Problem cloning NVME with my DCS install

[Beirut]

Hello,

 

I want to clone my 1TB ADATA  DCS-only Steam install NVME drive info to a new Samsung 2TB NVME that I have hooked up in an external case. The Samsung Migration Tool says my ADATA 1TB drive is not supported. And thus my headache.

 

I was curious what would happen if I just created a new Steam folder in the new 2TB NVME and used the Steam function to migrate DCS over to that NVME, and then just took out the old 1TB NVME and put in the new 2TB one. Would that work?

 

This is past my mental snack bracket and any help is appreciated. Thank you.

[Smashy]

That might work but I'm not sure how Steam handles potential drive re-lettering.

Another option is to try Macrium Reflect.  It's a great backup/recovery tool and I've used it to clone drives seamlessly several times.

[Beirut]

8 hours ago, Smashy said:

That might work but I'm not sure how Steam handles potential drive re-lettering.

 

That was/is a concern.

 

8 hours ago, Smashy said:

Another option is to try Macrium Reflect.  It's a great backup/recovery tool and I've used it to clone drives seamlessly several times.

 

I saw a video about that but wasn't sure. Thank you for putting in a good word about it. I might just do that. 

 

Just FYI: I started the move my DCS install last night. Hit "move" and went to bed while close to 1TB of DCS goodness went from here to there. Woke up, PC was off, started it up, and the move was stopped at half. Figured I was McScrewed. But my internal Steam install still works. Gotta hand it to Steam for covering for people like me.

 

 

[Smashy]

Hmm, it looks like Reflect is now subscription-based.  F-that, forget I mentioned it or just use the free trial period to clone your drive.  I got Reflect when it was a one-time buy but can't recommend a subscription-based solution, no matter how good it is.

[Nightdare]

With my game drive full, having to separate DCS from the rest, later buying a 4TB drive and rearranging everything, I have shifted my DCS (non steam), Steam AND drive letters the past few months, and had no problems just cutting and pasting the files from/to drives, only shortcuts were screwed up

Only had to check in steam which drive the game install was designated

[Beirut]

I have the free trial of Macrium and will use that today. 

 

@Nightdare Was thinking of that but I'm sure I'll screw the pooch somewhere. I wish I was better at this kind of stuff. 

[Despayre]

1 hour ago, Beirut said:

I have the free trial of Macrium and will use that today. 

 

@Nightdare Was thinking of that but I'm sure I'll screw the pooch somewhere. I wish I was better at this kind of stuff. 

Practice makes perfect, you're about to get better at it.

I did the exact same thing recently, moving from a 1 to a 2TB M. drive. I used Easeus Partition Master to do it, but it's the same procedure. As long as you don't screw up the "origin" and "destination" drive choices, it's pretty-much foolproof (I have to say "pretty much" cuz I've been on Reddit, where they seem to produce a higher quality fool ).

Edited April 27 by Despayre
typo

[some1]

15 hours ago, Beirut said:

I was curious what would happen if I just created a new Steam folder in the new 2TB NVME and used the Steam function to migrate DCS over to that NVME, and then just took out the old 1TB NVME and put in the new 2TB one. Would that work?

It's even simpler than that. Don't touch Steam, just copy the folder from old drive to the new one, turn off PC, replace drives, turn on PC. Last but not least check if Windows assigned the same drive letter to the new drive as was used by the old drive, if not, correct that in Disk Management.

That's all. No need to fiddle with 3rd party cloning or partitioning software.

Edited April 27 by some1

[Beirut]

Success! 

 

Ended up cloning the drive with Macrium and all is well. 2TB of NVME goodness. But I dumped almost all the maps out before I did - still took a few hours - so I have a wee bit of downloading to do. At least that is stress free. 

 

Thanks to all for holding my hand as I crossed the technological street.

[Smashy]

Yay!  I'm guessing the external chassis was a bit of a bottleneck.  An NVMe-to-NVMe should be relatively fast.  When I've backed up my 800-1000GB DCS install it takes under an hour and that's going from NVMe to HDD.  I also use Macrium to save an image of a greenfield DCS install that I can deploy to test when things break.  Just to make sure it's me and not you before reporting any bugs or problems.

[Beirut]

I had to use an external case for the NVME because my ancient MB only has one M.2 slot. I think the cloning was about 350GB and about three-hours, as opposed the original 800GB that was on the drive. Fortunately Steam has good D/L speeds so it's not to bad to re-download a whack'o maps. Getting Kola, SA, Iraq and Afghan back is a chunk! And the other maps on top of that. Might set the record for a one-day bandwidth usage on my account. But they did say it was unlimited, so... And I'll be downloading for several more hours.

 

The only issue I had was that the cloning left the new drive listed as F: while the original cloned drive was E:. But Steam didn't seem to have a problem with that and the sim fired up just fine. I'm guessing the final install will run about 1.3TB. We'll see.

[MAXsenna]

I had to use an external case for the NVME because my ancient MB only has one M.2 slot. I think the cloning was about 350GB and about three-hours, as opposed the original 800GB that was on the drive. Fortunately Steam has good D/L speeds so it's not to bad to re-download a whack'o maps. Getting Kola, SA, Iraq and Afghan back is a chunk! And the other maps on top of that. Might set the record for a one-day bandwidth usage on my account. But they did say it was unlimited, so... And I'll be downloading for several more hours.
 
The only issue I had was that the cloning left the new drive listed as F: while the original cloned drive was E:. But Steam didn't seem to have a problem with that and the sim fired up just fine. I'm guessing the final install will run about 1.3TB. We'll see.

What is your OS on? Normally you should have been able to make a new Steam Library on the external drive, and then just move your DCS install into that library. Swap the physical drives, then import the Steam Library, or just have the new installed drive as the same drive name/letter as the one you removed.
Or you could have installed the new drive first, have the old one as the external. Import the Steam Library on the old drive. Then make a new library on the new drive, and move DCS. Steam is actually really smart, so no other software should be required, as long as you keep the OS installed on a seperate drive.
For future referanse, GOG and Epic works in sort of the same ways.
Cheers!


Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[Beirut]

1 hour ago, MAXsenna said:

What is your OS on? Normally you should have been able to make a new Steam Library on the external drive, and then just move your DCS install into that library. Swap the physical drives, then import the Steam Library, or just have the new installed drive as the same drive name/letter as the one you removed.
Or you could have installed the new drive first, have the old one as the external. Import the Steam Library on the old drive. Then make a new library on the new drive, and move DCS. Steam is actually really smart, so no other software should be required, as long as you keep the OS installed on a seperate drive.
For future referanse, GOG and Epic works in sort of the same ways.
Cheers!


Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk
 

 

And where were you when I needed you? 

 

The OS is on a 1TB SSD C drive, and DCS was all alone on a 1TB NVME E: drive. Now DCS is all alone on a 2TB NVME. And there's no question I could have done this more efficiently, but my concern was being able to do it at all without screwing the pooch beyond all repair. As it turns out the only hiccup was the drive letter on the new install is F: and the old was E:, and Steam doesn't seem to care.

 

And now I have all my lovely maps installed. 'Cause ya gotta have all your lovely maps installed. 

[BitMaster]

Yeah, this was somehow mismanaged and overdone LoL.

 

I know of 1000 ways to do it easier than what you did, Beirut...oh man.....copy paste done...it's Steam !