Julskey wrote:
1. Yes.

Thank you Julskey, the first answer is the most important for me 😉

I hope that i could use the following procedure (but i'm not sure at all):

• insert the new 256GB M.2 card into the second slot
  
• "clone" the O.S. M.2 on the new one using something like AOMEI Backupper free sw
  
• at this point the 2 SSDs could be switched together into the 2 slots and (i hope) the PC will boot from the new 256GB M.2
  
• if all is ok, i can format the original 128GB M.2 using it as a 3rd "data" disk
  
• 
  

Do you think that this procedure will work?

Otherwise is there any tutorial that you know about that?

IWILZ wrote:
Thank you Julskey, the first answer is the most important for me 😉

I hope that i could use the following procedure (but i'm not sure at all):

• insert the new 256GB M.2 card into the second slot
  
• "clone" the O.S. M.2 on the new one using something like AOMEI Backupper free sw
  
• at this point the 2 SSDs could be switched together into the 2 slots and (i hope) the PC will boot from the new 256GB M.2
  
• if all is ok, i can format the original 128GB M.2 using it as a 3rd "data" disk
  
• 
  

Do you think that this procedure will work?

Otherwise is there any tutorial that you know about that?

This is exactly what I would like to do. But I intend to buy a 256GB Samsung SM961 as you can get them for about £110.
Will be interested to hear how you get on with this so hopefully you'll post some feedback.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Julskey wrote:
I think it's better to make a backup image first before inserting the new m.2 drive

Yes but i think is different "to clone" and "to make an image", isn't it?
I think that a cloned disk can be restored in a different size disk (and this is what i need).
An "image" can be restored only on the original disk (or on a disk of the same size).
Right?

Julskey wrote:
then clone the image to the new drive.

Yes, using the original M.2 as source.

Julskey wrote:
Better to test out the newly cloned drive first without the old drive, then if it's working, it is safe to wipe the content of the old drive.

Yes, is better 🙂

BTW did you ever done this procedure and on which notebook?

Julskey wrote:
On my G752VT, I've cloned original hdd to 2.5" 250GB Samsung 850 evo, with no problems. However I've had some issues from my 2.5" SSD to m.2 Samsung 950 pro, but I've managed to restore original image (from original HDD) finally. As of now, I decided to try a fresh install of Windows 10 in the 500GB 950. I still have the original image in my 2.5" 850evo SSD and I can boot with either of them without any problem. I still keep several images of my original out of the box state hdd (and some images with frequently used programs installed) into several external hard drives (redundant backups, hehehe).

I've bought a Samsung SM951 256GB M.2 and i'm ready to try my experiment but reading your previous message i think that my procedure will be very different from yours.

• You moved your S.O. from a M.2 SSD to an 2.5" SSD (not directly into another M.2 installed into the second slot), in a second time you moved the S.O. to a new M.2 SSD (i assume OUT from the PC) and at the last you inserted the new M.2 SSD into your G752VT in place of the original one. Right?
  
• I will try to install the new M.2 in the second slot and clone my S.O. directly from the original M.2 to the new one.
  
• 
  

In the last days i've also found an alarming message here: https://rog.asus.com/articles/g-series-gaming-laptops/upgrade-guide-rog-g752/ "Up to two NVMe M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs can be installed in RAID0 (both SSDs need to be identical)". It's not clear if "both SSDs need to be identical" to obtain a RAID0 configuration (of course) or they MUST BE IDENTICAL anyhow!

I'm afraid to waste my time and/or get some bad issues :mad:

IWILZ wrote:
I've bought a Samsung SM951 256GB M.2 and i'm ready to try my experiment but reading your previous message i think that my procedure will be very different from yours.

• You moved your S.O. from a M.2 SSD to an 2.5" SSD (not directly into another M.2 installed into the second slot), in a second time you moved the S.O. to a new M.2 SSD (i assume OUT from the PC) and at the last you inserted the new M.2 SSD into your G752VT in place of the original one. Right?
  
• I will try to install the new M.2 in the second slot and clone my S.O. directly from the original M.2 to the new one.
  
• 
  

In the last days i've also found an alarming message here: https://rog.asus.com/articles/g-series-gaming-laptops/upgrade-guide-rog-g752/ "Up to two NVMe M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs can be installed in RAID0 (both SSDs need to be identical)". It's not clear if "both SSDs need to be identical" to obtain a RAID0 configuration (of course) or they MUST BE IDENTICAL anyhow!

I'm afraid to waste my time and/or get some bad issues :mad:

I originally don't have a M.2. It was from HDD to sata SSD (850EVO) using Samsung magician migration. 850 EVO to M.2 950PRO had problems with migration wizard or cloning software. HDD image to M.2 950pro was successful.

Then I tried fresh install of Win10. I observed that installing with AHCI mode in BIOS, your NVME will be in AHCI mode only (I forgot if it booted changing the mode to RAID in bios, but I had some issues there). I reinstalled win10 again. This time with RAID mode. No problems at all to this day.

Just remember to put IRST drivers in your boot disk. Your cloning program certainly needs them. One question, is this SM951 AHCI or NVME?


I think your plan is sound. Just remove the old one before restarting as it might have issues in booting (I think, I might be wrong though). If you want to use your old drive as storage, you can format it first using bootable programs. I think I have read before that doing a raid 0 can be done in none identical drives but you get the functionality of the lowest drive capacity.

I've done my job and i opened a new thread describing my procedure...
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?90771-G752VT-Installing-a-second-SSD-M-2-(DONE)

Thank you all for the support!