MP 7,1 Adding a single M.2 SSD to my 7,1 for BootCamp/Windows

[Z28McCrory]

I'm currently using bootcamp to run Windows on a 500GB partition of the factory 2TB SSD that came in my 7,1.

I'm using Windows more than I originally anticipated, and I would like to get rid of the 500GB partition and just add a separate internal 2TB drive for Windows.

I started reading through the PCIe SSD pinned thread and my eyes started glazing over. Most of that thread is talking about running multiple M.2 drives in RAID, etc, and I'm having a bit of trouble deciphering what parts actually apply to my use case.

What I would like to do is simply add a PCIe card with a single 2 TB M.2 drive on it, and then clone the current Windows partition onto that new drive so that I can reclaim the entire factory 2TB drive for Mac OS, plus have a second separate drive with Windows on it.

The speed of a single M.2 drive will more than satisfy my needs. This is only going to be used for games and other software that I have to use Windows.

Can someone please suggest a single slot M.2 PCIe card that will work for this, as well as a suggestion for the M.2 SSD itself. I was looking at the Samsung 970 EVO 2TB ($349) or the Sabrent Rocket 2TB ($279), but I'm open to whatever will be the most stable and (hopefully) problem free.

Also, I've only been using Bootcamp/Windows for a couple months, and this was the first time I ever set it up. I assume Bootcamp will work the same if Windows is installed on a separate drive?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[LeonPro]

I'm using this brand: Micro Connectors PCIE-M20803HS. Of course it was expensive in Canada but looks cheap in the USA - https://www.amazon.com/Micro-Connec...ords=PCIE-M20803HS&qid=1595306425&sr=8-1&th=1

It came with a lot of spare screws. I love the massive heat sink and dual heat pads for the top and bottom of the SSD card.

I paired it with a Samsung 970 Evo Plus.

No issues at all.

 

[Z28McCrory]

I'm using this brand: Micro Connectors PCIE-M20803HS. Of course it was expensive in Canada but looks cheap in the USA - https://www.amazon.com/Micro-Connec...ords=PCIE-M20803HS&qid=1595306425&sr=8-1&th=1

It came with a lot of spare screws. I love the massive heat sink and dual heat pads for the top and bottom of the SSD card.

I paired it with a Samsung 970 Evo Plus.

No issues at all.

Thank you for the reply.

Are you running Windows on the 970 Evo Plus? I started reading up on installing Windows on a 2nd drive with Bootcamp and found some mixed info on whether its possible to have Windows on the non-primary drive. They seemed to all be older articles/threads though.

Ideally, I'm hoping to be able to simply clone everything on my current Bootcamp Windows partition onto the new M.2 SSD, and continue forward as if nothing has changed. I'd like to avoid starting from scratch on the Windows install. Think that's possible?

 

[LeonPro]

I can't help in that aspect as I tried installing Windows 10 on an external SSD following YouTube tutorial but at the tail end of the process it didn't finish setting up. Maybe a driver issue.

I ended up reinstalling with Apple's SSD and no further issues.

 

[ZoomEnhance]

Ideally, I'm hoping to be able to simply clone everything on my current Bootcamp Windows partition onto the new M.2 SSD, and continue forward as if nothing has changed. I'd like to avoid starting from scratch on the Windows install. Think that's possible?

No idea if a cloning BootCamp to external SSD will boot. I wonder how EFI works in that case? Worth a try though.

But you _can_ install and boot Windows 10 to an external disk. It's roundabout, but worked for me:

Booting from external USB SSD?

I got this working. Since I already have Parallels, I ended up using a modified version of Vtudio's process from this thread. But I've seen both 9to5Mac's old and new videos and it seems like they should work. I don't have VMWare so YMMV. My aim was to install Windows on a PCIe SSD, but...

forums.macrumors.com

I used a U.2 SSD, but don't see why a M.2 wouldn't work.

Does Windows have a TimeMachine-like feature that allows you to restore over a fresh install?

 

[Z28McCrory]

No idea if a cloning BootCamp to external SSD will boot. I wonder how EFI works in that case? Worth a try though.

But you _can_ install and boot Windows 10 to an external disk. It's roundabout, but worked for me:

Booting from external USB SSD?

I got this working. Since I already have Parallels, I ended up using a modified version of Vtudio's process from this thread. But I've seen both 9to5Mac's old and new videos and it seems like they should work. I don't have VMWare so YMMV. My aim was to install Windows on a PCIe SSD, but...

forums.macrumors.com

I used a U.2 SSD, but don't see why a M.2 wouldn't work.

Does Windows have a TimeMachine-like feature that allows you to restore over a fresh install?

Thanks for the link and info.

This is where I start to get lost. I'm not sure what EFI even is. I'm trying to wrap my head around what BootCamp is actually doing and if there will possibility be some underlying reason why it won't let me option-boot into Windows the same way I'm doing now. Does it simply scan for all viable attached drives, and determine which ones have operating systems installed on them? Or is there some secret handshake thats taking place, and is setup during the initial install (and therefore moving to a different drive/partition would unlink everything)

It's been a long time since I used Windows (switched over to all Mac about 8 years ago). I was hoping I could simply use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the current Windows partition onto the new separate SSD.

I haven't made the purchase yet. I'm hesitant to spend ~$400 for something that may not even work that way I hope. If I'm being completely honest, the only reason I want this is for gaming... I haven't done any PC gaming for quite a while but I may as well take advantage of this computer if thats one more added perk I can get out of it. So it's not extremely high up my priority list, but definitely something I'd like to do sooner vs later.

 

[ZoomEnhance]

To put it simply, your disk needs some bits to tell the platform it has a bootable OS. If you were to CCClone your whole disk to another device, you could boot from it because CCC clones the necessary bits. But for extracting just the Windows bits to another device, I'm not sure. Someone else has had the same issue, no doubt, so you'll have some googling to do.

But if worst comes to worst, backup your game saves and re-install Windows using the above method.