5 Steps to Clone M.2 PCIe (NVMe) SSD in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7

How to Clone PCIe NVMe SSD

“I have a Samsung laptop with a 250GB PCIe NVMe SSD, and there is no enough space to store files and documents. And I don’t know how to clone a PCIe SSD without reinstalling Windows systems and applications. Please give me some advices, thanks.”

As you know, M.2 SSD uses three types of computer bus interface: PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, PCI Express), SATA and USB. M.2 PCIe SSD use NVME (Non-Volatile Memory Express), which allows the SSD running faster than ever other SSDs. Hence, M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD is faster than SATA SSD, M.2 SATA SSD.

Does Your Motherboard Supports PCIe Slot?

If you want to clone your current SSD to PCIE SSD, you have to make sure the motherboard has the PCIE slot. You could turn to the manufacturer for help or search the model on Google, then it will show the specifications of your motherboard do supports PCIe slot or not. Like the below picture.

Here is the way to find your motherboard model:

• Press Win + R key combination, and hit Enter.

• Input msinfo32 and hit Enter to go System Information.

• Go to System Summary -> System Model.

• The Value for System Model is the motherboard model.

Best M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD Cloner

Cloning NVMe SSD to another one is a big task, so it’s highly recommended to use the NVMe SSD cloner to transfer everything safely, including Windows operating system, installed programs, personal documents, and other settings.

AOMEI Backupper Professional is such a reliable NVMe SSD cloner for you to clone NVMe SSD to NVMe SSD with a few clicks in Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10/11. Before cloning PCIe SSD, you may want to download the demonstrate version on your computer and check if it works as you want:

How to Clone M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD in Windows 7/8/10/11

Here you will learn how to to clone PCIe SSD using the best M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD Cloner. Before start, you need to make some preparations, such as, a larger M.2 PCIe SSD, othrewise, the cloning process fails. Please check the preparartions below carefully. 

1. Preparations:

• A new larger M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD that your computer support. 

• USB to PCIe M.2 adapter. Using it to clone M.2 SSD with only one slot if your computer has only one slot for hard drive.

• Anti-static wrist strap (optional) to help reduce the risk of electrostatic damage to the system, and it’s cheap.

• Screwdriver. It is to unscrew the screws holding M.2  PCIe NVMe SSD. 

• Check the disk partition style of both disks. In general, there are two disk types, namely, MBR and GPT, and you can use it as a data storage.

The overall steps:

• Press Win + R to open the Run window. Then, type diskmgmt.msc and hit OK to open disk management.
• Then, right-click the disk you want to clone and select Properties in the pop-up window.
• Go to the Volume tab and confirm the partition style. It can be MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition Table).

•  Similarly, check the disk partition tyle of the destination disk. If it is still MBR, you can directly clone PCIe SSD without converting partition style. If not, you need to convert MBR to GPT disk in Disk Management or during the cloning process.

2. Steps to Clone PCIe SSD to Larger SSD without Reinstalling Everything

Now, let go ahead. The detailed steps are listed below, just refer to these words to clone M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD to larger M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD in Windows 11/10/8/7. For server users, you could try AOMEI Backupper Server or Technician Plus edition.

1. Connect the larger M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD to your computer via USB to PCIe M.2 adapter. And verify it can be detected.

2. Launch SSD cloning software - AOMEI Backupper Professional after installing, click Clone -> Disk Clone on the main window.

3. Choose the original smaller M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD as the source disk, then hit Next.

4. Select the larger M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD as the destination location to save all the files from source PCIe SSD, press Next.

The destination PCIe SSD drive will be overwritten after the cloning, so if you stored important profiles onto the destination disk before, please backup files first.

5. Tick SSD Alignment option to optimize the performance for M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD drive. And click Edit Partitions to adjust partition size on the destination disk, you have 3 options in the following, and convert disk types (MBR or GPT). Back to main page and click Start Clone to clone PCIe SSD to larger PCIe SSD.

• Copy without resizing partitions: It will not resize the partition size.
• Add unused space to all partitions: It will reallocate the unallocated space to each partition of the target disk, appropriate for the disk size.
• Manually adjust partition size: It allows you to extend unallocated space to any partition on the destination disk you want. 

Wait for 30 minutes or so, the process of cloning PCIe SSD to larger PCIe SSD will be completed successfully, and the cost time depends on the data size on your source M.2 PCIe SSD.

3. How to boot from the cloned M.2 PCIe SSD

If you cloned M.2 SSD with only one slot:

• Then use the anti-static wrist strap and the screwdriver to take out the original PCIe SSD drive carefully.

• Put the larger M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD drive into the SSD slot. 

• Boot your computer from the larger M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.

If you cloned M.2 SSD with more than one slot:

• Restart your computer to enter BIOS.

• Change boot order to make the larger M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD as the first boot device.

• Restart to boot from the cloned M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.

If you cloned MBR HDD to GPT SSD, it’s essential for you to change the boot mode from Legacy to UEFI to make the cloned SSD bootable. On contrast, you may need to change UEFI to Legacy.

How to clone M.2 SSD with only one slot

As mentioned eariler, you can use USB to PCIe M.2 adapter to connect hard drive for cloning if your computer only has one slot. However, if you cannot find such adapter to connect your M.2 SSD disk, you still can use an SATA diskor USB to SATA adapter for middleman. You can follow the following steps to clone M.2 SSD with only one slot.

1. Connect your SATA disk via USB to SATA adapter. Then, be sure it's recognized.

2. Launch MVME clone software - AOMEI Backupper Professional, then clone M.2 SSD to SATA disk with its Disk Clone feature.

3. Shut down your computer completely and swap the old and new M.2 SSD disk. 

4. After that, restart your computer, change the cloned SATA disk as the first boot option and boot from it. 

5. Then, launch MVME clone software - AOMEI Backupper Stanadard again, clone the SATA disk to NVME SSD with the Disk Clone feature.

Summing Up

Some brands of SSD comes with built-in data migration software to help you clone PCIe SSD. However, it’s limited to migrate data to other brands of SSDs. AOMEI Backupper is suitable for any brands of HDD/SSD, like Intel, Samsung, WD, Kingston, Crucial, Toshiba etc.

Besides, you could clone Windows 7/8/10/11 only, or create disk backup, then restore the backup image to the larger SSD, or restore to dissimilar hardware computer, etc.