Followed this guide, works like a charm. For the prying part, I used an old credit card to pry open near the top vent, then by pulling the vent part back a bit by my left hand, I squeezed on the right handle and pulled it off. This was far, far easier than trying to pry every side.
Thank you. Replaced a 256GB with a 1TB in my sons steam deck. I used a plastic removal tool and no problems opening the case gently. Your method is the best and fastest method. Took 6 minutes opening the case slowly and 7 minutes slowly taking out the old storage and putting in the new storage. 3 minutes to close up and all set.
Just finished this process on my 64GB Steam Deck and everything is working great so far! However, I did spend some unnecessary time and money returning my first SSD and enclosure because I thought they were faulty; when I would run the provided command, it would say that /dev/sda was not found, and no mounted drives would appear. What I eventually discovered (by looking in KDE Partition Manager) is that my Steam Deck had the drive set to /dev/sdc instead. Once I updated the command accordingly, everything else worked perfectly.
Thank you for the excellent tutorial! One key thing for anyone trying this. Make sure you setup the password and use type "sudo" before you paste the clone command. You can see he types it in Konsole but it is not included in the clone command in the description.
@Davy Chiu thank you! Worked like a charm. Upgraded a full 512gb ssd to a 1tb one. It was pretty damn quick too! Everything transferred over almost seamlessly. A couple of settings here and there were off but nothing significant.
@@DavyChiu One question, does this process only works once on each drive or can I clone the same drive as many times I want? I wanted to buy a couple of 2Tb SSDs and use one as the main and another as local backup. Thanks for the help.
For those who cannot make it work: I also had the issue of getting stuck in the Steam logo even though I could launch my Windows 11 partition and allocate the extra/new space. No solution could make Steam OS run, even when trying to reinstall or reimage by using an external drive. In the end, I had to use Macrium Reflect to copy/create an image of the original SD SSD and recreate in the new SSD (it took me 6 hours). After doing this, I can launch Steam OS and Windows 11 as normal and all my games and settings are in the new SSD drive. Good luck and thanks to the creator of this video!
Just wanted to say thank you SO MUCH for leaving this comment. Based on most of the comments I see here it looks like the dd clone method has worked great for many, but I ran into the same exact issue you mentioned with the infinite Steam logo on boot after cloning. Although using Macrium Reflect to back up my old SSD and restore to the new one took a while (about 6 hours for me as well), I was just able to boot (and restart) successfully with the new larger SSD installed. Would never have known to use Macrium Reflect if it hadn't been for your comment here, so thanks again very much!
ive been messing around with this for hours. but do you need to housings to copy it over? or can you first copy die image to pc and then write it to destination? @@cdleveille
I had the same issue. What I did was reinstall the original MVMe and everything worked fine. After, I just cloned the new MVMe again and reinstalled it. Everything worked fine after that. Basically it looks like something got corrupted on the initial attempt.
1. If your device is stuck on the boot logo, consider this alternative solution. First, place your original SSD into a Type-C enclosure and boot from it. 2. Open a terminal and run the following command. Please note that you may need to modify it based on your specific drive names: ``` sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/nvme0n1 bs=4K status=progress ``` 3. To identify your drives and their respective names, use the 'lsblk' command in the Konsole. 4. If you encounter any difficulties, feel free to ask ChatGPT for assistance, as it's how I developed this fix. Following these steps successfully should resolve the issue, and your drive should work perfectly without being stuck on the boot logo.
clone command: sudo dd if=/dev/nvme0n1 of=/dev/sda oflag-sync bs=128M status=progress This is a command to clone the entire disk of /dev/nvme0n1 to /dev/sda using the dd command. The if option specifies the input file, which is the source disk /dev/nvme0n1, and the of option specifies the output file, which is the destination disk /dev/sda. The oflag-sync option is used to ensure that data is written to the output file synchronously, which makes the cloning process slower but ensures that all data is written correctly. The bs=128M option specifies the block size to be used when reading and writing data. A larger block size can improve performance but also increases the risk of data loss if the process is interrupted. The status=progress option is used to show the progress of the cloning process in real-time. Note that the sudo command is used to run the dd command as a superuser, which is necessary to access the disk devices. This command should be used with caution as it can overwrite data on the destination disk and cause data loss if not used properly.
