From 256GB to 1TB

YukKevChuHau · 19 November 2021 11:24

So, I took the plunge, splurged and upgraded the SSD in my Dell XPS 13-9343 from the original LITEON L8H-256V2G-11 M.2 2280 256GB. Along with my order of fun law textbooks, I purchased a Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB M.2 SATA Internal SSD (MZ-N6E1T0BW) since a NVMe SSD is not an option for my laptop from 2015. I thought of getting the 2TB one, but waited too long and Amazon ran out of stock. It was a bit cheaper per gigabyte.

I also purchased Sabrent USB 3.2 Type-C Tool-Free Enclosure for M.2 PCIe NVMe and SATA SSDs (EC-SNVE) as recommended by @FrenchPress . Since my laptop is old from early 2015, it doesn't support USB-C, so I purchased a Electop Updated USB 3.1 GEN 2 Male to Type-C Female Adapter, Support Double Sided 10Gbps Charging & Data Transfer, USB A to USB C 3.1 Converter.

Ants in my pants, I had to wait a week for everything to arrive from the US, and the UK for a part of my law textbooks.

Next, I sadly had to format the USB thumb drive with my burned Zorin OS 16 Pro on it because I ran out of drives. Then, I used Rufus to burn Clonezilla on to it. I then fully powered down my laptop and attached the m.2 SSD enclosure with the drive in it using the accompanied USB cable and coverter adapter. I also attached the USB Thumbrive with Clonezilla. I changed BIOS/UEFI to boot up the Clonezilla drive.

Following the graphical menus in Clonezilla, I chose the option to clone drive-to-drive and used the advanced/manual setting. In the next screens, I had the software clone all partitions in my old drive using Rufus as-is, without automatic partition expansion. All partitions labels cloned too. It took about 30 minutes.

When finished, I took off the bottom chassis cover by removing nine screws. As I opened it before when I replaced the original Wi-Fi module to an OKN WiFi 6 AX200 802.11ax WiFi Card 2400Mbps 5GHz and 574Mbps 2.4GHz Wireless Module for Laptop Desktop with Bluetooth 5.1, Windows 10 64bit and Linux one, it was very easy to open. Switched the drives in my laptop.

Booted up both my Zorin OS 16 Pro 142GB partition and everything was as it was on the Lite-On 256GB SSD drive. The same was for my Windows 10 21H1 98.8GB partition. All other Dell recovery partitions remained the same.

Since, I have much more space now and my Zorin OS 16 Pro partition remained as sda8, the last on the drive; I simply expanded it to the max while booted into Zorin OS 16. It was done live and in a few seconds. My Zorin OS 16 Pro partition is now 875.5GB.

Screw Windows, you will remain pathetic and small on my new SSD.

New Drive in Enclosure and Stuff:

Old and New Drives:

I keep forgetting m.2 drives are so tiny.

I also bought this just for the heck of it:

StarTreker · 19 November 2021 11:51

YES! YES! YES!

I'm loving all this fresh new PCB deliciousness right now. And you should know by now, how much I love my SSD's from my previous posts on the board.

I knew that was the reason why you went with SATA, cause your computer is too old to support NVME. I completely understand that. Its a lot like how I didn't bother to buy a PCIE Gen 4 NVME SSD, when I knew my computer only supports PCIE Gen3 NVME.

I thought it was genius your use of the adapters to make it work with your notebook. And, I even love the nice metal enclosure for that M.2 drive. Its even got that delicious black color that just tells you its gonna get rid of the heat, while looking good doing it.

YES, I like everything about it. Sexy PCB, fast SSD, adapters, enclosures, yummy. And, I also enjoyed your story about how you managed to clone your drive with Clonezilla. Talk about having a successful clone operation, Cameno should have hired you for a job position. HEHE

Everybody should have their very own copy of Linux For Dummies, although I admit, I only have a copy of Windows For Dummies. HAHA

I like this too, you tell em Yuk! They suk! HAHA

I really loved your pictures, they really brought out the essence of your pure stellarness. You get a 5-star rating for this post!

Now, allow me to join the fun!

Yes, M.2 drives are tiny, far smaller then pictures make them out to look. I should have take a picture of one with a quarter in the picture, I just didn't think to do that lol. Here, I found something cool.

And for information purposes, as I do find it interesting as well...

Again, thank you for your amazing post, you are positively stellar!

FrenchPress · 19 November 2021 13:37

I moved the thread from Hardware to Chat since @YukKevChuHau is not asking for help.

FrenchPress · 19 November 2021 14:43

You can get a lot of 3 to 10 USB keys with a small capacity (8/16 GB) quite cheap. They are reliable enough to move data around or create installers.

I never have to delete a USB key for another use unless I no longer need its content. My entire family of USB sticks shown below. I use small food containers to sort them.

FrenchPress · 19 November 2021 15:36

11 posts were split to a new topic: Budgies and other featherd friends

YukKevChuHau · 19 November 2021 15:52

I have a small collection too. They're all used. I don't feel like spending money for more USB drives, even if they're cheap.

The write performance of the EVO 860 M.2 is better than the poopoo Lite-On OEM drive.

Samsung EVO 860 M.2 2280 1TB SSD:

Lite-On L8H M.2 2280 256GB SSD:

StarTreker · 19 November 2021 15:58

I love the look of Samsung Magicians GUI. But if memory serves, Samsung Magician software is only for Windows correct?

Samsung makes the best SSD drives in the world, they will always perform faster. But you also pay a higher premium for Samsung drives.

Even their EVO line, which is their economical line, is more expensive then some other brands such as Crucial for example. But if your buy one of their PRO drives, you are certainly gonna fork over some cash.

Now, you will notice that I bought a Western Digital drive, why is that you ask, besides the fact that they make good drives? Its because there was already a Western Digital NVME drive inn my computer, and it works just fine.

So, logical deductive reasoning, if I were to buy the same drive, for the second slot, it should work. And guess what? It works out of the box, with no modification. HEHE

Bubby · 19 November 2021 22:08

I showed my wife this picture(and of course she has no interest in this stuff) and told here you thought I had a lot of usb drives (which she refers to as "junk")

FrenchPress · 19 November 2021 22:12

My husband is benefiting from my technology craze.
He never has to buy a single peripheral. It is just a matter of walking into my office and ask for it

Frog · 20 November 2021 04:48

Hummmmmm .... I see a garage sale in you near future .... LOL

StarTreker · 20 November 2021 04:55

I don't know Frog. I think seeing how many that is in her picture, shows that she's quite the packrat when it comes to hoarding USB flash drives. I think her army of flash drives are gonna keep increasing lol.

Truth be told, I only got like a couple USB flash drives. This is because I don't like them as much as external SSD drives, and that is what I buy now. Yes, they cost more, but they hold much more, and last much longer.

But nobody is gonna stop FrenchPress's army, she's building for an invasion. Invasion of the USB keys.

FrenchPress · 20 November 2021 10:51

They are all well labelled and sorted.
I think whoever inherit my assets will have to decide what to with those family of USBs

Unfortunately, there is no technology oriented member in the entire family.

YukKevChuHau · 20 November 2021 10:53

Motion Bonfire GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

FrenchPress · 20 November 2021 10:55

Actually, I stop buying a new USB key since last year.
As you know, the economy is tough everywhere. I tried to reduce my computer related expenses.
I am planning to add more idea for zero cost Christmas gifts to that thread I started.
Stay tuned

system · 18 February 2022 10:56

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