ROG GL552 WITH Samsung 850 SATA III m2 drive is working: Here's How I Did It

[dbodyguru]

I bought a Asus ROG GL552 and I had major issues trying to install a working SSD into the single m2 slot there.

Note, the GL552 and GL752 series (these are NOT the same as the higher end ROG G7552's!) don't support NVMe drives.

You have to have a SATA III m2 drive.

The ACHI m2 SSD versions don't work on this model (at least for some people, I see reports on this forum).

I bought a Samsung 850 PRO 512 SATA III m2 drive and installed that into the m2 drive on the GL552.

It detected this drive just fine. So at least on CANADIAN or AMERICAN versions of the GL552, Sata III m2 seems to be the working m2, not ACHI or NVMe.

However, using the Samsung Migration software to clone the 1 Terabyte default HDD OS installation to the new SSD did clone to the drive, but the drive would not boot a working version of windows 10. When I tried to boot from the new 512 850 EVO m2 SATA III on the GL552, it would boot into windows, but the desktop would flicker every half second and I could not click on anything.

I tried using Partion Magic, EaseUS TO Backup, Samsung Migration -- and every time I could NOT boot to windows properly on the new m2 SSD drive on the GL552.

Finally, I was able to get it working properly by using Macrum Reflect FREE, cloning from the HDD to the 512 Samsung EVO Sata III m2 SSD, switching the boot load order to the new SSD, and walla, it worked perfectly.

SO USE Macrum Reflect to Clone from your HDD to your SSD if you have the GL552 and you bought a Samsung 850 m2 SATA 3 SSD and you want to boot your OS from the SSD. The OTHER clone software did NOT produce a working installtion from me.

[Clintlgm]

Yes, Macrium Reflect has been flawless with UEFI since at least 2012, and it works flawlessly for most people, If you follow directions 100% of the time. Most of the issues arise from people that don't understand UEFI and try to copy only the C:\ rather than the complete Disk/SSD

[daselby]

This worked for me too!

[Julskey]

Paragon HDM 15 worked for me as well. made image of whole hdd for backup, then restored backup of hdd to ssd. All done by using a 32GB bootable usb 3.0 thumb drive. Thumb drive created using rufus and iso image of paragon hdm15. backup image saved in thumb drive as well.

[ROGKenny]

Thanks dbodyguru!! Perfect timing as I'm considering doing the same upgrade, but have been hesitant since hearing the problems other ROGs are having.

Is the Samsung that you have the part number: (MZ-N5E500BW)?

I popped open the back cover and had a look at the M.2 slot. It has one indentation U on it.....I hope that's the same as what you have.

I'm not sure about this American and Canadian version I hear about and how to spot the difference. I wished ASUS would make it clear..perhaps, put US or CAN on the part number.

Anyhow, thanks again.

dbodyguru wrote:
I bought a Asus ROG GL552 and I had major issues trying to install a working SSD into the single m2 slot there.

Note, the GL552 and GL752 series (these are NOT the same as the higher end ROG G7552's!) don't support NVMe drives.

You have to have a SATA III m2 drive.

The ACHI m2 SSD versions don't work on this model (at least for some people, I see reports on this forum).

I bought a Samsung 850 PRO 512 SATA III m2 drive and installed that into the m2 drive on the GL552.

It detected this drive just fine. So at least on CANADIAN or AMERICAN versions of the GL552, Sata III m2 seems to be the working m2, not ACHI or NVMe.

However, using the Samsung Migration software to clone the 1 Terabyte default HDD OS installation to the new SSD did clone to the drive, but the drive would not boot a working version of windows 10. When I tried to boot from the new 512 850 EVO m2 SATA III on the GL552, it would boot into windows, but the desktop would flicker every half second and I could not click on anything.

I tried using Partion Magic, EaseUS TO Backup, Samsung Migration -- and every time I could NOT boot to windows properly on the new m2 SSD drive on the GL552.

Finally, I was able to get it working properly by using Macrum Reflect FREE, cloning from the HDD to the 512 Samsung EVO Sata III m2 SSD, switching the boot load order to the new SSD, and walla, it worked perfectly.

SO USE Macrum Reflect to Clone from your HDD to your SSD if you have the GL552 and you bought a Samsung 850 m2 SATA 3 SSD and you want to boot your OS from the SSD. The OTHER clone software did NOT produce a working installtion from me.