@@lyndongaming - so far mine is working great and I have had zero issues (*knock on wood*). I did not dual boot so I've honestly not tried that part of it - just booting into SteamOS only.
Fantastic video, massive help! Only thing I would add: I had unallocated space on my 1tb after the clone command was successful. This partition was easily fixed (resized) by using the KDE partition manager utility in desktop mode on the Steam Deck. Once fixed, then I replaced the 64gb inside the Steam Deck.
how did you resize it in the partition manager im having trouble when i resize it dose not let make it bigger im using a 1tb as well did you resize before or after installing it?
@@ReZiDenTEv1L I resized before installing it. In my case, right clicked on the sda8 partition and dragged the slider all the way to the right. Unallocated space was showing as a yellow bar. Failing that, just install the 1tb after running the command, the Steam Deck resizes the partition automatically (found this out whilst doing a second Deck).
I have no unallocated space. Somehow DD did spread a 227gb /home partition over the whole of 900gb, no empty space before and after left. I checked with macOS Disk Manager but it shows the same 931gb disk which is full with only the small boot, swap etc partitions and the 227gb /home.
Word of advice for anyone looking to do this: Once you boot into the drive, let it run for a bit. I shut my unit down right after it booted in so I could screw the back on, and it would not boot into SteamOS anymore. A reclone, successful boot, and waiting a bit resolved the issue. Drive is now dual booted with no issues.
Same thing is happening to me. I turned it on, saw that everything worked perfect, turned it off to finish closing it up. Then it never booted back up. So you restared the whole process and that solved your issue?
@@SiriusLee128 Yes, i put the other ssd back in, recloned, installed the new ssd, turned on and let it run for 10 min, after which i tested a few restarts and a few shut downs
Was quick and easy to do, had it powered down and put it on the dock everything was there then it powered on by itself and everything was back to factory settings. Its up and running but I lost all my games and progress (mirco sd is still fine)? Can I just copy and paste the old 64GB folders over???
Works for me on first boot but whenever I restart it goes back to the setup page (page to select language), and data is lost. Tried it twice now, even left it for a couple of hours before restarting. Any idea what could be going wrong?
@@rhyslloyd5090 didn't have this happen to me. I would say go ahead and reinstall SteamOS (not a full reimage, just reinstall) i did that for my brother's deck that had the 'stuck on logo after cloning' issue and it booted up fine after reinstalling SteamOS, no data loss either
⚠IF YOUR DEVICE IS STUCK IN THE BOOT LOGO⚠ please read before giving up and losing all your data 1. First, place your original SSD into a Type-C enclosure and boot from it. Leave the new drive (the one you are upgrading to that is not booting) inside your deck. 2. Open a terminal and run the following command. It is a modified version of the command featured on this video (it does the same thing but has been changed to reflect that the SSD we want to clone is now in enclosure and the new drive we want to clone to is inside our NVME slot) . Please note that you may need to modify it based on your specific drive names. 3.Before you run the command make sure you enable "Manually block sleep and screen locking" under "Battery and Brightness". (I'm pretty sure this was what caused the stuck boot logo in the first place.) *this was the command that worked for me* sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/nvme0n1 bs=4K status=progress ``` 3. To identify your drives and their respective names, use the 'lsblk' command in the Konsole. 4. If you encounter any issues, ask ChatGPT for assistance, as it's how I developed this fix. Following these steps successfully should resolve the issue, and your drive should work perfectly without being stuck on the boot logo.
Thank you for this! Such a great guide. Someone will need to hear this. I put my battery in storage mode before doing the swap as I've seen that recommended on iFixit. After the swap my deck wouldn't turn on. I went through the entire process several times and still nothing. My battery had 80% when I shut it down but it still wouldn't turn on. I decided to try plugging it in and magically everything worked perfectly. Something about putting the battery to storage mode I guess makes it so that you have to plug it in to get it to power on. At least now I'm a pro at swapping the SSD because I did it 6 times before plugging it in.
"I put my battery in storage mode before doing the swap as I've seen that recommended on iFixit. After the swap my deck wouldn't turn on" Yes, because you had it in storage mode. "I decided to try plugging it in and magically everything worked perfectly." Because this is the only way to get out of storage mode.
