upgrading m.2 drives

[michael_732]

ok, normally i'm a very d.i.y. guy, with many builds under my belt. but with a laptop i went the outside help route. to avoid TLDR - i bought a new crucial 512gb sata M.2, and a seagate 2tb spinner to replace stock 256gb/1tb in MSI GE62 MVR 7RG.
the technician was only able to install the hdd,not the M.2 because they didn't have "the tools".
this is a Major electronics retailer/etailer who is synonymous with d.i.y. electronics - at least in Silicon Valley.
is it me or will *any* sata to sata cloning kit work (with enclosure for new M.2) ??
i had never heard such a thing.

 

[USAFRet]

ok, normally i'm a very d.i.y. guy, with many builds under my belt. but with a laptop i went the outside help route. to avoid TLDR - i bought a new crucial 512gb sata M.2, and a seagate 2tb spinner to replace stock 256gb/1tb in MSI GE62 MVR 7RG.
the technician was only able to install the hdd,not the M.2 because they didn't have "the tools".
this is a Major electronics retailer/etailer who is synonymous with d.i.y. electronics - at least in Silicon Valley.
is it me or will *any* sata to sata cloning kit work (with enclosure for new M.2) ??
i had never heard such a thing.

For the software cloning, any of the recent tools shouldd work. Macrium Reflect, Acronis, Casper.

For the actual mounting of the m.2?
Is that m.2 drive SATA or a NVMe?
Which does your laptop work with? Some either, some only one or the other.
I'll leave it to you to look up the specifics on your hardware.

 

[michael_732]

ok, normally i'm a very d.i.y. guy, with many builds under my belt. but with a laptop i went the outside help route. to avoid TLDR - i bought a new crucial 512gb sata M.2, and a seagate 2tb spinner to replace stock 256gb/1tb in MSI GE62 MVR 7RG.
the technician was only able to install the hdd,not the M.2 because they didn't have "the tools".
this is a Major electronics retailer/etailer who is synonymous with d.i.y. electronics - at least in Silicon Valley.
is it me or will *any* sata to sata cloning kit work (with enclosure for new M.2) ??
i had never heard such a thing.

For the software cloning, any of the recent tools shouldd work. Macrium Reflect, Acronis, Casper.



For the actual mounting of the m.2?
Is that m.2 drive SATA or a NVMe?

the laptop will take nvme, but the existing M.2 and the replacement are both sata...which is why i was baffled as to "lack of tools" from Fry's.
i've heard good stuff about Macrium Reflect, i'll try that.

thank you

 

[USAFRet]

If the laptop will only take an NVMe drive in the m.2 slot, that Crucial SATA drive will not work.

 

[USAFRet]

OK, so I looked for your laptop.


That Crucial drive will not work.

https/www.msi.com/Laptop/GE62VR-6RF-Apache-Pro/Specification
"1x M.2 SSD Combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 / SATA ) "

The Crucial is a SATA m.2 drive.
You need an NVMe m.2 drive to go into that space.

 

[ko888]

1x M.2 SSD Combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 / SATA )

That laptop will handle both M.2 NVMe or M.2 SATA SSDs.

 

[USAFRet]

1x M.2 SSD Combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 / SATA )

That laptop will handle both M.2 NVMe or M.2 SATA SSDs.

hmm...you may be correct.
Fuzzy wording in their description.

"1x M.2 SSD Combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 / SATA ) "
It should have said "1x M.2 SSD Combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 OR SATA )"

So...that Crucial SHOULD work. No idea why your DIY company lacked the right stuff to install it.

 

[ko888]

The forward slash serves as shorthand for or.

 

[USAFRet]

The forward slash serves as shorthand for or.

Yes. But one extra keystroke could have eliminated all doubt and miscommunication.
Ah well.

 

[ko888]

MSI has sold some GE62MVR 7RG models with an M.2 Toshiba HG6 THNSNJ256G8NY SSD installed. The Toshiba HG6 THNSNJ256G8NY is definitely an M.2 SATA SSD.

Crucial also includes free Acronis True Image HD software for data migration with their SSDs.

 

[michael_732]

Muddying the field considerably is the fact that the *several* M.2 enclosures i've bought to facilitate the cloning are I-scsi.
i've bought Daemon tools (incl. i-scsi). but of course there is no documentation anymore. no "owners manual" for software to read over a cup of coffee (or can of Jolt back in the day). everything software wise expects expert level knowledge from the gate it seems.

 

[faalin]

1x M.2 SSD Combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 / SATA )

That laptop will handle both M.2 NVMe or M.2 SATA SSDs.

So...that Crucial SHOULD work. No idea why your DIY company lacked the right stuff to install it.

If i remember correct with my MSI laptop the M.2 cards use very small star T6 screws