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Cloning NVMe 2280 SSD's to SATA . . .

I acquired a GEEKOM A5 recently and was sufficiently impressed with its performance that I used it to replace my 10+ YO Dell XPS i7 machine.

https://www.geekompc.com/geekom-a5-mini-pc/

Now that I have it up and running I wish to clone that NVMe drive to a spare SATA 2.5" drive but the interface/hardware [Apricorn EZ GIG] will take 40 HOURS to clone 53 GB of data!!!

(I can download files from the WWW 4 times faster than that).

I am looking for a faster solution . . .

Can any of you get me pointed in the right direction?

Comments

  • edited March 21

    I've had luck with Macrium. Though any transfer times are heavily influenced by the connection. A cheap USB adapter can absolutely trash the throughput. Or a bios flash/driver update could fix slow m.2 connection.

    Steve_Lee
  • edited March 21

    That Geekom box is a sweet little hotrod - wow!
    First of all, a NVME drive is MUCH faster than a SATA drive. I would strongly advise against the swap.
    NVME "sticks" are pretty darn cheap. Assuming you need or want a bigger drive for future proofing, buy a larger NVME.
    But 40 hours to copy 53 GB data is insane!
    If you can install both drives in that PC, I would boot Linux from a USB flash drive and use Clonezilla or "dd" to copy the data. "dd" will copy empty sectors though, so not ideal.
    clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/

    But Chahly - Stahkist don't want speakers that look good, Stahkist wants speakers that sound good!
  • edited March 21

    Just to be clear, I'm not trying to swap the NVMe for the SATA SSD - I just want to clone the NVMe in case of a failure as a back-up.

    Thanks for the hint about clonezilla - it sounds like what I am looking for - clone the drive using the SATA bus rather than USB.

    The GEEKOM A5 will accept both types of drives simultaneously as well as 4 monitors. (I'm using 3).

    One last thought just so you guys don't run out and buy one is that I have found it to be unsuitable for audio into an external amp. Both Line out and USB digital are noisy as hell but the Bluetooth audio is fine except for a beeping sound every 1 second at low level. Using headphones is fine as well.

    I bought this thing to reduce energy consumption and heat production in my office now that warmer weather is here. Pulls 85 Watts with 3 monitors where the XPS pulled 140 Watts, less noise and faster.

    rjj45
  • I cloned my digital drive to my old SATA drive when I had to send it in for replacement. Clonezilla worked great. I used this guide https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/clone-your-ssd-or-hard-drive

    Steve_Lee
     John H, btw forum has decided I don't get emails
  • 40 hours for 53 Gigs - Geeze! I move that much data to our cloud storage all the time at work.

    The Apricorn cable is the problem, if that's what you are using. I ended up buying a cheap USB C external drive case and got much better speeds. Here's where I tout one of the few advantages of using a MacBook. Moving files feels blazing fast compared to any of my PCs.

    rjj45Steve_Lee
  • What cloning software are you using, Tom?

  • edited March 22

    I went ahead and loaded the trial version of EaseUS and of course it required an upgrade of $29.95 plus tax to actually function but it works like a champ with zero frustration and after 03mm:28sec it was done.

    https://www.easeus.com/free-pc-transfer-software/

    Now I can move-on to more important things like exercise and groceries . . .

    rjj45
  • edited March 22

    I honestly can't remember what software I'm using. It might be an OSX only product. Shows how rarely I back things up. :s I'll check when I get home.

    Steve_Lee
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