This clone "sudo dd if=/dev/nvme0n1 of=/dev/sda oflag=sync bs=128M status=progress" command worked flawless. Upgraded my 256GB to 1TB with a Corsair MP600. Don't forget to remove the MicroSD before you open your Steam Deck and make sure "of=/dev/sda" is the correct targetdisk!
I got the same SSD, but I've noticed my deck is a lot more buggy after installing the newly cloned drive. I'm worried if it got corrupted during the clone process, do you notice any weirdness from awaking the deck from sleep after a long period or opening the steam overlay while in game?
I know this video is a year old, but seriously thank you man. Every single place I looked or searched had the wrong clone command line and it was driving me insane. I used the one you posted and it worked instantly so thank you for saving me from this headache I really appreciate it!
Everything worked exactly the same? As if you didn't do anything and the memory was just increased? No sign ins or messing with settings in desktop mode?
Thank you for this video. I followed every step and swapped my 64gb to a 1tb seamlessly while exchanging my backplate for a jsaux transparent one. Wonderful tutorial.
Dude, thank you so much for this step by step tutorial. You made it so much easier than me cloning off an image of the existing drive onto an external drive, then restoring the image to the new SSD. This was straightforward and I was able to get it done in less than an hour, and had my old games on the new SSD without any issues.
Everything worked exactly the same? As if you didn't do anything and the memory was just increased? No sign ins or messing with settings in desktop mode?
I Installed a 1 TB SSD from Corsair MP600 Mini. This video is very helpful it worked flawlessly. I didn't even need to resign in. I also use a MicroSD Card.
everything worked as if it was the original ssd? Im just worried about having to re setup things like game pass and all the extra launchers and themes. I've forgotten how to do it all. thats why I haven't sent mine in for a warranty repair/replacement.
These instructions were so good that you got a sub. Let me also say the previous to doing the upgrade I typed the instructions in a document. The day I got my drive my internet had gone out for a few hours. Those instructions helped me get it done without issue. Thanks for such a great video.
Many thanks, there's many guides out there about how to do the physical process of replacing the drive, but barely anyone touches on the subject of transferring the data, or if they do they use more complicated methods. This was very simple and easy to do.
This worked for me! I ended up saving the command line to a notepad doc on my PC then dropped it in my sync folder and it was as easy as copy and paste into the command thing and 20 mins later i had a clone of my SSD. Excelent thank you very much!
Thanks for all your hard work. I purchased my 2t card but it wouldn't detect the os / elf image. It was a lengthy process but well worth it. Just make sure you update this video so no one will make the mistake I did "YOU NEED TO COPY & PASTE THE TEXT YOU PROVIDED" LOL!!!
I changed my 512 SSD to 2TB and it was very easy. Just follow the steps in the video and you’ll be fine. If you plug in the external SSD and it doesn’t show up on your deck that’s normal. Just follow the steps shown in the video make sure to copy and paste the clone command by pulling the video up on your deck.
Thank you! This worked perfectly for me. Also: To remove the back cover, I found it easiest to start in the right grip close to the trigger. Once the clips are disengaged from that side, the rest pop loose fairly easily.
Awesome tutorial, this is much better than the rest I looked at that you needed a dock, sd card and a usb & usb adapter …. You’re tutorial was way much easier now my Steam Deck has 2TB SSD. Thank you! 😃😃
Thank you so much for this video. Turned it on and it literally worked exactly as it did before with no further login or tweaking or anything. My only tip is I wouldn't pull on the battery's ribbon cable like that. I did that following the video and almost broke it, so I instead just used my fingernail to lightly pull at the plastic bit. Just wanted to throw that out there cuz I would have been terrified if I'd broken it.
dd writing error often occurs when you use a dock or a hub or when the ssd gets too hot while the write process. I had the same problem before. But after connecting the external ssd enclose direct to the steamdeck (USB-C to USB-C) and cooling the target ssd with a fan everything succeeded 🙂
Took me a little while to get back because I had to get a stripped screw out 🤣 but it worked thank you, if anyone has a message pop up about not having permission jusy type sudo and then the command and it will work
didnt work for 2tb ssd got this message dd: error writing '/dev/sda': No space left on device 1+0 records in 0+0 records out 0 bytes copied, 0.105996 s, 0.0 kB/s
My NVME enclosure from a few years back was apparently made before this form factor existed. Seems like it was fine just not having it held down flat though.
