Notes taken the day after. One of these days I'll have to polish them up.
2020 Dell came with 256 boot SSD, 1TB data HDD. Added 1 TB SSD on an adapter,
In 2021, boot SSD is 2/3 full. Data is well-backed up, (an SSD on the PC, a pair of external SSD that are backed up and one always in safe-deposit box), but not the boot drive. Between the shrinking free space and the likelihood of HD failure, reasoned that it would just be best practice to come up with a replacement.
Anyway, it sounded like fun. I'd already installed Linux Mint on a 10-year-old laptop; swapped a failing HDD for a SATA SSD, and reinstalled Windows on it; replaced a SSD on BB's PC with an HDD that went perfectly smoothly. Cloned to external enclosure, extra cost, but hey. Sabrent brand, good quality, can use the enclosure again, you never know.
Did research, after Wirecutter and another recommendation, decided on Samsung 980.
Samsung has its own proprietary backup/clone. Used WD licensed Acronis True Image with PG. Didn't like the other software found when uninstalling it. Saw one believable forum post saying Samsung-cloned SSD wouldn't boot until other Samsung materials were deleted. Leery of installing it.
Want free, so Acronis is out. Macrium Reflect highly-regarded. OK, Macrium it is. Even a short and to-the-point YouTube explaining how. Sounds like it'll go smoothly. Make it so.
* where is the clone function in Macrium? It's not at the top, it's not in the menu, what did they do with it? Re-watched Macrium YouTube, found it down at the bottom of the screen. You boys hid it well, but not so well that John Moore can't find it.
* Clone took about 15 minutes. No error messages. Success. Hey, wait a minute, it didn't use the entire 512GB. 256GB is unallocated and wasted. Guess I'll have to re-size the partitions.
* why is the partition-resizing link greyed out?
* well, screwing in the new SSD isn't going well. One screw's too little and the other one's causing the stick to bend, and that doesn't seem right.
* why can't I re-format the stick? If I delete the partitions, then I can't use the clone function.
* Shit, it's not booting. I'm getting a BSOD and a bunch of options. I don't know what to do, I'm just hitting escape and backing out of it. Which (by luck) put me into the BIOS screen that allows me to re-set the boot order and give 1st priority to the Samsung 512GB SSD that replaced the hynix 256GB SSD.
After that, it booted normally and I could use the PC once more. So that much is good. But there were a few niggling items:
Went back to the 256GB hynix, but even then, the same difficulty screwing it in. I must be missing something. Well, hell.
Up at 4:30 a.m. doing a tech-version of Mise En Place. The screwdriver case; the box with the 512GB Samsung and all the screws (bless my heart, I did keep all the screws); the box with the Sabrent enclosure and its Thunderbolt wire.
Back in bed, typing steps into Google Keep. All involved re-doing something I did wrong the first time.
More research, some new, some review. Re-watched Macrium YouTube, saw the essential part of re-allocation. Use the "maximum" button if you can, over the other 2 ways of using all the space possible. Later, learned that re-allocation only works if you drag down each section piece by piece, not as an all-in-one.
Oh, that one screw is used to create space so the stick stays flat, and then you use the teeny tiny hold-down screw to go into the bigger spacer screw. Whatever their names actually are.
Put the 2280 Samsung in the Sabrent enclosure, attach to PC with Thunderbolt wire. Ah, now in Disk Mgmt, can't right-click and delete certain boot-dependent sections. It only gives you the "Help" option, not the "Delete". Well, I'll go up top and delete them there. No, you can't delete them there, either. Whatever that damn error message said. Google that one, too.
Fortunately, the #1 search result had all the necessary information. It involved going into DOS (OK, they don't call it DOS anymore, but I remember) and making command-line entries to delete all the non-data sectors. That worked. When finished, the SSD stick had re-achieved virgin status.
And *now*, I can re-start the whole thing. Open the case, remove the Sound Blaster Z card to be able to access the 256GB hynix SSD. That left a big hole in the back of the case. What did I do with that part? Must be with the rest of the PC spare parts, and that could be anywhere.
Unscrew the wrong screw. Remove the hynix. Find the spacer screw and put it in the 2230 hole. (Maybe it's the 2242, I don't really remember. Whatever the shortest one is.) Re-insert the hynix, hold it down with the teeny tiny screw into the spacer screw. That's what I should have done the first time.
Reboot. The hynix is installed correctly and the BIOS references it first, so the boot goes properly.
Start Macrium. Prepare to clone all six boot-worthy sectors from the hynix to the Samsung. Save the OS piece for last so I can click the Maximum Size button so there's 450 GB free instead of 200 free and another 250GB unallocated. Start clone. Fifteen minutes later, clone is finished.
Re-open the case. Remove the hynix, insert the Samsung. Finish installation with the spacer screw and the teeny tiny screw that goes inside the spacer screw.
Re-boot, get the blue screen, hit escape, change the boot order in BIOS so Samsung is first. Re-re-boot. Everything works.
Except that now in Disk Management, there's an X: drive that contains about 150MB, of which half is available. How'd that get there?
Error message: can't access X: drive without permission. Get administrator permission, then try again. Follow this link and click on the Security tab.
There was no Security tab. Google search says it's possible to unhide the tab, but obtaining permission involves going in to the Registry, choosing just the right entry and inputting a 1 where there is currently a 0. Or there's another way that I can't remember, but sounded just as unappetizing.
Well nuts, I'll just delete it in Disk Mgmt. Can't delete it in DM. Can't delete it in Explorer, either. Never mind, it's only 150 MB and it doesn't contain anything I need, I think.
Prepared the 256GB SSD, correctly screwed in to motherboard.
Prepared the 512GB SSD, correctly inserted in the Sabrent enclosure and attached to the PC with the Thunderbolt cable.
Boot PC, start Macrium, set up the clone process. Press start, step back and let it do its thing.
Clone finished, power down PC. Take out the 256GB SSD, insert the clone 512GB SSD. Close case back up. Re-connect power cord and HDMI cable. Same with the wired keyboard and the wire to the sound bar.
Re-boot PC, fix the BIOS so it references the 512GB SSD first. Let it boot.
Success. (But what's that X: drive? Ah fuck it, it's only 150MB. Declare victory and go home.)
256GB SSD can go into the safe-deposit box next time I go to the credit union.
So anyway, I learned something.
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