(Fixed) Samsung Data Migration Please Connect a Samsung SSD

Issue: SDM shows “Please connect a Samsung SSD”

There's no better way to speed up your computer than to replace its hard drive with an SSD (Solid-state drive). Among multiple SSD brands, Samsung SSD is the best due to its top-ranking performance and reasonable price.

Most of all, many Samsung SSDs include a tool called Samsung Data Migration (SDM) that allows users to clone HDD to Samsung SSD. It helps to transfer the current operating system, application software and user data to the new Samsung SSD quickly and easily.

However, sometimes when you open Samsung Data Migration, “Please connect a Samsung SSD” error occurs, yet Windows recognizes the drive. That’s too bad because you've done a lot of preparation for hard drive clone. Luckily, this issue can be solved efficiently, if you read on.

Quick solutions to Samsung Data Migration cannot find SSD

When you find that Samsung Data Migration SSD not recognized, you can try one of the following solutions based on your individual situation.

1. Enable internet connection. SDM needs an internet connection to check whether you have a real Samsung SSD. Otherwise, Samsung Data Migration cannot detect SSD properly.

2. Remove the SSD from the enclosure and connect it via SATA-to-USB cable. Some external enclosures have additional features (like encryption and hot-swapping, or support for drives larger than 2TB), which may prevent SDM from detecting your SSD. This is one of the most common reasons why Samsung Data Migration cannot find target disk.

3. Swap the locations of the old hard drive and the SSD. Remove your old drive and install the new SSD in its place. Then connect the old drive to your computer via the SATA/USB adapter. This works sometimes when Samsung Data Migration not recognizing SSD.

4. Switch the IDE mode. If the SSD is connected via an internal SATA cable instead of a USB external connection, it is likely to be running in IDE or RAID mode. If it's IDE, you must switch it to AHCI in BIOS. If RAID, leave it as RAID and reinstall your system to make the SSD recognized by SDM. 

Although these methods to Samsung Data Migration not seeing SSD issue are very effective, it is very time-consuming to try them one by one, and some methods are even complicated. Additionally, apart from the problem that Samsung Data Migration cannot see SSD, other issues like Samsung Data Migration not responding, Samsung Data Migration can’t change source disk may happen to you at any time.

Also notice that only specific Samsung SSDs are supported by SDM, like Samsung SSD 970 PRO/EVO series and Samsung SSD 960 PRO/EVO series. If you intend to clone your hard drive without operating system or to other manufacturers' SSD, you’d better turn to a reliable SSD cloning software as alternative.

Samsung Data Migration alternative you deserve (more flexible)

As one of the most popular cloning programs, AOMEI Backupper Professional offers you more flexible clone options.

✎ A wide range of source and target disk

It enables you to clone HDDs to all brands of SSDs, like Samsung SSDs, WD SSDs, Crucial SSDs, etc. With this utility, you can change the source disk to system disk or data storage disk as you like.

✎ Intelligent clone and sector by sector clone

By default, it only copies used sectors on the source drive and migrates them to another drive, which makes it easy to clone larger drive to smaller drive. Once the Sector by sector clone is enabled, the target drive will be exactly the same as the source drive and the extra space will be marked as unallocated after cloning SSD to larger SSD.

✎ SSD alignment and secure boot

It uses 4K partition alignment to improve the working performance of the cloned SSD. Besides, you can boot from the cloned SSD successfully after cloning.

Download this program and start enjoying it now. Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP are supported. Here are the necessary steps to clone your hard drive to a Samsung SSD.

👉 Tips:

• All data on the target drive will be deleted after cloning. If you have stored any data on it, please do a disk backup in advance.
• Clone features in free trial can only be demonstrated. Please upgrade for full functionality.

Step 1. Connect the Samsung SSD to your computer. Install and launch this migration tool.

Step 2. Click Clone and Disk Clone subsequently to clone HDD to Samsung SSD.

Notes:

 👉 AOMEI Backupper supports cloning data disks and system disks of all brands and partition styles, allowing you to clone MBR to MBR/MBR to GPT or GPT to GPT/GPT to MBR directly. But you still need to ensure the partition style of your target disk is compatible with your boot mode (MBR for legacy BIOS and GPT for UEFI).

👉 Both MBR and GPT are two different disk types for data storage. If you don't know clearly, please check its disk properties in Disk Management with the following 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.
• In the Properties window, select the Volume tab and confirm the partition style. It can be MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition Table).

Step 3. Select the hard drive (Disk 1) you want to clone. Then click Next.

Step 4. Select the Samsung SSD (Disk 2) as the destination disk. Then click Next.

Step 5. Confirm your operations and then click Start Clone to clone hard drive to Samsung SSD. Please remember to check SSD Alignment to accelerate the writing and reading speed of your SSD.

👉 Helpful features for cloning: 

>> Edit Partitions: it can resize partitions on the target disk or convert the destination disk from MBR/GPT to GPT/MBR.
>> Sector By Sector Clone: click it to clone every sector of the hard drive. Note that the target drive must be equal to or larger than the source drive.

And it's suggested to use the Edit Partitions feature if you are in one of the following situations. It helps you resolve them completely. 

#1: The cloned drive not show full capacity.

By default, all the cloning software makes an exact copy of the source disk, as a result, the clone SSD does not show full capacity after cloning. If the target disk is larger, please try the following 3 options in the Edit Partitions. 

• Copy without resizing partitions: It will not resize the partition size.
• Add unused space to all partitions: 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. 

#2: The cloned drive not bootable after cloning.

One of the biggest reason is the destination and source disk has different partition style and you don't convert them to the same before cloning. In this situation, you can simply check Convert the destination disk from MBR to GPT or vice versa, depending on the disk partition styles of them.  

Notes:✎...

As for the old hard drive, you can keep it as a backup or reformat it for other purposes.  

 This software is also an M.2 SSD cloner, thus you can use it to migrate Windows 10 to M.2 SSD, clone M.2 SSD to M.2 SSD, etc. 

If you just want to transfer OS to Samsung SSD, system clone is helpful.

Frequently asked questions: Samsung Data Migration not detecting SSD

1. Why is Samsung Data Migration not working?

Samsung Data Migration not working is due to many reasons, such as the source disk does not contain the operating system or it has multiple partitions, this software is not the latest version, the disk you want to clone is an encrypted disk or it has bad sectors, etc. You need to check what the real reason is.

2. Does Samsung Data Migration work with Windows 10?

It's said the latest version of SDM works with Windows 10. But some users report errors while using this software, such as Samsung 860 Evo not detected Windows 10. Try it yourself. Also you can contact Samsung officials for help.

3. Will Samsung Data Migration clone OS?

Samsung Data Migration is to help users clone the current system disk to another Samsung SSD and it will include everything on the original disk. To migrate OS to Samsung SSD, you can try third-party cloning software, AOMEI Backupper, for example.

Verdict

When using Samsung Data Migration, “Please connect a Samsung SSD” error message is always prompted. Several solutions are described in this article to solve this problem.

But sometimes it does not meet your needs. For example, this software is limited to cloning a system disk to Samsung SSD. And you can only use it to clone specific Samsung SSDs supported by SDM. Thus, you need a more flexible disk cloning software.

AOMEI Backupper is a great option, because it supports cloning both system disk and data disk to all of the Samsung SSDs and other disk brands, such as WD, SanDisk, Crucial, etc. And this software serves you well to clone SSD to new SSD or HDD, copy USB to USB, replace hard drive in ASUS laptop, clone hard drive in Windows 10, etc. In addition, you can choose clone data partition or clone OS only if you don't want to clone the entire disk.