Simple as can be! Everyone's making these guides about using programs on a pc and including another piece of storage as the middle man between SSDs using a bunch of steps.
Davy Chiu thank you so much you made my day I tried flashing the drive with a flash drive micro sd nothing worked but this . I've been working on this for 3 day thank again 👍
Sweet tutorial. That command line stuff looks scary but I’ll give it a whirl when the time comes. 64 just isn’t enough for the old aaa that I play because the shader cache sizes are bonkers
Is there a way to determine if it was successful with cloning before swapping? I followed the instructions but in storage it still seems like it has nothing on the SSD
My new SSD did not get recognized by my USB enclosure, so I decided to change my SSD and installed Steam OS with a USB Boot Stick. Not so comfortable as your method, but in the end it works as it should. 😅
thanks for this.just cloned 1tb full games kioxia bg4 to 1tb kioxia bg5 and swaped ssd to 2 of the decks i have and worked fine :) i wanted my new kioxia bg5 to my 512 version steam deck thats why :)
Hi, i'm having trouble with this process. I'm using a 2TB nvme and I get an error message error writing /dev/sda: No space left on device. But I'm using an empty 2tb drive, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated, thank you
@@wetdreams2818 I used another hub. The problem is that NVMEs use a lot of power so if your hub isnt able to maintain consistent power throughout the process, then it'll just fail. Luckily I had another hub, and it worked.
Thanks for the video. I have the Deck with the new cooler, and it's even easier. Anyway, remembering my question, you DON'T NEED to format it before. It didn't even ask me to relog after the installation. Only weird thing, is that it re applied the update from 12th September, I already installed.
I've cloned my 512GB SSD drive to a new 2TB SSD from Sabrent but I don't know why the process almost took 3-4 hours for me.. literally almost ran out of battery. Luckily I charged it enough before doing this.
I seem to have borked it by experimenting with loading up the old drive to experiment with it. Got any ideas on fixes? I think just repeating the process might do the trick.
Sorry for a 4th message here. Turns out if you have a clone image and then use the official recovery tool, it will work. Always back-up your files kids!
After the reboot, all games from the old ssd are gone. Everything had to be reinstalled on the new one. Only the games on the SD card are still available. Not so good!
i tried this with a 1TB drive to a 2TB drive and it seems to only work to boot a single time but then upon restarting, the OS breaks and cannot boot properly. I have repeated this 3 times (SSD swapping back and forth) and can verify i am targeting the correct disks via lsblk. I have no idea why its not working past the first boot. The only thing I can think of that may be an issue is possibly because I formatted the drive to NTFS to speed test it before i did the `dd` and maybe that extra space is not getting formatted properly via the DD command
@@KingMoeha I ended up cloning my disk using Macrium to make a backup then I made sure when I restored the clone to the new disk I selected the option to wipe the target drive ahead of time. That worked. My theory was that because I had previously formatted the drive to NTFS, DD was only overwriting 1TB and the remaining space on the 2TB drive was still left formatted incorrectly
I recommend reseating the drive in the enclosure and if that doesn't work, check it on another computer. You may have gotten a defective or fake drive.
That’s a nice tip. But Valve recommends to put the device into power storage mode via its UEFI options, which ignores all power button presses till you connect it to power charger again. But I’m lending indeed your method to get out the last bit of juice in the circuits
No you don't. It won't hold that much power in. The largest capacitor on there is smaller than your pinky fingernail. I'm an electrical engineer and I'm telling you it's unnecessary.
