Upgrading My SSD

[SiberianHusky1]

I just want to say I really appreciate your help.

So I figured out today that the m.2 form factor can come in SATA III or NVMe and I need the SATAIII type.  So Newegg has a 3v0 day return so I will try a 1 TB and hopefully it will work.

Now this is where I need a bit more help.  My buddy who is not close in distance to me just upgraded his SSD drive.  He bought his new drive and placed it into an enclosure and then formatted it and applied a clone.  That's how he did it.  I am wondering if I can do it without a enclosure?   This is what I was thinking but I don't know if it would work.  I would install the drive out of the box and then have the computer boot up to a usb stick with macrium reflect on it.  Would Maxium Reflect give me a way or an option to format the drive?  If they give me that option can I reformat the drive and then apply the image and thus I would not need a usb enclosure?  Do I use a image or a clone? 

What do you think?

Thank You.

[SiberianHusky1]

I actually found a video using Macrium that is exactly what I want to do and shows how to resize the partition.  I will need an enclosure.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Yes, you will need some kind of device to mount the 1 TB M.2 SSD in, since you are not cloning the operating system from the 2.5" drive to the M.2 SSD.

[SiberianHusky1]

Ive got my enclosure and will have the drive in a few days.

That service manual you linked me too has a photo of the right side ports but I think the numbers are off.  Are you able to tell which of the two usb ports is the 3.0?  Is it the one next to the hdmi or the other one?

Thanks again.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Unfortunately, I wouldn't know how to tell which is which.

Does the user guide have the same illustrations?

Chapter 2, page 6 indicates that both of the ports on the left side of the notebook are USB 3.

User Guide (hp.com)

[SiberianHusky1]

Thanks.  I was just coming here to tell you that I found that same user guide.  HP does not make it easy to do so!  

I have the enclosure and the arrives on Monday.  I have the video showing me exactly how to resize the partition in Macrium Reflect so I am ready to go.

Hopefully the next time you hear from me the news will be good!

[SiberianHusky1]

I seem to have a problem as the computer does not see my ssd drive in the enclosure.  I know it is in properly so that is not the issue.  When I plug it into the usb port windows makes that noise it makes and it adds an icon that says safely remove hardware and eject media but in my computer there is no ssd drive to be found.  I tried a reboot and it still did not show up.  I thought maybe it needed a driver but on the package it says no driver needed.

This is what i bought:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076DCNZM3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

To work with this:

https://www.newegg.com/samsung-860-evo-series-1tb/p/N82E16820147678?Description=SAMSUNG%20860%20EVO%...

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

In theory it should have worked, but unfortunately I would not be able to help you get it to work.

I have never used a device like that before.

If you can't figure it out, use the HP cloud recovery tool to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall W10, the drivers and the software that originally came with your notebook on the new SSD.

Before removing the current M.2 drive, make sure that you first copy any files you want to save onto a portable hard drive before installing the new SSD so you can copy them back to the new W10 installation.

Also make sure that you temporarily disconnect the 2.5" drive in case the tool installs W10 on the 2.5" drive instead of the SSD.

Here is an info link for how to use that utility...

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool (Windows 10, 7) | HP® Customer Support

Or you can use the Microsoft media creation tool from the link below to clean install W10 on the new SSD.

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

After W10 has completed installing, you can install the drivers and available software from your notebook's support page.

HP Pavilion 15-br000 x360 Convertible PC Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support

[SiberianHusky1]

I did some digging into device manager and i can see that the enclosure is there and working.  But the drive was not showing up in my computer.  So I went to youtube and did a search about why does my usb enclosure not show up and to my surprise up popped a video.  It had me go into settings and I can remember exactly where but something called data management or drive management.  I found my drive in there and I had to initialize it and then give it a general partition and then assign a letter to it.  When I did all that it showed up!

But of course now there are other issues.  Im following a video on how to do the clone with Macrium Reflect and what im seeing happen is not exactly the same as the video and when I start the clone it pops up a message two times that I do not have access to that folder.  I wont go into details because you probably are not able to help me with the cloning issue.

So I will keep you posted on if I never get it done.  At least I got one problem solved!

Thanks.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Glad you were able to get the drive to show up.

No, I wouldn't be able to help you with any cloning issues.

I can tell you one thing though...if you get the drive to clone, since you are cloning a smaller drive onto a larger one, you are going to end up with a lot of unallocated space.

The problem is you will not be able to extend your C: partition into that unallocated space using the disk management tool you just used, because it will not be adjacent to the C: partition.

If you end up with that dilemma, there is an easy way to fix it.  See this link...

[Free]How to Merge Non Adjacent Partitions on Windows? (resize-c.com)