I'm facing ongoing issues with my Samsung Evo 970 SSD, which has been running Windows for about six years. Before upgrading to Windows 11, I experienced several blue screen crashes related to drivers and memory. After a fresh install of Windows 11, I thought things were resolved, but now I'm encountering similar crashes, slow restarts, and failed updates. I've already run several diagnostic tools like DISM, SFC, and memtest86 without finding any issues. However, Samsung Magician detected media errors on my SSD, while my other drives seem fine. I'm considering swapping the Samsung drive with an SK Hynix NVMe drive. My main concern is whether cloning the OS from the failing Samsung drive to the new Hynix drive will transfer the existing problems. I'd like to avoid reinstalling Windows if possible, but I don't want to risk corrupting the new drive in the process.
2 Answers
If you're looking to resolve BSOD issues, getting those dump files would help identify the problem. You can find them in the C:WindowsMinidump folder. After gathering them, you can easily upload them for others to analyze. This could clarify whether there are software issues that need fixing before you make any hardware changes.
Cloning a drive makes a direct copy of everything, including any OS or driver issues. If your Samsung drive has faults, those could be carried over to the SK Hynix drive through the cloning process. While the Hynix drive itself won't be damaged, you might end up with an unstable Windows installation. It might be worth trying a clone first, but if the new drive acts up, then a fresh install could be your best bet.
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