2 Ways | How to Easily Clone NVMe to NVMe SSD in Windows

Updated on Jun 15, 2024 | by Oaklynn

Quick Navigation:

Help! How Do I Clone from NVMe to NVMe?
About NVMe SSD and Why Copy NVMe to NVMe?
What Do You Need to Clone A NVMe to SSD?
How-to | Clone NVMe SSD to NVMe SSD without Reinstalling
Method 1. Clone NVMe SSD to Another NVMe SSD Directly
Method 2. Clone NVMe to Larger NVMe with Only One Slot
Video Guide | NVMe to NVMe Cloning
FAQs on NVMe SSD Cloning
Verdict

Help! How Do I Clone from NVMe to NVMe?

Hi, the case is I'm running out of space on my laptop hard drive. I purchased a larger NVMe SSD but unable to find an easier way to migrate data entirely. I don't want to do NVMe to HDD to NVMe, this is very troublesome!!! Any suggestions on hardware/software for the job? BTW, My laptop comes with only one slot. Thanks!

Are you looking to clone your NVMe drive to another NVMe but unsure of the simplest method? NVMe swap might be troublesome, especially if your laptop has only one slot for NVMe SSD. Keep reading to figure out solution.

About NVMe SSD and Why Copy NVMe to NVMe?

What is NVMe SSD? NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory express) SSDs are a type of solid-state drive (SSD) that have revolutionized storage technology and significantly improved data transfer speeds and overall performance compared to traditional SATA-based SSDs and hard disk drives (HDDs).

The NVMe protocol was specifically designed to take advantage of the ultra-fast capabilities of NAND flash memory, enabling more efficient communication between the storage device and the computer's CPU.

Here is a compare chat about NVMe SSDs and other SSDs you may be interested in.

Factors	NVMe SSDs	Traditional SSDs
Speed	faster	slower
Latency	lower latency	slightly higher latency
Energy Efficiency	more energy-efficient	slightly more power
Interface	PCIe interface	SATA interface
Parallelism	supports multiple queues and I/O operations simultaneously	supports some degree of parallelism
Form Factor	compact M.2 form factor	various form factors, including 2.5-inch, mSATA, and M.2.
Performance	consistent high performance	performance may vary
Price	slightly more expensive	more budget-friendly
Use Cases	high-performance tasks, gaming, content creation, etc.	general computing, mainstream applications, etc.

Why would people perform NVMe to NVMe clone? Two of the most common reasons are:

1. Gain greater storage.

Generally speaking, NVMe SSDs do not come with high capacity, the first batch of produced SSDs in particular. More and more files, documents, projects, games, and applications need to be installed. As a result, upgrading smaller NVMe SSD to larger NVMe SSD for more space becomes an unavoidable trend.

2. Backup files or transfer data to another NVMe SSD.

From another perspective of view, NVMe SSD clone is a good way to safeguard important data and operating systems, and a fast way to transfer files.

What Do You Need to Clone A NVMe to SSD?

In general, cloning a HDD to NVMe SSD requires you to meet the following conditions for secure boot:

● Newer computer hardware (it is better to have Skylake chipsets or later even if NVMe is compatible with old computers)
● An M.2 PCI-E x4 slot
● UEFI firmware & UEFI boot mode

However, if you have already run operating system on NVMe SSD, those pre-conditions can be omitted. All you need to pay attention to is the following two aspects:

● The NVMe M.2 slot. If there is only one NVMe M.2 slot, you have two choices in SSD migration: a). use an M.2 to PCle adapter to connect NVMe SSD or clone it; Or b). backup NVMe SSD and then restore to larger NVMe SSD. The second choice still requires a backup drive to store image temporarily.
● The NVMe SSD cloning software. The software should be an all-around tool that offers features for your different cloning plans.

Fortunately, Qiling Disk Master Professional is such an NVMe cloning software that combines disk clone and disk image features.

You can transfer everything from one hard drive to another directly via the Disk Clone feature.
You can also create a disk image of the source disk using the Disk Backup feature and then restore the image to the target NVMe drive.
Important: if the computer is not bootable, you can create a bootable USB drive on another computer, and then use it to clone NVMe SSD without booting into Windows.

Free download Qiling Disk Master demo and have a try now. All Windows PC operating systems are supported, so you can clone Windows 10 to NVMe SSD with this tool.

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

How-to | Clone NVMe SSD to NVMe SSD without Reinstalling

Two different ways of NVMe SSD data migration will be presented in the following paragraphs. The NVMe cloner - Qiling Disk Master Professional can help you with clone NVMe to NVMe in Samsung as well as SanDisk/Intel/WD NVMe data migration, etc.

Method 1. Clone NVMe SSD to Another NVMe SSD Directly

Step 1. Connect the target NVMe SSD to your machine via M.2 to PCIe adapter and make sure it can be detected. Install and run Qiling Disk Master on your computer as well.

Step 2. Click on Clone and then Disk Clone to clone NVMe boot drive.

Step 3. Choose the source NVMe SSD and the target NVMe SSD. Be sure you’ve chosen the right disk, because the target disk will be overridden.

