Cloning NVMe 2280 SSD's to SATA . . .

Steve_Lee

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?

DrewsBrews

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.

rjj45

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/

Steve_Lee

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.

jhollander

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

Tom_S

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.

Steve_Lee

What cloning software are you using, Tom?

Steve_Lee

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 . . .

Tom_S

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