so cannot comment on it`s use but what I have used in the past is Macrium Reflect which you can get from here for free, this will allow you to back up just the D: partition to the new SSD.

 

Regarding the C: partition on the original storage device, what is the capacity of the partition?

 

Reason I ask is because I would suggest that you keep the partition as your back up, depending on the size you can always shrink it to free up more space should you wish.

 

To ensure that the computer boots from the new SSD it should be first in the boot order in the BIOS and the original drive disabled as a boot device. 

 

 Holy cow is there a difference in speed.  I used to turn the computer on and walk away to give it a few minutes to boot up.  Now it boots up before I can get my oversize self out of the chair   .

 

 

 

[dynrat]

Never used Samsung Magician so cannot comment on it`s use but what I have used in the past is Macrium Reflect which you can get from here for free, this will allow you to back up just the D: partition to the new SSD.

 

Regarding the C: partition on the original storage device, what is the capacity of the partition?

 

Reason I ask is because I would suggest that you keep the partition as your back up, depending on the size you can always shrink it to free up more space should you wish.

 

To ensure that the computer boots from the new SSD it should be first in the boot order in the BIOS and the original drive disabled as a boot device. 

 

 Holy cow is there a difference in speed.  I used to turn the computer on and walk away to give it a few minutes to boot up.  Now it boots up before I can get my oversize self out of the chair   .

 

 

 

 

The HSDD partition with the OS is 371.85 GB and it is full. Not sure how it because the OS and software is the only thing on it, but that's beyond the point.  That was my original performance issue.  The partition with my OS (the 371 GB) only had 10 GB free, and my data partition (the other approx. 600 GB of the 1 TB HSDD) only had about 60 GB free.

Short-term I will keep the OS partition on the internal HSDD until I'm somewhat confident everything is working.  I have several large external HSDD's.  My long-term plan is to clone the OS partition to one of those so that I can keep it as a backup and delete it from the internal HSDD to give me more data storage.  I do some DJ work on the side, and my wife is a semi-pro photographer so between my music files and her photos space comes at a premium.  After seeing how much fast SSD is I'm even fighting the temptation to upgrade the original HSDD to a 2.5" SSD with 2-4 TB.  Right now I carry all of music on an external hard drive (I have about 3/4 TB of mp3s after 20+ years).  It would be nice to not have to carry it around.  

 

So I'm relatively familiar with changing the boot order in BIOS from doing it to install Win10 from the from the USB drive.  Not sure how to disable a drive as boot device though?

[phillpower2]

To ensure that the computer boots from the new SSD it should be first in the boot order in the BIOS and the original drive disabled as a boot device. 

 

Sorry, didn`t put the second part very well as it suggests that I meant in the BIOS, for now I would just move the original drive to the bottom of the boot order and once you are happy that all is well we can then disable the the original HSDD as a boot drive should you still wish.

 

Anything else we can help with in the interim or are you happy for now.

[dynrat]

Well.  I think I hosed myself.

I tried to setup the new OS so that programs install to a different partition of the new SSD and I'm not sure I did that correctly either.  Well every time I rebooted I had issues because it seemed to constantly juggle the drive letters of all the different partitions (with the exception of C).  So I used disk part to try and change the drive letters and somehow I managed to remove the HSDD OS partition.  I was able to "recover" the partitiion, but now it is just an empty partition.  Fortunately, the HSDD data partition is still working (although I backed up all of my documents, pictures, etc.) to an extrenal anyhow so I would have been able to recover them.

I downloaded EaseUS Data Recovery to try and recover the data on the lost partition, but I'm guessing I'm a bit out of my depth.  It is "scanning" right now and somehow seems to have found 492 GB (and still counting) of files despite the partition only being 371 GB.

[phillpower2]

Ouch 

 

Fingers crossed for you here.

[dynrat]

I was able to get it back although not on the original internal HSDD.  The EaseUS recovery software was able to recover the partition, but it created blank.  Then I was able to recover all of the files, but for some reason it wouldn't let me put it back there.  So it accelerated my plan to move it to an external HSDD.  Not a big deal.  I have it, and if it becomes a program I can clone it back to the rescued partition.

 

I do have one more question though.  How do I create the EFI or system partition on the SSD?  Was I supposed to do that somehow when I installed Windows?  The system volume is still on the HSDD.  Which confuses me because I thought it had to be on the same drive as the OS?  I'm also a little confused about the type.  There is a partition on the HSDD named System.  It is formatted FAT32, with flags GPT and EFI, and status ActiveSystem.  As far as I know my laptop is a BIOS system not UEFI.

Edited by dynrat, 17 April 2020 - 09:51 PM.

[phillpower2]

Bit of a chore but at least you got your data back.

