Top 2 Ways to Upgrade MSI Gaming Laptop Hard Drive to SSD
Quick Navigation:
- Can you upgrade hard drive on MSI laptop?
- MSI Hard Drive Upgrade: Reinstall vs. Clone or Backup
- How to perform MSI hard drive upgrade easily in Windows
- Conclusion
Can you upgrade hard drive on MSI laptop?
MSI gaming laptops often come with a 1TB HDD and a small SSD, which can be upgraded or replaced with a larger SSD to increase storage space.
Upgrading your MSI gaming laptop's RAM and possibly its hard drive can help improve its performance. However, it's recommended to consult the manufacturer for specific upgrade requirements before making any changes. This will ensure a smooth and compatible upgrade process.
✍ Apart from the GS series, GT, GE, GP, GL, and GF series laptops, such as the MSI GT76/63, GE65, GP75, GL65/75, and GF63, have one of three hard drive or SSD settings.
- One M.2 SSD slot, two M.2 SSD combo slot and one 2.5" SATA HDD.
- One M.2 SSD combo slot and one 2.5" SATA HDD.
- Only one 2.5" SATA HDD.
✍ If you have a GS series MSI laptop, such as the GS65 or GS75, you should not attempt to disassemble the hard drive without permission. Doing so will void your warranty. Instead, visit an MSI Service Center for assistance with upgrading your hard drive.
MSI Hard Drive Upgrade: Reinstall vs. Clone or Backup
Upgrading your computer's hard drive can be a complex process, especially for common users. One possible solution is to buy a larger HDD or SSD, replace the original one, and then reinstall Windows with the installation media. However, this method is time-consuming and will result in the loss of all data and non-preinstalled programs.
To make MSI laptop hard drive replacement easy, try Qiling Disk Master Professional, a best disk cloning software that offers two solutions for Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, keeping everything on the MSI hard drive as it was.
- Way 1: Clone HDD to SSD without reinstalling everything. To prepare a new SSD for your MSI computer, you'll need to choose the right type of SSD that matches your computer's specifications. If it's a desktop, you'll need to use a SATA to USB enclosure, while a laptop will require an M.2 to USB enclosure. If you're unsure about the compatible SSD for your MSI computer, it's best to consult the manufacturer's guidelines to ensure a smooth installation process.
- Way 2: Backup hard drive to USB/external drive then restore to SSD drive. The process requires an external hard drive for temporary backup image storage and a bootable USB or CD/DVD for disk restoration. A new SSD must be booted from after the images are restored to it.
To try Qiling Disk Master Professional, download the software and take a look. Keep in mind that the Clone features in the free trial can only be demonstrated, so you'll need to upgrade to fully experience the capabilities.
Qiling Disk Master Professional supports Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista and has a server version available for server users.
How to perform MSI hard drive upgrade easily in Windows
To upgrade your hard drive to an MSI SSD using the cloning and imaging method, first connect the new SSD to your computer using a SATA to USB enclosure, M.2 to USB enclosure, or install it directly into the computer. Ensure the SSD is detected by Windows before proceeding.
Way 1. MSI laptop SSD upgrade with Clone feature
1. Launch Qiling Disk Master Professional, select Disk Clone under Tools and utilities tab.
3. To clone your hard drive, select the MSI hard drive as the source disk and the new SSD as the destination disk, then proceed with the cloning process by following the on-screen instructions and pressing "Next" at each step.
5. After selecting the source and destination disk, tick "SSD Alignment" to optimize the SSD disk's performance, then click "Proceed" to initiate the upgrade process and transform your MSI laptop's hard drive into a faster SSD in Windows 11/10/8/7.
The software clones only used sectors of the MSI hard drive by default, making it easier to clone a large HDD to a smaller SSD. However, if the new SSD is larger, you can clone all sectors using the Sector by Sector Clone option, which takes longer.
Some users have reported that the cloned hard drive shows the wrong size after cloning a disk to a larger disk. If this is your case, you can try adding unallocated space to all partitions or manually adjusting the partition size using the Edit Partitions feature.
After the cloning process is complete, restart your computer, enter the BIOS settings, and adjust the boot order to prioritize the cloned SSD. Alternatively, shut down the computer, swap the original hard drive with the cloned SSD, and boot from the SSD.
