Upgrade SSD

It looks like I need to upgrade my laptop's SSD. How do I backup my drive? How do I replace the hardware? This post tries to answers these questions.

I'm running Windows 10 on a Dell XPS 13, model 9343. I'm going to upgraded the SSD from 256GB to 1TB. I don't want to use third party software. For better or worse, I'm going to use Window's built-in utilities such as Backup and Restore. I don't know what I'm doing but I'll figure it out as I go. Wish me luck.

Ingredients

External USB Portable Hard Drive - I'll use an old Seagate 1TB drive drive that I already have. A new 2TB external drive costs ~.00.
External USB DVD Writer - This is needed as a work-around to a Windows limitation. I have an old one. A new DVD writer costs ~50.00.
Tools - T5 Torx Screwdriver and a small Phillips #0 Screwdriver. The tool set cost me ~15.00.
New SSD Drive - See below. My 1TB SSD cost ~150.00.
Total Cost - From ~$150.00 to about ~$300.00, depending on how much stuff you already have.

IFIXIT Teardown

Here's a link to the IFIXIT Teardown of the XPS 13. Watch it and then ask "Do we really want/need to do this?" It will void the warantee, which has already expired. I have 2GB of free space, so yeah... I need to do this. IFIXIT Teardown of XPS 13

mSATA vs M.2 SATA vs M.2 NVMe

Your laptop may support mSATA, M.2 SATA or M.2 NVMe. None of these are interchangable, so please read the laptop documentation. Crucial has an SSD selector page that can help pick the correct SSD. My Dell XPS 13 (9343) uses an M.2 SATA so I bought the Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND M.2 Type 2280 Internal SSD for ~$150.00.

Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND M.2 Type 2280 Internal SSD

M.2 Notes

The M.2 Form Factor was initially called the Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF), but how long can you call it next generation, before it becomes the current generation or last generation?
M.2 cards come in three different sizes. The smallest is 2242 (22mm x 42mm), the mid-size is 2260 (22mm x 60mm) and the largest is 2280 (22mm x 80mm). As shown in the above picture, my laptop can use the largest card (2280).
M.2 cards are keyed or notched to prevent them from being plugged into an incompatible socket. The M.2 Form Factor defines 12 key positions labelled A through M (the letter I is skipped). An M.2 SATA card, which I need, has two keys (or notches). The 1^st key is at position B (six pins from the bottom in the above picture) and the 2^nd key is at position M (5 pins from the top). This is referred to a B+M Keyed and can work in a B socket or M socket. Newer XPS 13 laptops support the faster M.2 NVMe SSD which are B-Keyed.

Create a Recovery USB Drive

Windows makes it easy to create a bootable USB Flash Drive. Connect the USB drive, type recovery in the Windowssearch box and then double-click on the Control Panel's recovery app and then follow the prompts. Create Recovery Drive

Create Backup Image of C Drive

It's easy to create a backup image of your C drive using Windows Backup and Restore. Connect the external USB Hard Disk Drive and Navigate to Settings -> Update & Security -> Backup. Click on Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7) and click on Create System Image, select your USB External Hard Disk and then click-through. Create Backup Image Windows 10

Create Rescue Disk [skip this]

The Backup Image is NOT bootable. A separate bootable, rescue disk needs to be created. It's easy to burn a rescue disk to a DVD, but now for some bad news. Windows can only create a Bootable Rescue Disc on a DVD. Windows can't create a Rescue Disc directly onto an external USB Hard Drive. The work-around is shown below. Windows 10 System Repair Disc Error

Here is the work-around to make a bootable USB flash drive.

Create Bootable Rescue DVD
Shrink the partition on the external USB Drive
Create a new partition on the HDD
Make the new partition active, which means bootable
Copy all the files from the Bootable Rescue DVD to the new, active partition

Create System Repair DVD [skip this]

Connect the USB DVD writer and navigate to Settings -> Update & Security -> Backup. Click on Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7) and click on Create system repair disc and click-through.

Shrink Partition on USB Drive [skip this]

The Disk Management program allows you to create, delete and modify partitions and volumes. You need Admin access to run Disk Management.

