Solved Upgrade to larger size m.2 NVMe ssd

Winuser · Mar 23, 2024

fenpeppertree said:
Is it possible to upgrade to a larger size nvme ssd without cloning.
If so please explain.
I created a windows 11 USB installation drive, and installed the new drive, but it doesn't work.
It goes to a Windows installation process, but it says it can't find drivers or drive, something, I don't know, after I have selected the USB drive.

If you have a USB drive you can use then this is what I would do. Install the free version of Macrium Reflect. You can find the download on the MajorGeeks website. Make the Macrium recovery disk on a flash drive. Image the old system drive to the USB drive. Shutdown and disconnect power to the computer. Swap the drives and restart your computer withe the USB drive and flash drive plugged in. Without the system drive for the computer to boot from the computer may search for a boot drive and find your flash drive so you can boot into Macrium. If not you may have to hit the ESC key or one of the F keys to boot into the Bios so you can select the flash drive as your boot drive. Once Macrium is running select the image you made on the USB drive and restore to the new drive. When done, exit Macrium, disconnect the external drives and restart your computer. If the computer doesn't find the new drive to boot from you'll have enter the bios and select your new drive.

SIW2 · Mar 23, 2024

One way is to unzip this zip file onto a usb stick dell-rst-winpe10.0.zip

when you get to this screen that says "Where do you want to install Windows" , click Load Drivers at the bottom left and browse to the extracted folder on your usb stick . It will recurse through the folder and install the needed drivers

the zip contains
18.37.1.1003
19.5.1.1040

badrobot · Mar 23, 2024

Macrium image restore will work. Did it a few times before.

Megahertz · Mar 24, 2024

@fenpeppertree
You have marked the thread as solved.
Did you succeed on installing win on the drive?

BobOmb · Mar 24, 2024

For missing RAID driver issues, as others have suggested, just switch to AHCI in the BIOS.

Afterwards install the RAID drivers at first boot and then switch it back to RAID if you want to, or don't install the RAID drivers and just leave it in AHCI

You’re not stuck in AHCI forever, you can install the RAID drivers and switch at any time.

fenpeppertree · Mar 24, 2024

REPLY TO SIW2

Is this a plain flash drive or the one I installed windows 11 on?

I have tried the IRST but it did not work. The YouTube video that explained used a formatted drive.
And besides that when I click "load drive", both the USB drive and my new drive appear. It's after I submit either of them I get the "no drivers found".

I think I need to format the new drive and I can't without an external adapter.

I've got one selected at Walmart, but will have to wait till the 1st to order it.

To anyone suggesting imaging or cloning my current drive, I'm thinking as long as I have the fresh windows 11 on the USB drive, I would rather do that.

Winuser · Mar 24, 2024

fenpeppertree said:
REPLY TO SIW2

Is this a plain flash drive or the one I installed windows 11 on?

I have tried the IRST but it did not work. The YouTube video that explained used a formatted drive.
And besides that when I click "load drive", both the USB drive and my new drive appear. It's after I submit either of them I get the "no drivers found".

I think I need to format the new drive and I can't without an external adapter.

I've got one selected at Walmart, but will have to wait till the 1st to order it.

To anyone suggesting imaging or cloning my current drive, I'm thinking as long as I have the fresh windows 11 on the USB drive, I would rather do that.

Formating the drive first is not the problem. The Windows installer does all the work. The only thing the user has to do is delete all of the partitions on the drive they want Windows to use. I still recommend making a Macrium Image of the old drive and restoring it to the new drive. It all up to you to do what you think is best.

SlicEnDicE · Mar 25, 2024

Did you try to extract the drivers from old SSD as I suggested?

My Post

fenpeppertree · Mar 25, 2024

To SIW2
I did the zip file:
the zip contains
18.37.1.1003
19.5.1.1040
but really?
when I opened each folder there was listed a file starting with W-10.
I can only presume it refers to Windows 10, or is it just a strange coincidence?

Anyway It did not work still got message no drivers found.

I will order the external adapter on the 1st and then probably do a clone. I've done this before so it shouldn't be a problem.

fenpeppertree · Apr 6, 2024

I still cannot get my new 1TB M.2 nvme SSD to open my laptop.

I purchased an external M.2 nvme adapter, and I cloned my current M.2 nvme (128GB) to the new drive, but it was left with over 800 GB of unallocated space.

The first time i tried it, it went to the desktop, but after just a minute or two or three it popped up the blue screen saying there's a problem with the device and a restart is needed.

Before this happened, there was a small window saying "Scanning Drive". I presume when the scan completed the blue screen appeared.

I tried to resize the new drive to include the unallocated memory using the MiniTool Partition Wizard which was recommended in a YouTube video I found. I don't think it worked, at least not very well at best

So now, when I try starting the PC with the new drive installed, it goes to Boot Menu with Windows Boot Manager as an option, but nothing happens if Enter is pressed.

Really at a loss, the videos I've seen on YouTube for the problem of resizing the drive to include the unallocated memory do not show as many partitions between the unallocated memory and the main partition.

When I tried to resize the drive, the partition next to the unallocated memory was titled Windows something..., don't remember, exactly.

fenpeppertree · Apr 11, 2024

Problem solved.