@@krisadams7100 interesting. I did this when I added additional m.2 to my girlfriends laptop and the same thing was done in the video tutorial. I watched another tutorial because I was having trouble removing the screw and that video said to unplug the battery so I kinda started freaking out. I read on Reddit too that it’s not a big deal leaving battery plugged in for laptop upgrades like ram and storage so I felt a bit better after that. After I got it installed and loaded it up, everything was good and was able to format the hard drive. I unplugged the battery when I upgraded my steam deck and probably will again if I ever do it again in the future but still interesting that nothing bad happened when you did it
Just did this from a 512 GB drive to a 2TB WD sn740. Took me just a few minutes. Beware that the destination of the dd command might not be exactly the same mount point. Easy to check with KDE partition manager
I followed this guide exactly, I was Eben able to boot up the deck and see my games and storage details under settings. However. I then restarted my deck and everything I try and turn it on it stays stuck on the logo. Please help!!
Im pretty confused, i followed this exactly but when i turn the device back on it doesnt recognize the new ssd as a boot disk. I am able to boot from file in the bios and it works exactly as i would hope but it needs to boot from file every time it is hard shutoff.
Hi Davy! Thank you so much for making this tutorial. I was wondering if you encountered a problem where everything loads fine the first boot after installing the drive, but after that it no longer boots and gets stuck on the konsole screen saying root account locked. I formatted the 2tb drive and tried again and the same thing happened - boots fine first time, then after shutting it down and restarting it no longer boots. Appreciate anyone’s help here!
This does not work. When you want to go to desktop mode after you turn on the steam deck it is basically a black screen of death. You cannot reach desktop mode. How do you prevent that from happening?
Help! I followed the steps, messing up along the way and having to correct myself, but near the end, I had the new drive installed, and it booted into gaming mode and had all my games exactly as they were on my old drive. I had forgotten to put in my microsd card, so I shut down my steam deck, inserted my microsd card, but this time it booted as if it were the first time my device was setup. I selected my language, wifi, and clicked continue on the next screen and it started "installing" something, I pressed the STEAM button and shut it down the safe way, but it took a while, potentially finishing whatever it was installing. I then turned it on, let it do its "initial setup" thing, thinking maybe it just needed to refresh. All my games were gone, going over to installed, shows 0. I go into desktop mode, and I notice all of my files and folders that I created (like notes and everything) is still there. What's going on? Can I fix this? Edit: I decided to start from scratch, I deleted the new ssd, cloned it again, re-inserted the micro sd this time, and it booted up fine with everything I had before, I even launched a game to make sure. So I then decide to reboot it to see if it stuck, but it didn't, it put me back in the welcome screen again.
Please understand I'm trying to get this right, From the video I didn't see you prepare the drive in any type of way. Are you saying I can just insert a new drive into the enclosure, run the command in the terminal, insert the new drive into the Steam deck and it works?!!! No formatting the drive nor expanding partition ( I'm going from 64GB to 1 TB)?
Hello. I tried this last night. I have all my emulation,and other things that i would really like to not have to start from scatch. It seems to have successfully cloned/copy my original nvme content, but after I finished putting in the new 1tb drive my SD would not launch correctly. I got an error message saying something about the boot,and if I would like to go to boot options. Sorry I can't quote the exact error message. I'm at work while rewatching this video. A couple of questions. Does the new drive need to be formatted prior to this process? If so what format? And or does the new drive need to have a clean install of steam os already in it before the transfer/clone process. Thanks to anyone for any help.
Not sure you'll see this, but the enclosure you linked says it only supports down to 2242 drives, is this just a mislabel or a different enclosure from the one used in the video?
I am stumped, I have bought the EXACT enclosure and a WD_Black 2TB, but EVER SINGLE TIME after typing the command it will only download ~7.8GB then say “ no space left on device “ & can’t find a answer anywhere :/
7.8 is a pretty specific number. Reminds me of dealing with FAT formatted drives (they have a 3.9gb limit) Is the drive already formatted/partioned? On the Steam Deck Desktop, find the "KDE Partition Manager" tool, find your and check. For a brand new drive for me, the only options NOT greyed out are "Refresh Devices" and "New Partition Table" with my SSD selected. If you have other options, try shredding the existing partition table ((Top of screen) > Partition > Shred).
...u need to delete the drive on windows with partiotion manager and make sure u took gpt dont format at all and put it back to the steamdeck, than u should be able to do it :)
I am getting "dd : failed to open '/dev/nvme0n1' : Permission Denied - please let me know how to get past this thanks - EDIT: added "sudo" before the dd part of the command and it worked. EDIT EDIT: Excellent video; everything is working perfectly - I did not even have to re-login, it just booted up like normal. Thanks!
