Hi Sabrent Staff:
I performed further testing this weekend using mulitple Samsung 990 Pro 4TB units all updated to the latest firmware. My results are mixed but maybe this helps. Setup is Windows 10 all patched to latest levels for both OS and firmware/BIOS.
All tests were run cloning from a W10 OS 990 Pro 4TB (A) to another 990 Pro 4TB target (B).
A. Target was a NEW, unformatted > The cloning failed. I stopped it after 90+ minutes. The blue LEDs never moved from 25%.
B. Target was a NTFS formatted (1 partition) using a USB (Sabrent EC-SNVE) so it was 1 big "D" drive. > The cloning falied. I stopped it after 90+ minutes. The blue LEDs never moved from 25%. However, when I installed the target (B) into a NVMe/USB Sabrent EC-SNVE case and connected it via a USBC port, diskmanager showed 3 partitions present on the target: Recovery (1000MB), EFI/System (260MB) and OS (3724MB). However, the system would NOT boot to this target and whatever was copied or inside the OS partition was not readable.
C. I then used the Samsung Magician to CLONE a copy of the OS to a fresh target (one of the above) both installed into the laptop. It has 2 x NVMe slots. The Samsung Clone took about 60+ minutes. When the Samsung Clone was done, I removed the original NVME and then placed the CLONED NVME into Slot 0 and the box booted OK.
D. On a whim, I made some changes to the original Windows OS NVme installed in the machine above (C) so I'd know a few files were present that were not present earlier. I then installed the updated NVMe into Slot A of the EC-SSD2. Into slot B, I used the above OLDER SS Magician clone which had all 3 partitions available and was bootable for Slot B but it was missing the few files I'd just created.
I then initiated a EC-SSD2 clone of the original Windows OS (990 Pro 4TB) to this NVme which had all 3 partitions present. Then the EC-SSD2 proceeded to clone the ORIGINAL to the target (B) in ~ 60 minutes - all the LEDs progressed and then stopped blinking when it was done. I then removed the CLONE from slot B, installed it into the original NVMe slot 0 on the Thinkpad (where the original was) and it booted OK. The "new files" I'd created to test if the copy was indeed correct WERE PRESENT.
So it appears there's something happening with the 990 Pro 4TB units during the partitioning stage of the EC-SSD2 cloning operation which does not play nice with empty NVMe, or NVMes if they are NTFS formatted. Only when the partitions on the target (B) were pre-existing and matched the layout / partitions on the ORIGINAL (A) did the cloner work properly. At least for this one test.
This seems like maybe there's a firmware update which could resolve this issue b/c the EC-SSD2 appears it can clone correctly if it gets passed a certain stage which may be related to creating the partitions on the TARGET B. Unsure. IDK how this unit's firmware performs the CLONE exactly... but something is hanging up the 990 4TB clones.
Thanks and I hope this helps you team determine how to resolve. I love this offline cloner as my main backup. Have a great day! G. Mobley
