Solved Partition a 500GB M2.NVME and instal W7 to both partitions?

[teckneeculler]

My main PC is running W7 Ultimate from a 250G Samsung 970 EVO M2 NVME.

By way of a system backup and improvement, I've purchased a 500G Samsung 970 EVO NVME M2. My plan is to:
a) Set up two equal sized partitions on the new 500G drive, probably with Aomei Partition Master. (This will be done on a separate PC)
b) Clone my system drive into one of the two new partitions, using Macrium Reflect. (This will be also done on the separate PC)
c) Move the 500G drive back to my original machine, boot the system from the cloned OS partition and check that everything works.
d) Once that's stable, reboot and install a new Windows 7 version into the second, empty, partition on the new drive, then install a slimmed-down, hopefully junk-free collection of apps and stuff from the original drive.

Does this all sound feasible? The only fishhook I can think of is what to name the two new partitions created in c) above.
I mean, they'll both become 'C' drives eventually, won't they?
Also, I'll need to set them up to dual-boot, I guess. Do I need extra software for that?
Thanks.

 

[SIW2]

you dont need to partition it first a decent os migration tool will do that.

can you attach both nvme to the same pc ? if you only have one nvme slot, pcie>nvme adapters work well.
for example:
basic cheap version:
multibao pcie(3.0/2.0)x4 adapter
or a fancy version:
glotrends pcie (4.0/3.0/2.0) x4 adapter



if both nvme are attached to the same pc, use diskgenius ( free ) os migration.
DiskGenius: Data Recovery, Partition Manager, Backup & Disk Utilities

During the os migration, only extend the windows partition as far as you like to leave plenty of unallocated space at the end of the new disk.

You can create new partition in that unallocated space with anything e.g. diskmgmt after you have booted into the cloned os.

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if you want to install win7 into that extra partition, no need to reboot .

you could just apply the image to the new partition and add a boot menu entry.

Note:

If you want to install fresh win7 to nvme you will need to add a windows nvme driver before attempting to boot into it. Also usb3 drivers and maybe some others depending on your hardware.

- - - Updated - - -

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Click os migration




select the target disk




this shows the proposed result.

you can drag the arrow at the right of the windows partition to extend as far as you like




click Hot Migration. Click Start

 

[teckneeculler]

SIW7: Thanks for your how-to, but I'm not actually migrating the OS - I'm cloning its drive in another PC.

I'd originally intended to do the cloning work in my main W7 machine, and had bought a UGreen PCIe (3.0 X4) to NVME Adapter for the purpose. But when I took a closer look at the motherboard (Asus H310M-ER2.0), it didn't have the right slots for the job. The motherboard paperwork said it had one PCIe16 slot (which holds a GTX1060 gfx card) and two PCIe 2.0 slots (which are empty). But the actuality was that the two small slots are PCIe1.0x, not 2.0x and the UGreen adapter wouldn't fit to them.

Hence the change to using a spare Windows 10 machine, which has ample mounting space. That board is an Asus H370M-PLUS, which has two PCIe16 slots (one holds a GFX card), two PCIe2 slots, plus mounts for two M2.NVME cards. The W10 OS is on a SATA 250G SSD, so there's plenty of free mount choices. As I'd already mounted the 500G NVME onto the UGreen PCIe adapter card, I've placed that in the empty PCIe 16 slot, so both NVME slots spaces are available.

So I thought I'd partition the 500G NVME using Aomei, then use Macrium for the cloning.

 

[SIW2]

One pcie (3.0 ) x16 and two pcie (2.0) x1 is the usual configuration for 310 mobo.

The x16 slot is fine for nvme adapter to go in, unless it is wasted on a graphics card.

Just out of interest I tried out a pcie>nvme x1 adapter. It was very cheap at about £3. It works well.

This exact model, but is not so cheap now.
Amazon.co.uk

there are similar adapters on the well known auction site for much less.
M.2 NVME SSD to pcie 3.0 X1 x4 x8 x16 Desktop Hard Expansion,Adapter Y Card C2S2 | eBay

pcie (3.0) x1



pcie (2.0) x1

 

[teckneeculler]

SIW2: Thanks for your tips. In the end I did the job with two M2\USB adapters in two USB ports. Should've done it at the start.