Way 2. Replace hard drive for MSI with backup & restore
To upgrade your MSI hard drive to an SSD, follow these steps: connect a USB drive or external hard drive to your MSI laptop to store a backup image of your current hard drive. This will ensure that your important files and programs are safely backed up during the upgrade process.
If you don't have an exact copy of MSI hard drive, launch Qiling Disk Master, go to the Backup tab and follow the steps carefully. If you already have a copy, you can skip to step 5.
1. Choose Disk Backup under the Backup tab.
2. Click Disks in the Disk Backup window.
★Tip: To backup multiple hard disks, you can repeat the backup process for each drive, but keep in mind that you can only restore one hard drive at a time, even if you backed up multiple drives simultaneously.
3. Modify the task name if necessary, then choose an external hard drive or USB flash drive as the destination path, and click "Proceed" to backup the MSI hard drive.
If you want to backup MSI hard drive continuously, try the following options:
✍Options: This tool enables various functionalities for disk backup tasks, including commenting, compressing, splitting, encrypting, using Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), creating an exact sector-by-sector copy, and sending notifications via email or SMS.
✍Schedule 5 modes for automatic backup: daily, weekly, monthly, event triggers, and USB plug in.
✍Backup Scheme helps with backing up changed files using incremental or differential backup methods, and also automatically deletes old backup images based on quantity, time, or daily/weekly/monthly cleanup methods.
4. After the backup is complete, the disk image file of the MSI hard drive will be stored on the USB drive or external hard drive. You can then remove the original MSI hard drive and connect the SSD to your computer.
- On this condition, shut down your laptop, and upside down.
- Remove the screws that hold the back cover in place, then carefully pull the cover off.
- To remove the battery from an MSI laptop, you need to first unscrew the screw that holds it in place, and then carefully take it out. This will give you access to the internal components of the laptop.
- To safely remove the MSI hard drive, first unscrew the screws that hold it in place, then gently pull the drive out. Be sure to handle the drive with care to avoid any damage.
- Put the new SSD drive into the slot.
5. Now that the hard drive has been replaced with a new SSD, you can proceed to restore the MSI disk image to it. Simply plug in the USB flash drive or external hard drive containing the image, boot the computer from the WinPE bootable media created earlier, and Qiling Disk Master will automatically launch on your computer.
★Tip: If you don't have a USB or CD/DVD, you can create a recovery environment in Windows 10 or other systems, which allows you to boot the computer from it by clicking it in the system startup.
6. On the main console, click Restore and Select Image File to locate the MSI disk image.
7. Select to Restore the entire disk and click Next.
8. Choose the new SSD drive as destination to receive the disk image, then press Next.
★Tip: If your destination disk is different from your backup source disk, you'll be prompted to ensure your system is Windows Vista or later 64-bit OS, as restoring to a different disk may cause boot failure on the destination system.
9. Click on the Restore button to proceed with the restore process, and then check the box next to Optimize for SSD to enable SSD optimization. This will help improve the reading and writing speed on your SSD.
★ Tip: The Universal Restore feature allows you to restore a disk image to a different computer with varying hardware configurations, making it bootable without any issues.
Until now, the MSI SSD upgrade has been done successfully. Just enjoy it.
You can improve your MSI gaming computer's performance by upgrading the RAM to 64GB, which allows you to replace the existing 16GB (8GBx2) with compatible larger RAM sticks.
To upgrade the RAM for MSI computers, you can refer to the specific user manual or documentation provided by MSI for your particular model, as different models may have varying RAM upgrade procedures. Generally, you'll need to identify the type of RAM your computer supports (e.
- Shut down MSI gaming computers, and upside down.
- Pull off the back cover after taking out the screws.
- Take out the two old smaller RAM sticks by releasing the buckle.
- Insert larger RAM sticks at an angle of 45 degrees and press down to secure them tightly using the buckle.
- After putting everything back in its place, the MSI RAM upgrade is complete.
Conclusion
With Qiling Disk Master, a powerful Windows backup software, upgrading your MSI hard drive can be done with simple clicks. This software also offers system clone for cloning the Windows operating system only, and allows you to create bootable media to restore Windows when your MSI laptop refuses to boot, or you can create a Qiling Disk Master Recovery Environment to achieve the same effect.
To protect unlimited computers within your company, you can use Qiling Disk Master Technician Plus. This tool allows you to deploy or restore system image files on server-side computers to multiple client-side computers over a network using its built-in Qiling Image Deploy tool.
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