We all have one or more computers. I fall into the “more” category, and that means there is always one (or more) has a problem.
Well, the NVMe drive in my work computer was not doing well. I ordered a replacement and decided to clone the still-working-but-ailing drive to the new one. Thea actual cloning process with the 1 TB drives took about three hours. I spent about five hours total on the project. During that time, there wasn’t much I could do so I listened to a net with Droidstar. (See and listen to a short recording at https://www.flickr.com/photos/204104041@N02/55058352872/in/dateposted-public/.)
The cloning process went without a hitch.
With this particular cloning device, you put the source and target NVMe drives in, and as I discovered, you must put them in firmly. Hold the cloning button for five seconds, and when all the blue lights illuminate, press the cloning button one more time to start the process. And then wait.
But first I had to get the NVMe drive out. This is a Dell OptiPlex 7050 SFF computer with an Intel i7-7700 CPU, 32 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB NVMe SSD drive. Getting to the NVMe drive is a bit fiddly. I removed the PC cover, removed the front panel, and pulled the drive bay (space for a 3.5” drive plus the installed CD drive). That exposed the NVMe drive which I released by popping the blue plastic securing peg and sliding the drive out of the M.2 port. In the photo below, the M.2 slot is markedM.2 SSD and is located near the center of the photo. The blue peg that secures the NVMe drive is on the far right in the photo.
The cloning device I used has three bays. It will clone NVMe to NVMe, or SATA drive to NVMe. It can also be used as a drive reader.
The NVMe drive I selected was an M.2 PCIe SSD, 1 TB in size. (I’ve actually purchased this exact drive three times. It has worked well for me.)
Silicon Power 1TB – NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen3x4 2280 SSD (SP001TBP34A60M28) (affiliate link)
You can see what it looks like while cloning at this Flickr link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/204104041@N02/55059583150/in/dateposted-public/
When all the blue lights are lit again, the process is complete.
Turn off the power on the back of the device (it’s a rocker switch), then remove the freshly cloned drive. Reinstall it on the motherboard, put the drive caddy back in place (it was fiddly), replace the front panel and the PC cover, plug it in and turn it on.
And…it works! The PC booted up smoothly and the drive reports as “Fine.”
The system is once again working smoothly. The Intel i7-7700 processor is running in the 50-degree C range, well under the operating maximum of 100° C. Looking good.
I love it when a repair goes smoothly, even when it takes several hours. I kept the NVMe drive I pulled from the computer because it was still working, just not working well. If my new drive fails, I can put the old one back in until a replacement drive arrives.
Tom Salzer is an amateur radio operator in the Pacific Northwest, USA. He publishes a newsletter at https://www.randomwire.us/ and a radio and technology blog at https://etherham.com.
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