I contacted Lenovo Chat, and this laptop will only upgrade to a 512gb drive.

I'm going to get one at Walmart soon.

And oh, by the way, to get the full memory included for the new SSD when cloning, there is an option after selecting the destination disk "Copy Partitions". After selecting this, there is another option to "shrink or extend to fill the target disk". Select this option and the full memory will then show in the main partition. This is done using Macrium Reflect software. I got this help from a YouTube video:

.

SlicEnDicE · Apr 11, 2024

fenpeppertree said:
Problem solved.

I contacted Lenovo Chat, and this laptop will only upgrade to a 512gb drive.

I'm going to get one at Walmart soon.

What? That's ridiculous! Only 512GB? Have they put a hard limit into the BIOS?

Or are they talking about SATA vs NVMe drives...then the limit is probably 512GB as bigger are rare.

Winuser · Apr 11, 2024

SlicEnDicE said:
What? That's ridiculous! Only 512GB? Have they put a hard limit into the BIOS?

I did a search for the IdeaPad Flex 5 and for a M.2 2242 SSD the Maximum size is 512GB. For a M.2 2280 SSD the maximum size is 1TB.

fenpeppertree · Apr 11, 2024

No, not for my model which is Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 ITL05 Type 82HS.

Bree · Apr 11, 2024

fenpeppertree said:
I contacted Lenovo Chat, and this laptop will only upgrade to a 512gb drive.

fenpeppertree said:
No, not for my model which is Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 ITL05 Type 82HS.

You missed reading the note below the specs you quoted.

Just because Lenovo offer a limited range of storage for this model doesn't mean it can't handle larger capacities.

bobkn · Apr 11, 2024

Crucial claims that the laptop can use M.2 NVME SSDs as large as 4TB.

Crucial is reliable about upgrade recommendations. They guarantee compatibility of what they sell.

At a guess, Lenovo support is telling you what the largest drive is that they sold the laptop with. They may not officially support anything larger.

Winuser · Apr 11, 2024

@fenpeppertree, if possible try making an image of the old drive and restoring it to the new drive. I have had more problems trying to clone a drive then I have had restoring images.

fenpeppertree · Apr 11, 2024

bobkn said:
Crucial claims that the laptop can use M.2 NVME SSDs as large as 4TB.

Crucial is reliable about upgrade recommendations. They guarantee compatibility of what they sell.

At a guess, Lenovo support is telling you what the largest drive is that they sold the laptop with. They may not officially support anything larger.

fenpeppertree · Apr 11, 2024

Crucial claims that the laptop can use M.2 NVME SSDs as large as 4TB.

If that is the case, the Samsung 990 Pro w/ Heatsink should have worked, shouldn't it have? Or maybe it is the heatsink part of the drive that could be a problem?

Regardless, I have purchased a PNY 500gb M.2 nvme ssd from Walmart just today, and I had no problem at all cloning and installing it, especially with the very helpful information about the "Copy Partitions" option in the Macrium Reflect software that clones the drive to include all the storage space on the drive.

Surprisingly, as much as Macrium Reflect was mentioned in previous posts, noone seemed to be aware of this option that is so basic and helpful.

I am using the PNY 500gb now to download half a dozen or so video games in my Steam account.

At a guess, Lenovo support is telling you what the largest drive is that they sold the laptop with. They may not officially support anything larger.

Where I purchased this laptop on Amazon, there was every size available, 128, 256, 512, 1TB, and 2TB.
I chose the 128 so I could purchase a 1TB ssd by Samsung instead of having 1TB generic ssd and paying quite a bit extra.

I just never expected there would be a limit on the size for upgrading, unless of course, it is a problem because of the heatsink.

bobkn · Apr 11, 2024

fenpeppertree said:
Crucial claims that the laptop can use M.2 NVME SSDs as large as 4TB.

If that is the case, the Samsung 990 Pro w/ Heatsink should have worked, shouldn't it have? Or maybe it is the heatsink part of the drive that could be a problem?

Regardless, I have purchased a PNY 500gb M.2 nvme ssd from Walmart just today, and I had no problem at all cloning and installing it, especially with the very helpful information about the "Copy Partitions" option in the Macrium Reflect software that clones the drive to include all the storage space on the drive.

Surprisingly, as much as Macrium Reflect was mentioned in previous posts, noone seemed to be aware of this option that is so basic and helpful.

I am using the PNY 500gb now to download half a dozen or so video games in my Steam account.

At a guess, Lenovo support is telling you what the largest drive is that they sold the laptop with. They may not officially support anything larger.

Where I purchased this laptop on Amazon, there was every size available, 128, 256, 512, 1TB, and 2TB.
I chose the 128 so I could purchase a 1TB ssd by Samsung instead of having 1TB generic ssd and paying quite a bit extra.

I just never expected there would be a limit on the size for upgrading, unless of course, it is a problem because of the heatsink.

The only issue I'd expect with a heatsink is having the drive not fit in the laptop. I haven't checked the details for your Lenovo laptop, I admit. If the drive (with heatsink) was too thick, I can't imagine how you could have missed that on installation. Regardless, you could have saved a few dollars and bought a 990 Pro with no heatsink.