If you're running in an Admin account then Open File Explorer, right-click on This PC, and then click on Manager.

Start Powershell [skip this]

If you're running in a standard user account I commend you, but I only know how to to run Disk Management from the Powershell. Type powershell into the start search box, right-click on the powershell icon, and click Run as adminstrator. At the powershell prompt type compmgmt.msc. Run Computer Management from Powershell

In the Computer Management window click on Disk Management. Right-click on the partition you want to shrink (it should be the only partition on the USB Hard Drive), and the click Shrink volume....

I want to shrink the volume by 2GB. 1GB should be enough for a Recovery Disk, plus another 1GB for good measure. Typed 2048 in the Enter the amount of space to shrink field and click Shrink. Enter amount to shrink partition

Create Partition on USB Drive [skip this]

We now have 2 GBytes of unallocated space on the external drive. The next few steps will allocate and format the space and make it bootable. Right-click on the unallocated space, select New simple volume, make sure the type is NTFS, and click-through. Create New Simple Volume

Make Partition Bootable [skip this]

This step makes the new partition bootable. Right-click on the partition and see if you can make the partition active. If not then open powershell and type diskpart. At the DISKPART> prompt enter the following.


list disk
select disk 1
list partition
select partition 2 (pick the partition that is about 2GB (2048MB) )
active
exit

diskpart makes partition active and bootable The external HDD's new partition should now be active and bootable.

The following diskpart commands remove all contents from the flash drive, create a new partition and make it bootable (active).


diskpart
list disk
select disk 1
list partition
clean (WARNING: This deletes everything from drive.  There are no "are you sure?" prompts)
list partition
create partition primary
list partition
select partition 1
format fs=fat32 label="Rescue Disk" quick
active
exit

Pro Tip: You can use 3-letter shortcuts in diskpart. For example, instead of typing select partition 1 you can type sel par 1. Here's how to format a bootable partition Like a Boss.


diskpart
lis dis
sel dis 1
lis par
cle (NO WARNING NEEDED. YOU'RE A BOSS)
lis par
cre par pri
lis par
sel par 1
for fs=fat32 label=Win10Rescue quick
act
exi

File Format Notes

File Systems - TL;DR: Use FAT32. Windows supports four file system types. FAT (or FAT16) supports drives up to 4GBytes. FAT32 supports drives up to 2TBytes (2000 GBytes) and files up to 4GBytes. exFAT is the newest and supports huge files and drives. NTFS is a journaling file system, that helps recover from a crash or power loss, and is typically used for internal drives but not so much for USB drives. My BIOS can boot from FAT32 and NTFS.
Quick vs Full - TL;DR: Use Quick. The Full format is slow because it checks for bad sectors by writing and reading every location. The Full is useful for wiping the USB drive, but it takes a while.
Label Length - The label must be less than 12 Characters for FAT (FAT16, FAT32 and exFAT). NTFS supports longer labels.

Copy System Repair DVD to Bootable Partion [skip this]

Open the File Explorer, navigate to the DVD player and select all of the files and folders (I use Ctrl+A to select all and Ctrl+C to put the files and folders into the copy buffer). Then navigate to the new partition on the external Hard Disk Drive and paste the files (I use Ctrl+V). The new partition now contains the Rescue Disc and is ready to be booted.

Change Boot Order

The laptop has a boot order that is contained in the BIOS. This order needs to be changed to boot from the external Drive. Disconnect the DVD player but leave the USB drive connected.

To edit the BIOS reboot the laptop and repeatedly press F2 (once a second should be fast enough). The BIOS window should open showing the boot order. Navigate to the Boot Order field. You should see the USB drive in the list. Select it and use the arrow to move it to the top of the list. Make the USB Drive the first entry.

Exit the BIOS screen. The laptop should boot from the USB drive and display the Recovery screen.

Restore the Backup Image

The laptop should have booted from the USB drive. Select Troubleshoot -> System Image Recovery -> Windows 10. The Recovery program will search for any backup images. We're going to stop here but the next step would be to select the most recent backup image and the restore should begin and the backup image is written to the C-drive.

Upgrade SSD on Laptop

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