Replacing a SATA SSD with an NVMe SSD.

Hello!
I was wondering, if I buy a PCIe to NVMe card in order to move my system to a new NVMe SSD, how easy is that. I was thinking to connect the card and the NVMe SSD and install the respective drivers, so my current system can properly detect the new SSD. Then clone my SATA SSD on the new one and finally remove it. Will that be enough to safely boot into Windows again? I would like to avoid doing a clean installation.

PS: Before you ask, yes my current system is Legacy BIOS (MBR) and I would probably have to convert it to UEFI (GPT) after cloning in order to boot from the NVMe SSD. I hope that is feasible. Assuming my system is converted to UEFI, would the clone boot? Hopefully Windows will find the already installed drivers and adjust as needed. I just want a confirmation from someone that has done it.

For starters the system must be capable of booting to an NVMe drive for the convertor to work for bootable NVMe. You can use the SATA to NVMe convertor to work as a data drive however.

To boot from an NVME drive, support for that is normally needed in the BIOS.

Some BIOSes can be hacked to include that.

An alternative is Clover. Seems like a bit of a kludge, but...

Years ago, I used a non-NVME but still PCI-E M.2 drive (in a PCI-E adapter) as a boot drive. (I believe it was an X2 drive, rather than X4.) It'd be hard to find a new one of those at the moment, I think.

The PCIe to NVMe card should be bootable in UEFI mode. So after cloning I will have to convert my Legacy BIOS installation to UEFI. I know this can be done. The question is if Windows will use the already installed drivers or there will be a BSOD and I will have to do more before booting my existing installation from the NVMe. I want to avoid doing a clean installation (format and start from scratch) for obvious reason.

spapakons said:

The PCIe to NVMe card should be bootable in UEFI mode. So after cloning I will have to convert my Legacy BIOS installation to UEFI. I know this can be done. The question is if Windows will use the already installed drivers or there will be a BSOD and I will have to do more before booting my existing installation from the NVMe. I want to avoid doing a clean installation (format and start from scratch) for obvious reason.

Click to expand...

I hope that your motherboard's BIOS permits booting from NVME. It's not automatic for an NVME card in a PCI-E adapter.

Most NVME cards these days seem to use the default Windows drivers. I suggest that you pick one of those.

It should be possible. I don't know for sure, but I see no reason why not. I had a PCIe to IDE/SATA card to use my old ATAPI DVD drives. If I remember correctly my PC could boot from an IDE or SATA device connected to the card. Too bad I had to remove it to connect my PCIe to USB 3.0 card because I didn't have another free PCIe 1x slot.

Using MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate I had no problem with cloning my SSD to NVMe with Win11 on it. I believe that was 22H2 however. It did upgrade to 23H2 later when I followed Brink's tutorial. Brink informed me that my platform would not be able to go to 24H2 however, being an X99 system. I would say try it. You really have little to lose as you're only cloning your original drive and if it doesn't work you still have the original drive. Admittedly, that switching over from Legacy to UEFI can be a bit of a pain but not altogether impossible.

I didn't look for the appropriate thread, but why can't Win 11 24H2 be installed on an X99/I7-6900K system?

The I7-6900K supports the SSE4.2 instruction, which, AFAIK, the only additional requirement for 24H2.

I admit that I haven't tried to resurrect a system with my X99 motherboard.