M.2 SSD questions

[FuzzyWolf]

Hey guys,

So I just ordered a 512gb Adata SX7000 M.2 pcie ssd (should arrive by Tuesday) and now planning on cloning my current windows from my old ssd(sandisk ultra II 240gb) to this new one since its faster. I do have a few questions though:

1. Does anyone know when plugging in the M.2 SSD, would the mobo (I have Maximus VIII Ranger) auto detect that it is pcie or do I have to change it somewhere?

2. I plan to clone my current SSD with acronis which comes with the new SSD, have anyone use this before? Just wondering if its reliable or if anyone have experience with cloning drives, do they usually work or do they generally cause problems? I was thinking of cloning it because where I live I have painfully slow internet and I rather not redownload everything, but if it doesnt work then i'll do a clean install.

3. If I unplug sata power from old SSD is it ok to leave SATA power connected? or is it better to just disconnect everything? Thinking unplugging it after cloning so it doesnt boot into old SSD.

[claudej]

Hi, (my modest opinions, I have a similar config)
1 It should be detected without you doing anything, but there are settings available.
2 Personnaly, I don't trust cloning, with alignement and other issues. I'd do a clean install. But if a current Acronis is willing to do the job, I guess it'll be OK or it's worth a try.
3 Whatever you like, and why the question ? At some point you just tell the Bios where to boot from...

[NemesisChild]

Disconnect all other drives, including HDD's prior to installing the new drive & Windows.
It should auto detect that it's a PCIe SSD, it did on my Maximus VIII Hero when I installed a 950 Pro M.2 SSD.
I highly recommend that you do a fresh installation of Windows and avoid the cloning route.

[FuzzyWolf]

claudej wrote:
Hi, (my modest opinions, I have a similar config)
1 It should be detected without you doing anything, but there are settings available.
2 Personnaly, I don't trust cloning, with alignement and other issues. I'd do a clean install. But if a current Acronis is willing to do the job, I guess it'll be OK or it's worth a try.
3 Whatever you like, and why the question ? At some point you just tell the Bios where to boot from...

NemesisChild wrote:
Disconnect all other drives, including HDD's prior to installing the new drive & Windows.
It should auto detect that it's a PCIe SSD, it did on my Maximus VIII Hero when I installed a 950 Pro M.2 SSD.
I highly recommend that you do a fresh installation of Windows and avoid the cloning route.

Thanks for the replies! Well, I am still thinking about the cloning and it seems you guys are generally against it. Have you experienced or heard issues from other people in the past? I'd like to know why generally you guys are opposing it. Currently trying to google possible problems associated with cloning, but coudn't find much(probably because Im not sure what I'm looking for though).

[Jagdseelen]

If cloning there is a chance of your M.2 to be misaligned and hence have slower performance than expected.