 

You don`t, Windows 10 creates the partitions that it needs as part of the install procedure, below is a typical example as it is shown in Speccy;

 

Partition 0

Partition ID: Disk #0, Partition #0

File System: NTFS

Volume Serial Number: 26A42092

Size: 498 MB

Used Space: 17.8 MB (3%)

Free Space: 481 MB (97%)

Partition 1

Partition ID: Disk #0, Partition #1

File System: FAT32

Volume Serial Number: 60A626E3

Size: 96 MB

Used Space: 26.3 MB (27%)

Free Space: 69 MB (73%)

Partition 2

Partition ID: Disk #0, Partition #2

Disk Letter: C:

File System: NTFS

Volume Serial Number: 80A8D2EC

Size: 296 GB

Used Space: 147 GB (49%)

Free Space: 149 GB (51%)

Partition 3

Partition ID: Disk #0, Partition #3

File System: NTFS

Volume Serial Number: D01EA5CD

Size: 570 MB

Used Space: 488 MB (85%)

Free Space: 82 MB (15%

 

Nope, your notebook is UEFI and believe it or not EFI first came about as far back as 2007 and even before the pre release date of Windows 8 most new computers had UEFI as opposed to legacy BIOS.

[dynrat]

 

Bit of a chore but at least you got your data back.

 

Nope, your notebook is UEFI and believe it or not EFI first came about as far back as 2007 and even before the pre release date of Windows 8 most new computers had UEFI as opposed to legacy BIOS.

 

 

Thanks for that heads up.  I guess in my limited knowledge I was looking for a GUI if the system was UEFI.

 

This is what I get when I run Speccy...

 

Storage

Hard drives

HGST HTS721010A9E630

Manufacturer Hitachi

Product Family Unknown

Series Prefix Standard

Model Capacity For This Specific Drive S70GB

Heads 16

Cylinders 121,601

Tracks 31,008,255

Sectors 1,953,520,065

SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s

Device type Fixed

ATA Standard ATA8-ACS

Serial Number JR100X6P3EUB3E

Firmware Version Number JB0OA3J0

LBA Size 48-bit LBA

Power On Count 409 times

Power On Time 1340.0 days

Speed 7200 RPM

Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ

Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s

Used Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s

Interface SATA

Capacity 931 GB

Real size 1,000,204,886,016 bytes

RAID Type None

S.M.A.R.T

Partition 0

Partition ID Disk #0, Partition #0

Disk Letter D:

File System FAT32

Volume Serial Number 1E36C317

Size 256 MB

Used Space 27.3 MB (10%)

Free Space 228 MB (90%)

Partition 1

Partition ID Disk #0, Partition #1

Disk Letter I:

File System NTFS

Volume Serial Number BE47B3E8

Size 931 GB

Used Space 424 GB (45%)

Free Space 506 GB (55%)

Samsung SSD 860 EVO M.2 1TB (SSD)

Manufacturer SAMSUNG

Heads 16

Cylinders 121,601

Tracks 31,008,255

Sectors 1,953,520,065

SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s

Device type Fixed

Serial Number S5GENG0N307387T

Firmware Version Number RVT24B6Q

LBA Size 48-bit LBA

Power On Count 13 times

Power On Time 1.5 days

Speed Not used (SSD Drive)

Features S.M.A.R.T., NCQ, TRIM, SSD

Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s

Used Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s

Interface SATA

Capacity 931 GB

Real size 1,000,204,886,016 bytes

RAID Type None

S.M.A.R.T

Partition 0

Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #0

Disk Letter C:

File System NTFS

Volume Serial Number D6E7A89D

Size 196 GB

Used Space 49 GB (25%)

Free Space 146 GB (75%)

Partition 1

Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #1

Disk Letter H:

File System NTFS

Volume Serial Number 6AF51B69

Size 735 GB

Used Space 2.96 GB (0%)

Free Space 732 GB (100%)

 

 

At this point Disk #0, Partition #0 is the original EFI partition on the internal HSDD.  Disk #0, Partition #1 is what I have now after combining the original HSDD OS and Data partitions. Disk #1, Partition #0 is the new SSD partition for my OS. Disk #1, Partition #1 is the new SSD partition right now for everything beside the OS.  Thinking I may split this with a piece for software and a piece for data, but not sure.  Still trying to decide how much performance gain is obtained from doing that and where it starts to balance out against trying to manage things across 5+ "drives".

 

I suppose leaving that original EFI partition isn't an issue short-term, but wondering how that will work when/if I replaced that HSDD with a 2.5" SSD.

[phillpower2]

I suppose leaving that original EFI partition isn't an issue short-term, but wondering how that will work when/if I replaced that HSDD with a 2.5" SSD.

 

 

No issue and wont be while the C: drive is the primary.

 

Your clean install on the SSD looks to have been done in Legacy BIOS mode, did you install from a USB device and need to disable secure boot. 

[dynrat]

Is there a different way to enter UEFI mode? All I did was hit F2 at the boot logo. It was an old fashioned BIOS screen which is why I thought I didnt have UEFI.

I did install from USB but did not disable secure boot mode.

Now Im even more panicked. Was on the laptop today surfing info to try and figure out my software situation and the laptop just shut down. I thought it was a power issue so I plugged it in, let it charge for a minute, and tried to turn it back on. It powered up but shut down again after just a minute or two. Giving it time between Ive tried to power it up a couple times. Now it turns on but doesnt even make it through the boot up before it shuts down. 😲😵