Hardware NVMe M.2 migration

[impeeza]

Fellow tempers recently I brought a new NVMe M.2 storage for upgrade my actual 300 GB one on my PC.

The problem I am facing, I like to migrate the OS from one storage to other, I really do not want to reinstall my pc, only clone the data, When I migrated from a SATA flash drive to the M.2 unit was very easy, used Jayro's Medicat USB Multitool boot and inside it ran Minitool Partition Wizard and used the migration hard drive assistant to do it, but my board ONLY have a M.2 socket.

Any idea how to do a easy migration between M.2 drives?


I thinked on buy a M.2 to USB adapter but they are expensive.

 

[Hayato213]

Does your computer have a NVME slot?

 

[gnmmarechal]

Fellow tempers recently I brought a new NVMe M.2 storage for upgrade my actual 300 GB one on my PC.

The problem I am facing, I like to migrate the OS from one storage to other, I really do not want to reinstall my pc, only clone the data, When I migrated from a SATA flash drive to the M.2 unit was very easy, used Jayro's Medicat USB Multitool boot and inside it ran Minitool Partition Wizard and used the migration hard drive assistant to do it, but my board ONLY have a M.2 socket.

Any idea how to do a easy migration between M.2 drives?


I thinked on buy a M.2 to USB adapter but they are expensive.

To this day, I still use Macrium Reflect whenever I migrate to a new drive. Even if you have a single M.2, nothing stops you from imaging the drive, making a WinPE drive through Reflect, installing the new drive, then booting into the WinPE environment and restoring the image to the new drive, then increase the partition as necessary. There are, of course, countless ways to do this, as well as a number of other tools. I just particularly like this one.

 

[impeeza]

To this day, I still use Macrium Reflect whenever I migrate to a new drive. Even if you have a single M.2, nothing stops you from imaging the drive, making a WinPE drive through Reflect, installing the new drive, then booting into the WinPE environment and restoring the image to the new drive, then increase the partition as necessary. There are, of course, countless ways to do this, as well as a number of other tools. I just particularly like this one.

Thanks mate i was wondering if that is a way to go and you confirm it

Will see if that tool is in Jairo's medicay

 

[tech3475]

I would either use Macrium Reflect (older versions should have a free option) or buy a cheap M.2 to PCIe adapter from Aliexpress if time isn't an issue, don't know what the going rate is but I got one years ago for a few quid.

Don't know if Clonezilla or something similar might work.

 

[gnmmarechal]

I would either use Macrium Reflect (older versions should have a free option) or buy a cheap M.2 to PCIe adapter from Aliexpress if time isn't an issue, don't know what the going rate is but I got one years ago for a few quid.

Don't know if Clonezilla or something similar might work.

It should do, I just recommended Reflect as it's pretty solid and I personally have continued to use it.

 

[tech3475]

It should do, I just recommended Reflect as it's pretty solid and I personally have continued to use it.

Same, shame they've gone down the subscription route.

I'm actually looking for alternatives, currently trying urbackup but it seems lacking/questionable reliability.

 

[gnmmarechal]

Same, shame they've gone down the subscription route.

I'm actually looking for alternatives, currently trying urbackup but it seems lacking/questionable reliability.

It's unfortunate, aye. I think they still have a trial version, but frankly I'm still running the same free version I had before they discontinued it.

 

[tech3475]

It's unfortunate, aye. I think they still have a trial version, but frankly I'm still running the same free version I had before they discontinued it.

I still use that but I also actually have some paid licenses for some of the features.

I actually would have likely bought more on sale except they changed business models.

My plan is to just continuing to use version 8 even as it goes EoL until I either find a replacement I like or something breaks.

 

[Exnor]

Use a usb device with a portable Linux distro and use DD. Then resize the partition with Gparted.

You will need another storage device to temporary "hold" the data.

Open a terminal/shell/cli on any linux distro, then find your current m2 ssd using either fdisk - l or lsblk (btw with root).

Now assuming your m2 is called sda ( might be another name so make sure) and your temporary storage is sdx:

1st unmount sda with "umount /dev/sda" (most likely its not mounted but just in case), then
2nd use "dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdx/anydirectory/temp.img bs=2M status=progress" and wait (make sure the device names are the ones you saw with lsblk !!! And that the destination storage has enough space)

Now check if you have the temp.img file in that directory (probably a lot of Gigabytes).

Turn of the pc , swap the old m2 with the new , boot up and load that linux distro again. Repeat the lsblk command and take note of the name of your new ssd (lets assume its sda again) and temporary storage (again for this example sdx) and do:

"dd if=/dev/sdx/anydirectory/temp.img of=/dev/sda bs=2M status=progress"

After this your new ssd should be restored and ready to boot so reboot and test it.

if all goes according to plan you should be back with your OS running and if needed you can expand the partitions to your liking (i suggest gparted again).

I hope this helps.

 

[impeeza]

Well guys, I found this

on mercadolibre with one day shipping and a 42% off, so costed only 17 USD, so pull the trigger. once arrive, will try it with reflect. thanks a lo guys.

 

[Jayro]

Well guys, I found this
View attachment 544294

on mercadolibre with one day shipping and a 42% off, so costed only 17 USD, so pull the trigger. once arrive, will try it with reflect. thanks a lo guys.

Shame I didn't see this sooner, but I'm glad you got it sorted.

 

[impeeza]

Shame I didn't see this sooner, but I'm glad you got it sorted.

What will be your recommendation?

 

[tech3475]

Well guys, I found this
View attachment 544294

on mercadolibre with one day shipping and a 42% off, so costed only 17 USD, so pull the trigger. once arrive, will try it with reflect. thanks a lo guys.

TBH if you've got this I would just do a direct clone.

 

[Jayro]

What will be your recommendation?

Just a USB enclosure, like you found.

Post automatically merged: Dec 10, 2025

But these exist too:

 

[impeeza]

Thanks mate

 

[Exnor]

Well guys, I found this
View attachment 544294

on mercadolibre with one day shipping and a 42% off, so costed only 17 USD, so pull the trigger. once arrive, will try it with reflect. thanks a lo guys.

Holly s**t that is expensive :o

How about this one : https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Enclosure-Tool-Free-Thunderbolt-Compatible/dp/B09T97Z7DM

its only 16 euros. Sure it might not have the same performance but its only to clone the drive right?

 

[impeeza]

Holly s**t that is expensive :o

How about this one : https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Enclosure-Tool-Free-Thunderbolt-Compatible/dp/B09T97Z7DM

its only 16 euros. Sure it might not have the same performance but its only to clone the drive right?

sadly that model do not support SATA drives, the one I buy support NVME (PCIe) and SATA devices.

Post automatically merged: Dec 11, 2025

Well the USB Adapter has come, and with the great tool of Jayros Medicat, it is cloning just now

 

[RandomUser]

You have already got everything needed done.
I would have like to add Norton Ghost (Symantec Ghost) to the list but now it is sadly a Broadcam software. It does seem to do a good job at cloning and imaging drives, but it puts data at the beginning of the drive and at the middle of the drive, leaving a gaping gap in between. Although this shouldn't really matter for Solid State drives though.

 

[impeeza]

Well budies, I managed to clone the actual NVMe drive to the new one using the USB adapter.

At first, the drive do not boot with blue screen about booting device do not available.

had to run some boot recovery tools and reset my UEFI security certificates, and now I am running my OS from a bigger disk.

Thanks all of you for the help.

Merry Christmas to all tempers.