SSD Upgrade procedure questions

[sjc]

Hi - It's been a while since I've tinkered with PC's - but I'm ready to jump back in... I have an AM07 MiniPC that will replace an old (circa 2012-ish) Win10 Pro i5 desktop that is painfully slow.

I want to get the contents of the i5 HDD on the i5 into the AM07 and then -upgrade- it to Win11 (I do not have all of the original Windows 10 programs so I have to do an upgrade). I have 2.5" notebook type 2TB SSD and will buy a 2TB NVMe drive to replace the Ace Magician 512GB NVMe SSD.

I suspect I'll have to do the following in pretty much this order:

* Have a Windows 11 installation USB ready.
* Have a Windows 10/11 driver USB for the AM07 hardware ready.
* Get the Win11 COA off the AM07.
* Clone the i5 3.5" HDD to the 2.5" SSD in the i5 (or) directly to a new 2TB NVMe SSD.
* Remove the 512GB NVMe SSD from the AM07 & replace with the newly cloned 2TB NVMe (and/or 2.5" SSD if needed)
* Update or Change BIOS setting as needed to Boot Windows 10 media.
* Boot Windows 10 on the cloned 2.5" SSD (or the 2TB NVMe SSD).
* Provide the AM07 Driver USB as needed.
* Upgrade the AM07's Win 10 to Win 11.

Any ideas or suggestions or corrections would be most appreciated! TIA!

[dragonpoo]

So at the end of your migration, you'll still have the original old hard drive, and the original AM07 drive, since you're migrating to a larger storage device? That should make things simpler, so you have the original drives as backup, if needed for recovering, re-copying, etc.

I'd look at cloning software (plenty of free options out there), especially if you get a Pro version that comes with your new storage device. I think I got one with my Western Digital drive some years ago, was it Macrium? Anyway, I installed it on the old system, using an external USB adapter for the new device, and was able to clone the old system to it. Then, you can put it in the new system and verify it boots. That way, the old system is still untouched, and the new system's original drive is available if necessary (especially for hardware drivers).

Once you get it running on the new system, you can go through Windows Update to try installing all the updates.

[sjc]

Yes, original AM07 drive would be untouched. One thing that I read that was troubling was that some clones wont allow a drive to be bootable if it us connected via USB. This further complicates things for me - and wastes time if it doesn't, too. I have heard of Macurium (sp?) but not familiar with it.

[dragonpoo]

Okay, remembed the software I used. It was Acronis through Western Digital (https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/d ... a_id/14926) - they actually license you to use it if either the old or new hard drive is WD. Other brands might have similar.

Cloning the drive as bootable should be possible for most software. I wouldn't worry about that, but check your software's help to make sure you follow their steps.

[barry777]

AM07 does not support 2.5-inch hard drives inside;
It is recommended to try a fresh installation
1. If you have other computers, you can download [DiskGenius] to format the SSD.
2. If there is no other computer, you can create a PE system and enter the PE system to format the SSD.

It is recommended to refer to the following video for formatting operations:



PE file:

https://mega.nz/file/gn0mkSTT#FXZUx9m6c ... PQS1S9q5Yk

Tutorial on installing PE system:




AM07 system 20230809




AM07 Reinstallation System Tutorial (20230816)

[dragonpoo]

Hi Barry, thanks for your advise. My understanding from sjc is that he wants to copy an old hard drive's contents onto an m.2 drive for the AM07 to use. Due to having applications on the old system that are missing original installation files, he intends to clone the original content over.

I know it's not ideal to clone one system to another - you get some weird behaviour, but sometimes it is necessary.

[barry777]

Thanks for the reminder. I saw a similar situation in other posts and it has been solved. We have never used a similar cloning solution. Please refer to:
viewtopic.php?p=11708&sid=73612a88e9ff8 ... 66f#p11708