Windows 10: Back and restore M.2 SSD using an image

Hello Masters!

I just bought a new notebook which is an inspiron 746, its a dual drive notebook with a normal SATA drive and an M.2 Slot. It uses the M.2 Slot for the primary disk which it boots on. I have a spare M.2 (256GB) which is bigger than the one that came with the notebook (128) and want to swap it out. I want to clone this but i do not have a M.2 enclosure. Is there a possibility to image the stock 128GB M.2 drive and store it on an external drive and restore it on the 256GB drive when installed on the notebook. If yes, what back up/ restore software should i use? thanks!

:)

 

Safe Mode

Wayne,

No, the problem SSD was a Samsung 840 Pro on a desktop. I was only using the XPS 15 to test getting into safe mode.

But that brings up another problem. There is currently no way to clone an M.2 NVMe SSD on a laptop as no one appears to make a USB 3 to NVMe x4 adapter. One must do an image backup to an external drive and then a restore to the new M.2 NVMe x4 SSD.

Some image backup programs don't support NVMe x4 PCIe and don't work. I have found Macrium Reflect, paid version, does work. And probably Windows 10's recovery as Win 10 supports NVMe in most cases. The only other possible way is to put the NVMe drives in
a desktop that has multiple M.2 NVMe slots to clone it. My next build will have 3, 1 for it's boot drive and 2 for this sort of work.

Lee

 

Strange "C Missing" in Restore window

Results of testing Acronis clone and Image restore.

Boot SSD 1 – verified that there is no C Missing.

Created a second restore point for this drive.

Wipe SSD 2.

Clone SSD 1 to SSD 2 using Acronis 2016 booted from Rescue USB.

Boot from SSD 2.

C Missing exists on SSD 2

System Protection turned OFF for C System.

System Protection ON for C Missing.

Wipe SSD 2.

Image SSD1 to External backup drive using Acronis 2016 booted from Rescue USB.

Restore image from external drive to SSD2 with Acronis 2016 booted from Rescue USB.

Boot SSD2.

System Protection turned OFF for C System.

System Protection turned ON for C Missing.



My Results of testing;

Macrium clone creates C Missing folder on cloned drive.

Macrium Image restore does NOT create C Missing on imaged drive



Acronis clone creates C Missing folder on cloned drive.

Acronis image restore creates C Missing on imaged drive.



Turning Protection OFF on C Missing removes it from System Protection window.

Must turn protection on for C System.

These are my results - Others may have different results.

 

Macrium Reflect Free:
Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything

 

Use Macrium to make a full disk image. Then under Other Task - Create Bootable Rescue Media.(USB or CD)
Shutdown system, swap drives and boot from the Rescue Media. It should boot and auto load Macrium. Restore to new disk.

Macrium site has good tutorials.

Jim *Cool

 

Thank you *Smile much appreciated!

 

Look in our own tutorial section - tutorials on Macrium are super.

 

So does our own forum tutorial section. If anything I would say ours by mostly by @Kari are better.

 

I just did that with a Dell Inspiron 15 laptop that came with an M.2 2280 SSD. Upgraded the M.2 SSD to double the size. As others have noted, I created a backup (disc image) of the existing M.2 SSD, all partitions, using Macrium Reflect. I had a Macrium bootable flash drive so I didn't have to create that. Installed the new M.2 SSD, booted with the Flash drive and restored to the new M.2 SSD. I also used Mini Tool Partition Wizard to expand the "C" partition on the new higher capacity drive to the full drive size. Macrium has been reported it will do that too but I've never tried that. I already had Mini Tool Partition Wizard so I used that.