I'm upgrading our family computer since the 256GB SSD isn't cutting it anymore for my kids' gaming needs. The problem is, there's only one NVMe slot on the motherboard, so I can't install a new SSD alongside the existing one to migrate the OS and data directly. I was wondering about the best process to avoid any issues during the upgrade.
I do have a 500GB HDD with free space. I'm considering this approach:
- Create a partition on the HDD
- Clone the current SSD to that partition
- Swap the SSDs
- Clone the partition back to the new SSD
- Remove the partition and expand the D-drive
Would this work? What software do you recommend for this? I've heard of MiniTool Partition Wizard and Samsung Magician, but I'm not sure if they're right for my situation. I'm open to any easier methods to upgrade the boot drive without losing the existing data.
2 Answers
I recommend getting an NVMe enclosure and using Macrium Reflect's free version to clone your old drive to the new one. After that, since your new drive is larger, you can use GParted to expand the copied 256GB data to fill the entire new SSD. Just make sure to double-check that your motherboard really only has one slot before making the purchase!
You could make things easier by getting a USB NVMe enclosure. This way, you can connect both the existing and the new drive at the same time and directly clone the old drive over to the new one without any hassle.
Thanks for the tip! We ended up using a $20 NVMe to USB-C enclosure and had a smooth swap. Macrium let us expand the partition right from the old drive to the new, but we hit a snag with our graphics card driver not transferring properly. I appreciate the suggestion about checking for extra NVMe slots—turned out I almost missed a vertical port on the board that could fit a smaller SSD!