XPS 8910, making NVMe SSD the boot drive

@BillySea86 I don't recall advising changing the HDD from RAID to AHCI before cloning. The reason I don't recommend that is that the HDD is your backup in case something goes wrong with the change from RAID to AHCI. If you clone first and make the RAID to AHCI to the SSD and something goes wrong you can always clone the HDD again. 

So I recommend 1) clone the HDD to the SSD, 2) when cloning is completed disconnect the HDD before booting from the SSD, 3) boot and test the SSD, 4) switch Windows on the SSD from RAID to AHCI, 5) boot and test the SSD. If everything works, reconnect the HDD, boot from the SSD using the F12 Boot Menu, and then reinitialize the HDD to use as additional storage. 

As far as removing unneeded junk from the HDD, Windows does have a tool called Disk Cleanup. If you right-click on the C drive in File Explorer and select Properties, the Disk Cleanup tool is in the General tab. I am not sure how helpful Disk Cleanup will be since Windows tends to save a lot of files that do not show up in Disk Cleanup. If your NVMe SSD is smaller than your HDD, probably the best approach is the backup all your user-created data and restore it to the HDD after you reinitialize it.

Apologies. I must've misunderstood one of your earlier posts. The new SSD is same size as the old HDD.

Thanks for laying out the process this go-round. Yes, I've used the Disk Cleanup but, as you say, I'm not sure how good it is at really getting rid of the gunk that builds up over the years... and this 8910 is five years old. Ancient in tech time. 

Thanks again!

@BillySea86 Since your new SSD is the same size as the old HDD you should not have to worry too much about getting rid of the gunk that builds up. After you have your new SSD set up and have reinitialized the old HDD, I suggest you use Windows 10 capability to specify another drive for additional storage. 

In Windows 10 it is easy to specify another drive for additional storage. Go to All settings / System / Storage / click on "Change where new content is saved" / then change where new apps, new documents, new music, new photos, new movies, etc. are saved. Note that existing documents, music, photos, movies, etc. remain in their current locations (your new SSD) and have to be moved (copied to the new locations (your HDD) and deleted (if you wish) from the old locations (New SSD)). Existing apps have to be uninstalled and reinstalled, except that some apps prefer to be installed on the OS drive. Also, some apps default to saving content on the C drive.

Hi. Used Samsung Data Migration to clone old HDD to 980 NVMe SSD. Shut down. Unplugged HDD. Rebooted from new SSD. Will leave HDD unplugged for now to make sure things are stable. Thanks for your help getting this far!

A hang-up: Samsung Magician reports that the device is connected to a driver Magician does not support. The SSD is recognized in system devices and seems to be working fine. There is no NVMe driver on the Samsung website for the 980 or 980 Pro. There is a driver for the 970 and 960 lines. After Googling the issue, I found a board that said the 970 driver would work. Who knows if that's accurate?

Also, there is firmware for my 980 I downloaded. It's an .iso file. Thought maybe that would fix the issue, but I don't see an executable to launch/run anything, so I can't run/install it? Here's what I get when I click the .iso file... 

Any suggestions greatly appreciated! 

@BillySea86 Have you run the procedure to change the SSD from RAID to AHCI? If you are running Samsung Magician and it is only complaining about the driver then I assume you did. Samsung Magician can update the firmware without requiring you to separately download the firmware .iso file. In the Samsung Magician app, click on Update in the lower left-hand corner.

Regarding installing the firmware using the .iso file, there is an NVMe SSD-Firmware Installation Guide available for download on the page you downloaded the .iso file. Here is the link: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/global.semi.static/Firmware_Update_Utility_UserManual.pdf

I don't have anything to add about an NVMe driver not being available for the Samsung 980 or 980 Pro. I found this discussion about using the 970 driver: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?123288-Unable-to-install-Samsung-NVMe-drivers-on-SAMSUNG-980-PRO-1TB-SSD-Win10

I had not run the procedure to change the SSD from RAID to AHCI as of yesterday (1/23). I have now using @RoHe process. That worked smoothly.  Samsung Magician is now "seeing" the SSD, and I got a message that new firmware was available. Updated that as well. Things are up and running! Magician seems happy.

My old HDD is still disconnected. I'll leave it sit until I'm sure the SSD is stable.  Thanks again so much for your help! -- Billy

Hi. This worked great! Am up and running in AHCI mode with the SSD, and Samsung Magician seems happy. Thanks so much for the assist! -- Billy

Thanks! Will do. 

