SSD is one of the best advancements that has happened in modern storage technology. Everyone is adopting SSD especially old hard drive users as SSD offers fast read and write speed. If you are too in the same boat or if you are looking for software to clone your existing M.2 NVME SSD to a new larger capacity M.2 NVME SSD then you are at the right place.
In this article, I have shared the free SSD cloning software Macrium. It can clone hard disk to SSD, NVME SSD to larger NVME SSD, or SATA SSD to M.2 NVME SSD for free.
Quick Navigation
How To Clone NVME SSD To New Larger NVME SSD
Macrium Reflect 8 Free Version Overview
Compatible OS: Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, & Windows 7
Application: NVME SSD to larger NVME SSD cloning, SATA SSD to NVME SSD cloning, Hard disk to M.2 NVME SSD cloning, Hard disk to SATA SSD cloning & vice versa.
Price: Free for personal use, paid plan for commercial and workstation use.
Time needed: 20-30 minutes depending on the SSD read and write speed
Instructions For Cloning NVME SSD
To start, download Macrium Reflect 8 and install it on your Windows computer from here. There will be three versions of the software on the website which are Reflect 8 Free Commercial, Workstation Trial, & Reflect 8 Workstation. You need to download & install Reflect 8 Free Commercial on your computer.
Once installed you need to follow the steps below-
- Open Macrium Reflect using the shortcut icon created on your desktop.
- On the first screen, the app will show all the partitions on your SSD as seen in the image below.
- After selecting the partitions, you need to connect your M.2 SSD to your computer or laptop. Once connected then use the refresh button to see the connected storage device to which you want to clone your partitions.
- Once your SSD is displayed click on, “clone this disk” option.
- A pop-up box will appear asking you to select the disk to clone to. Click on that, it would show you all the storage devices connected to your computer. If there is more than one SSD; select the larger SSD to which you want to copy your data.
- In each partition, there will be a checkbox, you can check it to select the partition you want to clone. And, unchecking any particular partition prevents it from being cloned.
- Once selected click on Next, don’t worry about manually creating your partition as the software will take care of it.
- On the next screen, the software would ask you whether or not you want to schedule the cloning. You can use this function if you want to do the cloning process later. However, I would recommend clicking on next as I didn’t test that particular feature.
- On the next screen, a dialog box would appear asking you whether or not immediately start the backup and do you want to save the XML file of the backup. Make sure you check both the boxes then proceed by clicking OK.
- There will be a warning on the screen informing you that if you have any important data on the new NVME SSD, it will be deleted. Click on Continue, it will immediately start the cloning process. Depending on the number of partitions, file size, & storage size it could take some time.
Congratulations you have now successfully cloned your disk.
Important note: If you want to make a bootable drive then ensure that you have also selected all the partitions besides the Windows. For instance, Windows 11 on my computer has created 4 small recovery & system reserve drives that I would recommend cloning too if you want to make the SSD bootable.
Recommended Read: How To Recover Permanently Deleted Files From SSD
How To Clone NVME SSD With Only One NVME Slot?
Some laptops and desktops come with dual slots for M.2 NVME SSD and some don’t. If you have an extra slot then you can continue with the steps above, however, if you don’t then I would recommend purchasing M.2 USB adaptor from Amazon. It will make your new NVME SSD a portable storage device. After that, you can connect the new SSD to the computer and continue with the steps above.
Can I Clone SATA SSD To NVME SSD Using This Software?
Yes, without a doubt you would be able to clone your SATA SSD to NVME SSD using Macrium Reflect 8 free software. The steps would same as I have provided above.
Why Is My Cloned NVME SSD Is Not Booting?
If you have cloned your hard disk or SATA SSD to a brand new NVME SSD then it’s not going to boot up. And, the reason for that is you need to initialize your new SSD so that it can run Windows. You might not be aware of it but Windows takes care of the initialization process when you install Windows on your new SSD manually instead of cloning.
So you can fix this issue by either installing Windows on the SSD manually or formatting the SSD to GPT format using the steps below.
- Boot your Windows computer and connect your NVME SSD as a Storage device.
- Open start & type Disk management then press enter.
- As soon as Disk Management will open, a pop will appear asking you to initialize the SSD.
- There will be two options present namely MBR & GPT style partition. Check the GPT style partition options if you have an SSD with 2TB and more storage and MBR if you have less than that. Click on okay, and now you have initialized your SSD.
- You can now use the cloning software to make a bootable NVME drive.
Another reason why your SSD might not boot is that you might have missed cloning some system reserve partition. Without those partitions, your NVME SSD will not boot.
The third reason why your new SSD might not be booting is because of data not being copied to the SSD properly. Retry the cloning process and see if it fixes the issue. However, if you are copying from an old SSD with bad sectors then recloning won’t fix the issue for you. To fix your SSD or hard drive you can refer to our guide on hard drive repair.
Verdict
Hopefully, this guide would have helped you in cloning your old NVME SSD to a new & larger NVME SSD. Macrum is a great free software and you won’t need to spend any money on it unless you want to use it on a workstation or need it for any commercial use.
FAQs
How Do I Clone NVME SSD To Larger NVME SSD?
You can use the Macrium Reflect 8 Free software to clone your NVME SSD to a Larger NVME SSD. The software is free and straightforward, to use simply connect your NVME SSD and follow the on-screen instructions to clone your old SSD.
Can I Clone One SSD To Another?
Yes, you can clone one SSD to another using third-party software like Macrium which is available for free for personal use.
How Do I Convert NVME To Windows NVME?
If you have purchased a brand new NVME then first you would need to convert it to GPT or MBR type drive before you can make it bootable. During cloning make sure that you also select all small system reserve partitions created by the OS.
