Cloning Question

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narsbars

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Jan 18, 2006
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When cloning an SSD or a NVME from a laptop with only a single slot for either, what is the best way to just clone to a larger drive and insert and play? I usually am doing this with a desktop with spare slots/ports and cloning is easy. Like everyone I prefer freeware but I am not so cheap I won't buy hardware or software to make the process painless. I have tried cloning to a USB connected drive but they only come up as non bootable. Bad hardware, or bad technique?
 
narsbars said:
When cloning an SSD or a NVME from a laptop with only a single slot for either, what is the best way to just clone to a larger drive and insert and play? I usually am doing this with a desktop with spare slots/ports and cloning is easy. Like everyone I prefer freeware but I am not so cheap I won't buy hardware or software to make the process painless. I have tried cloning to a USB connected drive but they only come up as non bootable. Bad hardware, or bad technique?
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cloning through usb usually wont work. since you have a desktop use that. get one of the drive makers clone tool and make a boot usb, connect only the two drives you want to deal with and clone it over.
 
pendragon1 said:
cloning through usb usually wont work. since you have a desktop use that. get one of the drive makers clone tool and make a boot usb, connect only the two drives you want to deal with and clone it over.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I don't have enough NVME slots in my main rig to clone an NVME and still be able to have a boot drive.
 
narsbars said:
Thanks, I don't have enough NVME slots in my main rig to clone an NVME and still be able to have a boot drive.
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you dont want any of the desktops drives left in. so as longs as its got two, your gtg. use the desktop to make a boot usb. take out it's drives and put the laptop's in the primary slot, new in the other. boot off usb, clone, power off. move new drive, put desktops back in.
if you dont have two m.2 slots, maybe you can make a image(not clone) to a usb drive and then restore it to the new drive.
 
pendragon1 said:
you dont want any of the desktops drives left in. so as longs as its got two, your gtg. use the desktop to make a boot usb. take out it's drives and put the laptop's in the primary slot, new in the other. boot off usb, clone, power off. move new drive, put desktops back in.
if you dont have two m.2 slots, maybe you can make a image(not clone) to a usb drive and then restore it to the new drive.
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You are right, but I was so hoping to find some lazy magic way to just buy a cheapie dock and POOF! like magic, problem solved.
 
It's not as fast, probably, but if you do network backups, you can just do an on demand incremental backup, turn off, put in the new drive and do a restore.
 
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toast0 said:
It's not as fast, probably, but if you do network backups, you can just do an on demand incremental backup, turn off, put in the new drive and do a restore.
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a pciexpress to m.2 adapter card could be around $10-$15

https://www.amazon.com/Bejavr-PCI-E3-0-Expansion-Aluminum-PCI-Express/dp/B09JM5FVC7/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=pci-e+to+m.2&qid=1692752794&sprefix=pci-e+to+,aps,96&sr=8-2

Maybe less useful than a usb dock for a quick time to time affair but still with nvme price and how we could be tempted to put the best one on the cpu slot it is easy to end up with older nvme hanging around so it can possibly still be useful post cloning.
 
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Backup the current one to an external drive, then restore to the NVMe. Not the fastest way, but might be the easiest/cheapest right now.
 
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