Glad you made Samsung happy...

Don't forget:  After you reconnect the old HDD, you have to use the F12 menu to boot from the SSD. If you boot 'normally', Windows will always try to boot from the old HDD. That will fail because BIOS is now set to AHCI, but Windows on the HDD was installed when it was set to RAID.

So after you boot from the SSD via the F12 menu, run Windows Disk Management to initialize the HDD (ALL FILES DELETED!). When that's done, shutdown normally and now you can boot normally and PC will boot directly from the SSD, and the HDD can be used for routine storage.

And if @Vic384 and I have answered all your questions, please mark this thread Solved....

Thank you for this post. I had looked high and low for a cohesive solution however found none until I found your post. Unfortunately, I can't get the results of the SSD becoming the boot drive, and I may have made a mistake. I have to take a break and come back at it fresh. 

@EMarioc  - Exactly what PC model?

Give us some details on your system config, how you did the update and where the problem making the SSD the boot drive is.

If you've successfully imaged the new SSD (or did a clean install of Windows on it), did you disconnect the old boot drive from the motherboard, and see if PC boots "normally" from the new SSD?

As long as an SSD and HDD, each with the OS on it, are connected, the PC will always boot from the HDD.  If PC boots normally from the SSD with boot HDD disconnected, reconnect the HDD. Then reboot PC and tap F12 to open the boot menu. Select the option to boot from the new SSD.

When you get to desktop, open Windows Disk Management and initialize the HDD. (ALL FILES DELETED!) Then reboot normally and PC should boot from the SSD and you can use the HDD for storage.

Remember to back up the HDD before you initialize it so you won't lose anything that's on it now...

Dell XPS 8930 with two HDDs 1 2TB (Boot Drive) and 1 1TB
Added Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD
I migrated the OS HDD to the new SSD using EaseUS Software
I did not disconnect Bootable HDD before F12 booting to SSD
I then discovered I could not change the boot order
I then tried taking the old boot drive 'offline' in computer management (windows 11)
I then put the bootable OS HDD back online
The PC still requires booting with F12 to choose to boot to the SSD
Next, I booted to HDD with OS to attempt bcdedit. However, it would not load windows 11. It took me to recovery options. I did not realize I should use the cmd prompt to execute your bcdedit command. Next, I need to test your prescribed resolution to get the SDD to be the default boot. 

I must execute the boot to Old OS HDD and command the safe mode. Once I do, I will reply.

@EMarioc  - You should have started your own new thread since you don't have the same PC model as was discussed in this thread.

You should not be doing anything to bcd files on either drive.

You should not change the boot sequence in BIOS setup. Windows Boot Manager should always be first on the boot list, regardless of what drive is the actual boot drive.

As long as the old HDD boot drive is connected to the motherboard, the PC is always going to boot from that HDD, unless you boot from the new SSD via the F12 menu.

Boot from the SSD via F12 and be certain everything works correctly. Then open Disk Management. Select the old HDD boot drive and initialize it. (ALL FILES DELETED!). Then shut down normally in Windows and at next boot, PC should boot directly from the new SSD, without using F12.

BTW: Samsung SSDs and software don't work well if BIOS is set to RAID. So after you get PC booting directly booting from this SSD, you may need to reconfigure Windows to use AHCI, instead of RAID. You cannot just go into BIOS setup and change the setting to AHCI because you'll make the PC unbootable and you'll lose everything.

Get the PC booting directly from the SSD first and then we can discuss the correct way to change BIOS from RAID to AHCI so you won't lose anything.

@RoHe​ I wonder if you could give me some insight with generally the same problem.  I have an xps 8910 (which I bought new) and decided to replace the 2TB c: drive just because it is old.  I put in a samsung SSD 870 EVO SATA drive and the second slot and it works great and is just in storage mode now.  What I want to do is put a samsung 970 EVO Plus card into the m.2 slot that is next to the SATA sockets and clone the c: disk to that so it becomes the main boot disk.  Now, here is the bug.  there is a Liteon 32GB card in that slot already and it is somehow associated with the c: drive  and the machine will not boot up without it.  It has been really hard to find definitive info on this.  it is listed on the bios main page as HDD 1 and in disk management volume list there are three lines showing partitions there.  In the lower window those partitions are combined as disk 1 along with the c: drive.  I have seen videos of this model dell with an empty m.2 slot so I cannot find info on how to go about this.  Your thoughts would be very appreciated.  Thanks.