Precision 7510 add hard drive

If your system is set for Legacy Boot in the BIOS, then setting the new drive as the boot device should be a simple matter of ranking the new SSD higher in the list than the other one.  If it's set for UEFI boot, then things get more complicated.  In that case, in general it's helpful after cloning to remove the source drive to make sure the PC boots off the destination drive.  It's not strictly required, depending on whether the cloning application registers the boot partition of the new drive in the UEFI firmware, but it can definitely make things easier.  Then if you want, you can reintroduce the source drive, wipe it, and repartition it as appropriate to act as a data-only drive.  If you take a look at the Owner's Manual here, there are instructions for accessing both the 2.5" hard drive (the "regular one") and the M.2 SSD.  Neither one is especially difficult, and the latter just requires lifting off the underside panel, and then it's right there in plain view.

I'm not sure why you're concerned about losing data if you've already got a clone, but if you want an extra safeguard, consider capturing an image backup to an external hard drive if you've got one.  Typically a cloning application can also be used to capture an image.

If you're still having trouble, you didn't specify which cloning application you're using.  I'm a fan of Macrium Reflect, as are several others here, and they have a free version that can be used for cloning and imaging, and their bootable "Rescue Media" environment also has a "Fix Boot Problems" function that can come in handy for situations like this.

Thanks for your reply and advice.. Thanks to you I was able to do what was necessary to accomplish what I wanted, and my hard drive is now 960 GB instead of 469 or something. I'll eventually reinstall and wipe the other one for  data files, but right now I'm going to take it easy for awhile.

The drive I installed was a SanDisk 960 GB, and I do my disk work with Acronis. I'm sure the equipment you mentioned would do a good job, but I've gotten used to Acronis over the years, although we've had our moments. At age 83, besides my deterioration of motor skills and comprehension. I'm reluctant to make any changes that I don't have to. Having gotten my first computer about the time I went on Medicare it's been quite a challenge, but I've done pretty well.

Thanks again for your help, which saved me a little time a a goodly sum of money.

You are so right. I have noticed a significant drop in performance, so I took your advice and ordered the Samsung you mentioned. It'll be arriving on Sunday. I assume I can get the best performance if I use the Samsung as my boot drive and the old one in the M2 bay as a data drive. Or would it be the other way around? I also ordered a $15 adapter just in case I need it to fit one of these drives in the M2 slot.  And after all, you did save me some money by enabling me to avoid having this work done by a tech, not to mention the time involved.

"So thanks again.

---

@twacapn wrote:

You are so right. I have noticed a significant drop in performance, so I took your advice and ordered the Samsung you mentioned. It'll be arriving on Sunday. I assume I can get the best performance if I use the Samsung as my boot drive and the old one in the M2 bay as a data drive. Or would it be the other way around? I also ordered a $15 adapter just in case I need it to fit one of these drives in the M2 slot.  And after all, you did save me some money by enabling me to avoid having this work done by a tech, not to mention the time involved.

"So thanks again.

---

I think there's some terminology confusion.  M.2 refers to the slot that your original SSD -- the one that's just a skinny circuit board -- was installed into.  The "regular" hard drive bay that you just installed a new SSD into is called a 2.5" drive bay.  There is no "M.2 bay", at least not one that you'd be able to use an adapter with.  And regardless of what adapter you bought, you won't be able to use it for anything meaningful, and here's why:

Right now you have two SSDs -- the 512GB M.2 SSD that came with your system (call it SSD #1), and the 1TB 2.5" SSD you just installed (SSD #2).  And now you've just ordered a 1TB M.2 SSD (SSD #3).  The two M.2 SSDs, namely SSDs #1 and 3, can only be installed directly into an M.2 slot; they cannot be used through an adapter.  And the 2.5" SSD (SSD #3) can only physically fit into the 2.5" drive bay, so there's no use case for an adapter with that unit.

