XPS 8930, help with replacing SSD boot drive

If you are okay with clean install, then I would suggest you do a fresh clean install of Windows 10 on the NVMe ssd.  It is good idea you changed sata operation to AHCI.  Clean install of OS may be more straightforward than cloning from old ssd.    Downside is losing old data. You would need to reinstall custom applications.

clean install uses a bootable usb media prepared by MS media creation tool.  All old partitions on the new ssd will be deleted, then new partitions created, primary partition formatted.

@dteckie Can you tell us the process you used to clone to the new WD SSD because I suspect a cloning error? You cannot change SATA operation from RAID to AHCI by just changing the setting in the BIOS; there is a procedure the needs to be followed to do that. (Note that in the procedure the BIOS change in mot made until you get to step 4) I assume you were booting from the 256G SSD previously so you should not need to change the boot priority to boot from the new replacement SSD. 

Not an Option. It would take me several days to re install all the software, drivers config. Serial Numbers etc. Back in the old days you get CD's with installation apps and SN on the cd. Today everything is Downloaded and Trying to find  where all the App S/n are will be a nightmare. If have always cloned my boot drive in case of drive dies or gets corrupted. Which it has happened several times in my pc life since windows 3. I'd rather just get a fresh new PC than have to re install OS.

Don't believe it's a cloning error because the SSD boots fine it just takes a long time compared to original SSD I replaced. All I did was replace the boot pciE 256G SSD which came with Purchased Dell pc. It was running out of storage space. I replaced it with a WD 500g SSD. I initiated the New SSD and then connected it to SATA cable and used Acronis Clone app to clone original boot SSD. If I replace the old SSD it boots up within 30 - 35 seconds to boot up. The new Cloned SSD takes almost 2 minutes to boot up.

Roho I'm not using the realtek Audio. I have it disabled. I'm using A Sound Blaster Card for all audio. It's far superior than realtek and it's 5.1 speakers. I'm into music and need a good audio sound system.

Re: I replaced 256G SSD card with a WD black SN750 Nvme 500GB ssd that was cloned from original 256G that was on XPS 8930. Now the PC boots extremely slow. I tried switching from RAID to AHCI but would not boot.  I would like to also change the boot priority to boot from the cloned SSD but can't seem to get there on BIOS.

Was the original 8930 256Gb ssd a 2.5 sata ssd?  I presume the old ssd was connected to sata cables, and new ssd installed in M.2 slot.
If your cloning was performed when bios was set to RAID, then that might be a problem.  If you have afterwards switched sata operation to AHCI inside bios, then I would suggest boot from the old ssd and try to clone again (see “best solution” below)

Re: All I did was replace the boot pciE 256G SSD which came with Purchased Dell pc. It was running out of storage space. I replaced it with a WD 500g SSD. I initiated the New SSD and then connected it to SATA cable and used Acronis Clone app to clone original boot SSD.

one user had similar extremely slow boot issue and found this the “best solution”:

Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I replaced the original factory SSD 256G with the 500G WD Black SN750 NVMe. I connected SSD card with an USB adapter from Amazon.  It connects the M.2 SSD card to USB3 port. Sorry for the wrong info on connecting to Sata.

. It's been a few weeks and I have forgotten some of the steps. The adapter was only 19.99 and it was the only way I can connect the PCIE card to the PC to clone it.

@dteckie I am confused. You stated originally that the WD is a SN750 NVMe 500 GB SSD, but now you stated you initiated the new SSD and then connected it to a SATA cable. How can you connect a NVMe SSD with a SATA cable?

Re: I replaced the original factory SSD 256G with the 500G WD Black SN750 NVMe. I connected SSD card with an USB adapter from Amazon.  It connects the M.2 SSD card to USB3 port.  The adapter was the only way I can connect the PCIE card to the PC to clone it.

Was the original ssd also M.2?  Which USB adapter are you using to connect the new ssd?  I am not certain this is a good way to connect NVMe ssd and clone.  Are you booting off the new ssd also via the USB adapter?

@dteckie I understand now. I have to believe there is something in the cloning process that is causing this problem otherwise both drives should behave the same because the cloned drive should be identical to the original drive. I assume you have a hard drive so I would recommend that you use Macrium Reflect Free Edition to image each partition of the original SSD and save those images to the hard drive. Use Disk Management to see all the partitions on the origiinal drive. Once all the partitions are imaged, use Macrium to create Rescue Media (from Macrium's Other Tasks menu) on an USB drive. Install the new SSD, boot from the Rescue Media and then restore each partition separately, in the same order according to Disk Management, to the new SSD. When you get to restoring the OS partition, expand it on the new SSD to use the new additional space. Cloning this way avoids the use of an USB adapter.

No! NO! NO! I was responding to Iridium's question on how I cloned the new larger SSD. I will try to explain again how I cloned the new 500G SSD from The factory installed Boot  Disk 256K SSD. The original 256G SSD that came with the PC is a M.2 NVME SSD card which is installed on a connector on the motherboard.  I believe the connector is a PCI E connector not 100% certain on what type of connector. In order to clone the new 500G SSD I purchased an adapter that allows you to use and SSD NVME card on a USB port. Here is Amazon website https://www.amazon.com/s?k=m.2+ssd+card+adapter+to+usb+port&crid=3TVZE3HNSQ8JZ&sprefix=m.2+ssd+card+adapter+to+usb+port%2Caps%2C118&ref=nb_sb_noss

The adapter allowed me to initialize the 500G SSD drive as a boot disk trough a USB port on the PC. After initializing the 500G SSD, I used Acronis software to Clone the the new disk from the original boot drive 256G that was originally on PC. Therefore The 500G is a clone of the 256G boot drive. Then I replaced the 256G SSD Card drive with the 500G SSD boot drive on the motherboard. I hope this clears things a bit. 

Thank you for clarifying your original ssd spec and cloning process.  Community accepted way to clone NVMe ssd to NVMe ssd is:

“Macrium Reflect will do the job -- the free version will work fine.”

Use an external drive -- make an image of the original drive to an external hard disk drive or ssd (e.g., with a USB to SATA cable).  Then prepare a flash drive with the Macrium Reflect recovery media.  

Swap the new NVMe drive in place of the original one.  Boot the system from the Reflect recovery flash drive (F12 at powerup with it connected) and restore the image to the new drive.  Shut down, disconnect the external drive and remove the recovery flash drive.  The system should then boot correctly from the new NVMe drive.

@dteckie  - Now I'm even more confused than anybody else in this thread...

Are you saying you're booting the PC from the new SSD which is still connected via an adapter to a USB3 port? Or is that just how you cloned the old SSD and then swapped the new SSD into the motherboard M.2 NVME slot?

Did the WD SSD come with its own drivers and did you install them? And as @Vic384 already said, some SSDs don't work well when BIOS is set to RAID instead of AHCI, and you have to follow the right steps to configure Win 10 before changing BIOS to AHCI.