How to Clone NVMe Boot Drive Easily with One or Two Slots

Why use NVMe SSD as boot drive?

NVMe (non-volatile memory express) is a communications standard developed specially for SSDs by a consortium of vendors including Intel, Samsung, SanDisk, and Dell. It operates across the PCIe bus, which allows the drives to act more like the fast memory that they are.

Compared with SATA SSD, NVMe SSD runs much faster. The following chart compares the sequential read/write speed and random read/write speed of four different disk types, namely M.2 NVMe SSD, M.2 SATA SSD, 2.5'' SATA SSD, and 2.5'' SATA HDD.

As you see, if you want to enjoy faster computer startup and program execution speed, you may use NVMe SSD as boot drive. Besides, if you play PC games or do something truly CPU-intensive, like editing an HD video, you should choose NVMe SSD as boot drive.

Best NVMe cloning software for Windows 11/10/8/7

NVMe SSD boosts your computer performance. However, after using for a period of time, you may find there is little space left on the NVMe SSD. So you’d like to replace NVMe SSD with a larger NVMe SSD.

In the process of hard drive replacement, the most important part is OS and data transfer. If you don’t want to reinstall OS and all your apps after replacing NVMe SSD, you can transfer everything from the old drive to the new drive with the best NVMe cloning software – AOMEI Backupper Professional. You can benefit a lot from its following features:

☂ Clone Types: you can choose Disk Clone to copy an entire disk to another or Partition Clone to copy a specified partition. You can also transfer only OS via System Clone.
☂ Clone Methods: the program is embedded with the Intelligent Sector Clone method and Sector By Sector Clone method. The first method will clone only the used part of the source disk while the second method will clone both the used and unused part.
☂ Supported Devices: various disk types are supported, such as SATA HDD/SSD, M.2 SSD, NVMe SSD, etc. Also, it supports almost all common disk brands, like Samsung, WD, Crucial, Seagate and so on.
☂ Supported Partition Type: the program is compatible with both MBR and GPT disks. You can feel free to clone MBR disk to GPT disk, clone GPT disk to GPT disk, etc.

Download this powerful NVMe cloning software right now!

How to clone NVMe boot drive in two cases

Depending on how many M.2 slots on your computer motherboard, you can choose different ways to clone NVMe boot drive.

👉 Case 1: clone NVMe to NVMe with two slots
👉 Case 2: clone NVMe SSD with only one slot

Case 1: clone NVMe to NVMe with two slots

1. Insert the target NVMe SSD into the extra M.2 slot. Backup files on it if there is any data.

2. Install and run AOMEI Backupper. Then click Clone and select Disk Clone.

3. Select the old NVMe SSD as the source disk and the new NVMe SSD as the destination disk in order.

4. Check SSD Alignment to optimize the destination SSD performance. Then click Start Clone to begin cloning NVMe to NVMe.

Case 2: clone NVMe SSD with only one slot

If your PC has only one M.2 slot, you can finish NVMe clone via the backup and restore method. Before you start, you need to do the following preparations:

• Create a bootable USB drive to boot your computer after removing the old boot drive.
• Create a disk image of the old NVMe drive. Save the disk image on a network share or another storage device.
• Remove the old NVMe SSD and install the new NVMe SSD there.

Then learn how to clone NVMe SSD with only one slot as follows:

1. Connect the bootable USB drive to your computer. If you have saved the disk image to an external drive, connect it as well.

2. Enter into BIOS and set the USB device as the first boot option. AOMEI Backupper will load automatically after your computer boots up.

3. (Optional) If the new NVMe SSD is not empty, click Backup > File Backup to backup files on it now, because the destination disk will be overwritten during the restoration process.

4. Click Restore > Select Image File and navigate to the disk image you created before.

5. Select Restore the entire disk, click on the disk and click Next.

6. Select the new NVMe SSD as the restoration destination and click Next.

7. In the Operation Summary page, preview the operation to be executed. Then, tick SSD Alignment to improve the read/write speed of the destination SSD and click Start Restore to begin data transfer from the old NVMe SSD to the new NVMe SSD.

FAQs about NVMe boot drive

Conclusion

Now you know how to clone NVMe boot drive with the best NVMe cloning software – AOMEI Backupper. Whether your PC has one or two M.2 slots, AOMEI Backupper can help you finish the NVMe clone task. What’s more, it’s a professional disk wipe tool which enables you to permanently delete files from computer. Try it now to discover more!