I don't know how to replace an existing M.2 PCIe SSD in a laptop with a new PCIe NVMe SSD like the new Samsung 960 Pro. Please help!
In the olden days of 2016, in the age of M.2 SATA SSDs, I'd put the new SSD into a $20 USB enclosure, and use the data migration software that came bundled with the M.2 SATA SSD to clone the old SSD's image onto the new SSD. Then I'd physically remove the old SSD from the laptop and replace it with the new one.
But there are no external USB enclosures for M.2 PCIe NVMe controllers. Now if I was installing it into a laptop or desktop with multiple M.2 drive slots, that again would be no problem. But this laptop has "only" a single M.2 space.
,
Is my only option to do a clean Windows 10 install, and slowly build things up device driver by device driver? is there no way I can clone the existing, smaller M.2 PCIe SSD onto the new one to avoid the time spent installing device drivers?
Maybe the secret is to use a third external USB drive (besides the old SSD and the new one). Use something like Macrium to clone the old SSD onto the USB drive, somehow make the USB drive bootable (maybe with Rufus?), then physically swap SSDs, reconfigure the BIOS to boot up from the external USB drive rather than the now-blank internal SSD, then reimage the new blank SSD with the image on the external SSD, and then change the BIOS so it boots from the internal SSD. Maybe? It sounds like a lot of steps for something that I'd think would be common enough that there'd be a simpler way to do it.
In the olden days of 2016, in the age of M.2 SATA SSDs, I'd put the new SSD into a $20 USB enclosure, and use the data migration software that came bundled with the M.2 SATA SSD to clone the old SSD's image onto the new SSD. Then I'd physically remove the old SSD from the laptop and replace it with the new one.
But there are no external USB enclosures for M.2 PCIe NVMe controllers. Now if I was installing it into a laptop or desktop with multiple M.2 drive slots, that again would be no problem. But this laptop has "only" a single M.2 space.
,
Is my only option to do a clean Windows 10 install, and slowly build things up device driver by device driver? is there no way I can clone the existing, smaller M.2 PCIe SSD onto the new one to avoid the time spent installing device drivers?
Maybe the secret is to use a third external USB drive (besides the old SSD and the new one). Use something like Macrium to clone the old SSD onto the USB drive, somehow make the USB drive bootable (maybe with Rufus?), then physically swap SSDs, reconfigure the BIOS to boot up from the external USB drive rather than the now-blank internal SSD, then reimage the new blank SSD with the image on the external SSD, and then change the BIOS so it boots from the internal SSD. Maybe? It sounds like a lot of steps for something that I'd think would be common enough that there'd be a simpler way to do it.
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