Step 4. Here comes the Operation Summary. Set up clone settings and click Proceed to execute the NVMe clone process.

Edit Partitions: To make full use of unallocated space left on the target disk. It's mainly used to clone disk to larger disk, regardless of HDD or SSD.
SSD Alignment: To accelerate the writing and reading speed of SSD disk and improve its life span using 4K alignment technology.
Sector by Sector clone: To clone all sectors of original disk to target drive with larger or the same disk space. Please note this feature can make "Edit Partitions" disappear.

Tips:
• To migrate Windows OS to NVMe SSD only, please use the System Clone feature.
• Qiling Disk Master Professional also allows you to clone hard drive in Command Prompt.

Method 2. Clone NVMe to Larger NVMe with Only One Slot

If you want to clone NVMe SSD with only one slot and you don’t plan to purchase an M.2 adapter, you can complete the cloning without an adapter through another way.

Preparations to copy NVMe to NVMe:

A USB drive greater than 8GB in size to be used to create bootable media.
An external storage device, NAS, or network shared folder to store backup image.
Patience.

The overall steps are:

Backup NVMe SSD and save the image to external hard drive, or flash drive, NAS, shared folder, or anywhere you can access within WinPE mode in the first place.
Create a bootable USB stick to start the computer after switching NVMe drives.
Replace old NVMe SSD with the target empty NVMe SSD manually.
Boot computer from bootable USB created by this software and restore the backup image to the newly installed NVMe SSD.

Here comes the detailed steps to clone NVMe drive to larger NVMe with only one slot.

Step 1. Run Qiling Disk Master Professional on your computer. Connect the external drive if any.

Step 2. Click on Backup and then Disk Backup. Follow the wizard to create a disk backup by choosing source NVMe SSD, external storage, and starting to backup it successively.

Step 3. Remove the external storage (if any) after the backup process completes. Plug in the USB drive and run Qiling Disk Master again.

Step 4. Click on Tools > Create Bootable Media. Complete the creation with on-screen wizard. It is suggested to choose WinPE mode.

Step 5. Shut down your computer and remove USB drive after that. Replace the original NVMe SSD with the new NVMe SSD manually. (You may take a picture beforehand if you're not sure the layout.)

Step 6. Insert the bootable USB drive again. Boot from the USB drive and access Qiling Disk Master into WinPE mode. Connect the external drive that contains your backup image to your computer (if any).

Step 7. Click on Restore tab and select the disk backup image. Follow the guide to do NVMe recovery and make sure you’ve checked SSD Alignments for SSD before restoring. Wait patiently.

Step 8. Eject the bootable media after restoring successfully, and then boot your computer from the new NVMe SSD.

Tips:
• To restore system to dissimilar hardware (i.e. restore image to new computer), please tick "Universal Restore" before clicking "Proceed". This option is available in both disk restore and system restore.
• If you want to clone a NVMe SSD to another NVMe SSD on Windows Server, like Server 2022, 2019, please refer to Qiling Disk Master Server edition.
• In the advanced edition, you still can deploy images to multiple computers, even with dissimilar hardware. Switch to Tools and select "Qiling Image Deploy" for image deployment.

Video Guide | NVMe to NVMe Cloning

FAQs on NVMe SSD Cloning

Here are some commonly asked questions on NVMe SSD cloning on Windows.

What should I look for during the NVMe SSD cloning process?

Some potential issues during NVMe SSD cloning include: compatibility, capacity, partitions and alignment, and bootability.

Can I clone a larger NVMe SSD to a smaller NVMe SSD?

Cloning a larger NVMe SSD to a smaller one can be challenging. If the data on the source SSD exceeds the capacity of the target SSD, direct cloning is not possible. However, some cloning tool, like Qiling Disk Master Professional, offers disk resizing options that can shrink partitions during the cloning process, making it possible to fit the data onto a smaller SSD.

Should I format the target NVMe SSD before cloning?

It is not necessary to format the target NVMe SSD before cloning. The cloning process will overwrite the data on the destination SSD, so any existing data will be erased.

How do I make a cloned SSD bootable?

Normally your computer should boot up properly after cloning NVMe to NVMe. However, if you failed to boot from the cloned SSD, we also collect some possible causes: bad sectors on the source disk, missing boot-related drives, incorrect boot sequence, or MBR&GPT conflict. You may refer to cloned drive won’t boot in Windows for further information.

Verdict

That’s all for how to clone NVMe to NVMe in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, XP, or Vista. Choose the appropriate method based on your specific situation.

If you find the process of cloning from NVMe to an external disk and then to NVMe cumbersome, consider using an M.2 to PCIe adapter instead of a SATA to USB adapter. The SATA to USB adapter is limited to connecting SATA drives only.

Additionally, apart from NVMe SSD cloning, Qiling Disk Master also serves as an IDE to IDE hard drive duplicator. Download freely and give it a shot.

For IT technicians, Qiling Disk Master Technician or Technician Plus offers the convenience of creating a portable version of the software. This portable version can be directly run from a USB flash drive without the need for reinstallation.

With this capability, you can efficiently perform tasks such as cloning, backup & restore, synchronization, and other utilities provided by the software, all from your USB drive.