Running low on my 500GB M.2 SSD system drives and was looking at the following. Reviews are good and price is awesome. See any downside? I especially like the price as I would need 2 as I do clone backups.
https://www.newegg.com/western-digital-1tb-sn770/p/N82E16820250217

My PCIe is only Gen 3 but this drive is backward compatible. My main is getting long in the tooth so will probably be building again in a year or so. New system would make use of the PCIe Gen 4.

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I have 2 WD Black 850s in my system. No problems at all with them, download the WD dashboard to update its firmware and do diagnostics on it.

Thanks David.

Actually one of my 500GB drives is WD and I've had no issues either. I also have the WD dashboard but would download/install to be sure of the latest version.

Happily my mother board is setup properly... I love ASRock! On so many boards you have to pull the video card to get at the drive sockets but on my board they are easily accessed. Do have to use something sticky to prevent losing the mounting screws but that is easily done with mounting putty like people use to stick posters and such on walls..

With the current system being PCIe Gen 3 I won't see the 5000+MB/sec, probably more like my current 3000+MB/sec, but I'll be set for my next build just like my video card which is also PCIe GEN 4.

LOL! This is all due to my games. I'm tired of having to remove a large game to play another. Some of my games are REALLY large. Middle Earth-Shadow Of War is well over 100GB on the drive.

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Dashboard checks itself for the latest update, so you just run the update there.

LOL! Been so long since I used Dashboard I totally forgot that it had a self update function... Thanks.

Actually I ran it and it showed my WD SSD but no info. Dawned on me that it is the drive that is the target for my clone backups and I have it set as off line in Drive Management.

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Looks like a delay on my new drives due to severe weather. Shows delivery tomorrow instead of today, no big deal.

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Hey, I wonder my best way to put a clone on a larger drive. Here is what I intend:

1) Swap out the 500GB system drive with one of the 1TB drives.

2) Copy the current 500GB clone drive to the new system drive using an Acronis boot CD using the option to clone back 'As is' instead of 'proportional' to prevent the first 229MB partition from becoming a 459MB partition even though the change would be trivial.

3) Use Drive Management to extend the Windows partition to take in the remainder of the drive.

Been a LONG time since I've done this. Is what I intend valid or would I be better off just going proportional?

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It's been years since I've cloned a drive, too, but your planned process appears reasonable.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Thanks.

I would not worry about the 229MB partition being doubled by doing a proportional copy from my clone but I just don't know if Windows wants that partition specifically at 229MB. LOL! If there ends up being any issue it only takes less than 10 minutes to redo the copy.

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Do a manual clone and you can set the partitions to whatever you want.

Thanks David.

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Grrr! Shows as delayed in transit again. I HATE waiting.

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Just looked and my stuff is in Salt Lake City, UT. With the storm they had go through I would not be surprised if I get the package Monday or later. Can't blame UPS for weather and closed roads.

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Yep -- all kinds of weather delays around the country for UPS, FedEx and others...

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Ya, I know Steve. I'm just REALLY bad at waiting. There are times I've taken a month or longer researching and deciding what to order with no issue but, once ordered, I want it yesterday.

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You sound a lot like me Jay I don't like waiting, we have lots of strikes going on over here that is causing problems this side of the pond with our deliveries getting to us.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

Well I finally got a delivery date, Wednesday.

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Hey, David, I think I'll try the 'manual' clone with True Image on this. Since I've always had equal size drives I've only used 'as is' in the past.

Steve, I guess shipping is back. I had to laugh a bit when I checked my mail today. The mailbox area looked like a major Christmas doing, boxes and packages all over the place.

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If you don't like the way it turns out, you can always re-clone.

Exactly. That was my thought. I won't replace my current clone destination drive until all is proven.

Before I started manually cloning as a backup I considered just doing a Mirror R.A.I.D. Array. I decided to do manually instead as, if I did a Mirror R.A.I.D, and an infection got through, it would affect both drives. Normally, in Windows, I have the destination clone drive set as off-line in Drive Management. At least in theory this should make the clone destination isolated and pretty safe. The Linux version of True Image boot CD still sees the drive but Windows cannot access unless the drive is put back on-line.

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I did a mirror for a little while, it was more of a pain than anything. I was using Intel SSDs at the time and none of the Drive software would work properly because of the RAID setup. I just went back to normal drives after that.

Drives were supposed to show up tomorrow but got here today... Do I consider it a day early or 6 days late?

New 1TB drive is in and working as a system drive. Could not do a manual clone as it seems that my old clone destination had a non-fatal error and would only allow a sector by sector clone to the new drive. Was no big deal as I just extended the Windows partition to include the rest of the drive. All ended up fine.

Seems that I can't use the second new drive at this time as it would appear that my second M.2 port is only PCIe Gen 2. I could return the drive but won't. I'll just keep it for an upcoming new build that will have dual PCIe Gen 4-5 M.2 ports.

I knew that I would not get full speed from the new drive as my better M.2 slot is only Gen 3 but it does still benchmark quicker going from the old ~3000 MB/se to 3687 MB/sec on reads.

Same day I was given an old Dell laptop and I mean old. replaced the original 140GB drive with a 640GB and am making USB install media for Win 10. It actually does Win 10 OK but would drive me nuts. Once done I'll give it to a friend if it does OK with PS1 and SNES emulators. Doing a clean install bypassing the key code entry. Unless things have changed doing so will still allow a Win 7 code to activate.

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To add on to my last post... Clean install of Windows 10 on the Dell laptop (Latitude E5500) went fine and is activated. Doing a clean install without entering a product key then adding a Windows 7 key after the install still works. The thing is actually doing pretty well so far. Doing updates at the moment.

I DID have one heck of a time getting on-line. I downloaded and installed the wireless drivers but could not get the wireless to work. Sigh, I accidentally hit a slide switch on the front edge physically turning off wireless. Slid the switch and all was fine. Sort of dumb to put a wireless switch near the lock latch for the lid...

Haven't tried the game console emulators yet as I need to get the graphics drivers installed first. I've run these emulators on lesser systems in the past so don't expect issues. Emulators will be Super Nintendo, Play Station 1 and mayhaps N64.

Kind of sorta fun playing with an old system to see what ya can get it to do.

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To add on to the last two posts... The Dell isn't going to do the emulators with Windows 10, just not any really any graphics on the thing. It will sort of do Super Nintendo but not well; forget PS1 or N64. The thing is just too old as it was released like over 16 years ago. I'm surprised that it runs Windows 10 at all... actually surprised that it runs at all. LOL! Just looked it up and it is so old that it initially came with Windows Vista!

Still I may play a bit with possibly even installing Win Vista, 7 or XP to see what it does. If it would do the emulators under any of these I'd just block it from being able to access the internet for safety although I doubt that many of the 'bad guys' are still trying to hit Vista or XP. If nothing else it is something to play with a bit.

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I had an HP laptop with the WiFi switch on the front of the unit, too. It defaulted to off when you powered up and then had to flick the switch to turn on WiFi. I think it originally came with XP. Sounds like you're having fun with the antique Dell.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"