Mr. Black Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 Hi guys, I purchased a new laptop that has an existing M2 SSD at 256GB, but I wanted 512 so I got a Samsung 960 Pro M2. In order to image the drive from the existing machine to the new SSD, I purchased a SATA to m2 Adapter card. But, when I plug the SATA/M2 adapter card into an external SATA to USB adapter, I get nothing - doesnt see it. I can tell the M2 is getting power because the M2 is getting warm. The SATA to USB adapter is working fine with regular SATA HD's. So...do I need a special adapter of some kind? I'm lost here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted March 18, 2018 Global Moderator Share Posted March 18, 2018 You bought a SATA to USB adapter. The 960 is NVMe ... which isn't SATA nor is it backwards compatible. You would need to buy a NVMe to USB adapter (if such a thing exist) while also ensuring your notebook can accept NVMe m.2 drives. SATA m.2 != NVMe m.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Black Posted March 18, 2018 Author Share Posted March 18, 2018 (edited) Correct. I'm going to guess the adapter doesn't work with NVMe. The laptop (existing drive) is a NVMe drive. Computer specs are changing faster than I can keep up... Are there any NVMe to SATA adapters that exist? Or another way to image to the external NVMe 960? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted March 18, 2018 Global Moderator Share Posted March 18, 2018 I'm not sure...with respect to NVMe to USB. I couldn't find one (doesn't mean they don't exist though). I'm not really sure how you'd be able to clone it...unless you have a desktop with a couple free NVMe slots (or buy some add-on NVMe cards) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helpifIcan Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 Do an image of the existing drive to an external with something like Macrium free. Crate a boot USB flash drive with the software. Swap the old drive with the new one boot with the USB. Restore the image to the new drive. Mando 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITOps Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 You can try the following Windows PE method: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/capture-images-of-hard-disk-partitions-using-dism Just insure you have local or network storage available to save the image too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Supervisor Posted March 19, 2018 Supervisor Share Posted March 19, 2018 Hello, Cloning the drive is going to be a little tricky because as @Jim K noted, there is no way to bridge NVMe and USB. The NVMe is a DMA-based protocol that runs over the PCIe bus, so you will need an interface that supports DMA, such as M.2 NVMe and SATA to PCIe card (which would go into a the PCIe slot on a desktop computer's motherboard), or a NVMe to Thunderbolt enclosure (which connects to a laptop or a desktop with a Thunderbolt interface). That would give you to hardware to clone the drive, but you would still have the problem of the cloned drive not having Samsung's NVMe driver on it, so the new Samsung 960 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD would still be non-bootable. You could try downloading the Samsung 960 PRO NVMe driver from Samsung's web site and installing it to the Windows installation on the 256GB M.2 SATA SSD before cloning the drive. Or, you could try making recovery media after installing the NVMe driver, then removing the M.2 SATA SSD, installing the M.2 NVMe SSD and then using the recovery media to load the operating system onto it. Another option would be to download the latest Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft, make a bootable USB out of it, copy the NVMe driver to the USB in a memorable location like C:\DRIVERS\, and then use that to perform a clean install of Windows 10 to the Samsung 960 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky Mr. Black 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Black Posted March 19, 2018 Author Share Posted March 19, 2018 Aryeh, Thanks for your response. Even though the drive installed already is a NVMe, your saying Samsung has some proprietary controller on-board that requires a driver? Yikes. I like the idea of cloning to external media and using a Restore CD/USB drive. I'll give it a shot. Can't hurt because if it doesn't work I can just pop the old SSD back in. Thank you everyone! goretsky 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Fahim S. MVC Posted March 19, 2018 MVC Share Posted March 19, 2018 They do exist... but they are very expensive: https://transparent-uk.com/microstorage-m-2-pcie-to-usb-3-0.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Black Posted March 19, 2018 Author Share Posted March 19, 2018 (edited) Fahim, A lot of people have gotten bit by those - it doesn't say if it supports just SATA or NVMe cards. Most only support SATA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Fahim S. MVC Posted March 19, 2018 MVC Share Posted March 19, 2018 3 minutes ago, Mr. Black said: Fahim, A lot of people have gotten bit by those - it doesn't say if it supports just SATA or NVMe cards. Most only support SATA. It says it supports PCIe... Mindovermaster 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Supervisor Posted March 20, 2018 Supervisor Share Posted March 20, 2018 Hello, The vendor mislabeled it accidentally, I'm afraid. It is a USB 3.0 to M.2 SATA adapter. I have one from ZTE that I put a 128MB M.2 SATA SSD into, and had a smaller one (M.2 2242-sized only) from UGREEN for similar purpose that burnt out and took a 64GB M.2 SATA SSD with it (not surprisingly, it has been discontinued). Essentially, these allow you to use the M.2 SATA SSD as a fast USB flash drive. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky 9 hours ago, Fahim S. said: It says it supports PCIe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevTech Posted March 24, 2018 Share Posted March 24, 2018 Samsung 960 Pro is heaven. Don't spoil that beauty! Just download a ISO from Microsoft and do a clean install from the booted USB drive. Then copy over info needed from the old drive that you backed up on any old USB. Less work in the end and far better result. Windows 10 will have no problem detecting the Samsung 960 Pro on install. Noting needed. I have done exactly this on my laptop with zero issues. After install, run a benchmark to verify all 4 PCIe lanes are being used and you are good to go. Mr. Black and goretsky 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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