Upgrading to a different SSD while maintaining the same partition layout
Upgrading to a different SSD while maintaining the same partition layout
Hello! You're planning to upgrade to a new M.2 drive and switch your operating system. For a smooth transition without messing up partitions, consider using Samsung's migration tool—it's designed for this purpose. If you have both your existing SSD and the new drive from Samsung, you can proceed carefully. Cloning sector by sector is possible but risky; a clean installation followed by cloning only the OS partition is safer. Always back up data first.
I faced a challenge too. No software came up with a solution to switch from SATA to M.2 storage. My go-to tools—Acronis True Image and Symantec Ghost—both refused to handle that conversion. I tried plugging the drive straight into my M.2 slot or using a PCI-e adapter, but it didn’t work. Eventually, I reinstalled Windows 10 on the M.2 drive and copied everything over once it was set up.
Exactly as expected. Likely a fresh setup followed by moving the C partition.
When the drives match in size perfectly, you can simply install a Linux live CD and employ dd to transfer data from the old drive to the new one. This method works often, though ensuring absolute size consistency is essential.
I thought I should refresh this subject after completing the migration. My plan was to install Windows fresh on the new drive and then copy just the C:\ folder. I decided to give Samsung's data migration tool a shot. It performed perfectly—exact partition table copied, no issues! It took only five minutes and two clicks.