How to Clone HDD to PCIe SSD in 5 Simple Steps

What Is PCIe SSD?

PCIe SSD (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express Solid State Drive) is a type of solid-state drive (SSD) that uses the PCIe interface for connecting to a computer. It is faster than a traditional SATA-based SSD and offers higher performance and lower latency.

In addition to these benefits, PCIe SSDs offer you lower power consumption, better reliability and greater storage capacity. In addition, PCIe SSDs are more durable than traditional hard drives, making them ideal for high-performance applications.

Does Your Motherboard Supports PCIe Slot?

Can you clone from HDD to SSD? If you want to clone your current HDD to a PCIe SSD, you have to make sure your motherboard has a PCIE slot. You can ask the manufacturer for help or Google the model and it will then show you if your motherboard supports the PCIe slot specs. Just like the picture below.

Here is the way to find your motherboard model:

• Press Windows + R key combination, and hit Enter.
• Input msinfo32 and hit Enter to go to System Information.
• Go to System Summary -> System Model.
• The Value for System Model is the motherboard model.

The Best PCIe NVMe SSD Cloning Solution

When it comes to software for cloning PCIe disks, AOMEI Backupper Professional will be your best choice. It is the most reliable and comprehensive cloning software for all Windows systems. With its help, you can clone HDD to PCIe SSD little by little to ensure data integrity. After cloning, you can successfully boot from it without reinstalling the operating system. Let's see what are its advantages.

🍵 It allows you to clone different hard drives. With its help, you can clone HDD, SATA SSD, PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD, USB flash drives, and SD cards, etc. It supports all brands of hard drives such as Western Digital, Samsung, SanDisk, Inland, Kingston, etc. 🍵 It supports different disk partition styles. It allows you to clone system disks from MBR to MBR, GPT to GPT, MBR to GPT or GPT to MBR. 🍵 It enables you to clone hard drives of different sizes (large to small and vice versa). The "Intelligent Clone" feature provided by this software will clone only the used part to another drive. You can also use the "Sector-by-sector Clone" feature to make a 1:1 copy of the drive.

AOMEI Backupper Professional comes with no bundled adware and offers faster cloning speed. Click the download button below to install it on your computer.

How to Clone M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD in Windows 7/8/10/11

Here you will learn the detailed steps to cloning NVMe drives via the best NVMe cloner. Before you start, you need to do some preparations, for example, a larger M.2 PCIe SSD, otherwise, the cloning process will fail. Please double check the preparations below. 

☛ Preparations:

• A new larger M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD that your computer supports. 
• USB to PCIe M.2 adapter. If your computer has only one drive bay, use it to clone an M.2 SSD with only one bay.
• Anti-static wrist strap (optional) to help reduce the risk of static damage to your system, and it's cheap.
• Screwdriver. It is used to unscrew the screws that hold the M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD in place. 
• Check the disk partition style for both disks. Generally, there are two disk types, MBR and GPT, that you can use as data storage.

The overall steps:

• Press Win + R to open the Run window. Then, type diskmgmt.msc and hit OK to open disk management.
• Then, right-click the disk you want to clone and select Properties in the pop-up window.
• Go to the Volume tab and confirm the partition style. It can be MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition Table).

• Similarly, check the disk partition style of the destination disk. If it is still MBR, you can directly clone PCIe SSD without converting partition style. If not, you need to convert MBR to GPT disk in Disk Management or during the cloning process.

Detailed Steps to Clone HDD to NVMe SSD without Reinstalling Everything

Now, let's continue. Detailed steps are listed below to teach you to clone HDD to PCIe SSD. For server users, you can try AOMEI Backupper Server or Technician Plus Edition.

1. Connect the M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD to your computer via USB to PCIe M.2 adapter. And verify it can be detected.
2. Launch AOMEI Backupper Professional after installing, click Clone -> Disk Clone on the main window.

3. Choose the original HDD as the source disk, then hit Next.

4. Select the NVMe SSD as the destination location to save all the files from source PCIe SSD, press Next.

🥙 Note: The destination PCIe SSD drive will be overwritten after the cloning, so if you stored important profiles onto the destination disk before, please backup files first.

5. Tick SSD Alignment option to optimize the performance for M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD drive. And click Edit Partitions to adjust partition size on the destination disk, you have 3 options in the following, and convert disk types (MBR or GPT). Back to main page and click Start Clone to clone HDD to NVMe SSD.

• Copy without resizing partitions: It will not resize the partition size.
• Add unused space to all partitions: It will reallocate the unallocated space to each partition of the target disk, appropriate for the disk size.
• Manually adjust partition size: It allows you to extend unallocated space to any partition on the destination disk you want. 

Final Words

Some brands of SSDs have built-in data migration software to help you clone HDD to PCIe SSD. However, it is limited for migrating data to other brands of SSDs. AOMEI Backupper works with any brand of HDD/SSD, such as Intel, Samsung, WD, Kingston, Crucial, Toshiba, etc. This software not only provides you with cloning function, but also backup and restore, synchronization, etc. You can also use it to create a bootable media and system backup. This way, if you encounter serious system problems like system crashes later, you can quickly restore your computer to its previous state.