Did you maybe mean that you bought an M.2 to 2.5" SATA adapter in the hopes that you'd be able to use SSD #1 in the 2.5" drive bay where you've currently got SSD #2 installed?  If so, that won't work because SSD #1 uses the much faster NVMe data interface, and NOT the older SATA interface.  That's why it's so much faster than SSD #2 you just bought, but that also means it can't won't work through a SATA adapter -- although even if it could, it would be severely bottlenecked and would perform at best like SSD #2 that you already have, which would completely defeat the point.  In that case it would make more sense to just keep SSD #2 in the 2.5" drive bay for its extra capacity.  The reason M.2 to SATA adapters exist in the first place is because remember earlier I said that M.2 is a slot type -- well, the M.2 slot can accept NVMe SSDs or SATA SSDs, i.e. there are M.2 "circuit board style" SSDs on the market that use SATA rather than NVMe.  You can use those through an M.2 to 2.5" SATA adapter, but they're also no faster than SSD #2 that you already have and where you just noticed a significant performance downgrade from what you originally had.

If you'd like, you can install SSD #3 in your M.2 slot and then keep SSD #2 in your 2.5" drive bay.  Even if you don't think you'll need that and/or would prefer to return SSD #2 to get your money back, it might be useful to do that temporarily just to get SSD #1 migrated over to SSD #3.  Again, there is no way that you can install both SSD #1 and SSD #3 in your system simultaneously since you only have a single M.2 slot, which means you can't direct clone one to the other.  Instead, you'll have to capture an image of SSD #1 to a file somewhere, then shut down the PC, swap in SSD #3, and restore that image file to your new SSD.  That's why I'm saying that SSD #2 could be useful as that intermediate storage point for the image file, or of course you can use an external hard drive if you have one.

My my, this is getting confusing but I think I'm getting the idea. As I understand it, I can have an M2 SSD installed in the M2 slot (Am I getting a little bit better grasp of the terminology?) as my C drive and the 2.5” one for storage in the 2.5” bay without a deterioration of performance.  If necessary, I can remove the 2.5” one after cloning it to the new M2. My 2.5” SSD, by the way, was taken from about a five-year-old Lenovo computer.. It never performed up to my expectations, giving me only a Windows Performance Index of about 6.5, whereas the Precision as it’s configured now gives me 7.5. I don’t expect that figure to improve after I install the new M2, since it’s limited by graphics, but 7.5 ain’t bad. Come to think of it, I think the Lenovo rating was limited by graphics too. Right now I only have the 2.5” SSD installed, so I think when I get the new M2 one tomorrow I'll install it in the empty M2 slot, clone the 2.5” one to it and use the 2.5” one for extra storage as you suggested. If necessary I can remove the 2.5” inch one completely, since I have about 9 TB of storage in external drives. So, I'll really be out only the $15 I spent for the adapter, not worth the time and effort of returning it.

I can't read the all the numbers on the No. 1 M2 SSD even with my most powerful magnifying glass, but I could see that it's a Toshiba manufactured in 2016, and I think the new one will run 2 or 3 times faster according to the specs, so my video editing, which is the main reason for these changes, may go faster and smoother. My video editing has been pretty sluggish with the the No. 1 SSD, so the new faster one should improve that situation. The extra 500 MB of space on the new one will come in handy because I import my videos to my C drive for editing and then return them to the external drive when I’m finished.

It’s a little late in the game for me but I’m still learning stuff. Including, as you have seen, a lot of stuff that ain’t so. Again, thanks for your invaluable advice and patience.

I don't know what happened to the reply I posted last night, but it has disappeared. Basically, how I plan to end up after I receive the M2 card today is the new M2 in the M2 slot as the C drive and the old 2.5" drive in the 2.5" bay as storage. BTW, the 2.5" drive is not one I purchased, but one I took out of another computer.

Thanks again for your help and advice.

That should work.  Good luck!

Just to let you know, I successfully installed the new hard drive, cloned the 2.5" one to it, and removed the 2.5" as per instructions. Computer booted up from the new hard drive successfully. Saved the 2.5" for a few days in case the clone missed something, and sure enough I soon discovered that it had missed a couple of files. Inserted the 2.5" into an external enclosure I keep for that purpose and retrieved the files. Waited a few more days until it appeared that I had everything off it I needed, initialized and formatted the 2.5" in the enclosure with DiskPart, removed it from the enclosure and inserted into the 7510 2.5" bay and now using it for storage. Everything worked without a hitch.

The reason I was so confused at the beginning was that I had no idea that there was such a thing as an M2 drive, and when I found the 2.5" bay empty I was totally confused. Now I'm no longer confused (about that, anyway).

Thanks for everything.