Followed this guide, works like a charm. For the prying part, I used an old credit card to pry open near the top vent, then by pulling the vent part back a bit by my left hand, I squeezed on the right handle and pulled it off. This was far, far easier than trying to pry every side.
Just did this today for my 64GB Deck. Straightforward and concise with no BS. Thank you!
Thank you. Replaced a 256GB with a 1TB in my sons steam deck. I used a plastic removal tool and no problems opening the case gently. Your method is the best and fastest method. Took 6 minutes opening the case slowly and 7 minutes slowly taking out the old storage and putting in the new storage. 3 minutes to close up and all set.
Just finished this process on my 64GB Steam Deck and everything is working great so far! However, I did spend some unnecessary time and money returning my first SSD and enclosure because I thought they were faulty; when I would run the provided command, it would say that /dev/sda was not found, and no mounted drives would appear. What I eventually discovered (by looking in KDE Partition Manager) is that my Steam Deck had the drive set to /dev/sdc instead. Once I updated the command accordingly, everything else worked perfectly.
I just checked mine - my 64GB when I click on it on the left hand side shows /dev/nvme0on1 - would that be what I type in versus your /dev/sdc?
@@sknapp19911 no, the "/dev/sda" or "/dev/sdc" is what you'll see in partition manager when you plug the new drive in via the NVME enclosure.
@@kingcars ahhh gotcha, tyvm!
KDE partition tool is in SD desktop mode? Or windows
Thank you for the excellent tutorial!
One key thing for anyone trying this. Make sure you setup the password and use type "sudo" before you paste the clone command. You can see he types it in Konsole but it is not included in the clone command in the description.
Thanks, I have included sudo in the description now.
@@DavyChiu do I have to format the drive before the cloning?
@@pianodemon109 no, the DD command will overwrite it completely
@Davy Chiu thank you! Worked like a charm. Upgraded a full 512gb ssd to a 1tb one. It was pretty damn quick too! Everything transferred over almost seamlessly. A couple of settings here and there were off but nothing significant.
@@DavyChiu One question, does this process only works once on each drive or can I clone the same drive as many times I want?
I wanted to buy a couple of 2Tb SSDs and use one as the main and another as local backup.
Thanks for the help.
For those who cannot make it work: I also had the issue of getting stuck in the Steam logo even though I could launch my Windows 11 partition and allocate the extra/new space. No solution could make Steam OS run, even when trying to reinstall or reimage by using an external drive. In the end, I had to use Macrium Reflect to copy/create an image of the original SD SSD and recreate in the new SSD (it took me 6 hours). After doing this, I can launch Steam OS and Windows 11 as normal and all my games and settings are in the new SSD drive. Good luck and thanks to the creator of this video!
Just wanted to say thank you SO MUCH for leaving this comment. Based on most of the comments I see here it looks like the dd clone method has worked great for many, but I ran into the same exact issue you mentioned with the infinite Steam logo on boot after cloning. Although using Macrium Reflect to back up my old SSD and restore to the new one took a while (about 6 hours for me as well), I was just able to boot (and restart) successfully with the new larger SSD installed. Would never have known to use Macrium Reflect if it hadn't been for your comment here, so thanks again very much!
ive been messing around with this for hours. but do you need to housings to copy it over? or can you first copy die image to pc and then write it to destination?
@@cdleveille
I had the same issue. What I did was reinstall the original MVMe and everything worked fine. After, I just cloned the new MVMe again and reinstalled it. Everything worked fine after that. Basically it looks like something got corrupted on the initial attempt.
1. If your device is stuck on the boot logo, consider this alternative solution. First, place your original SSD into a Type-C enclosure and boot from it.
2. Open a terminal and run the following command. Please note that you may need to modify it based on your specific drive names:
```
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/nvme0n1 bs=4K status=progress
```
3. To identify your drives and their respective names, use the 'lsblk' command in the Konsole.
4. If you encounter any difficulties, feel free to ask ChatGPT for assistance, as it's how I developed this fix.
Following these steps successfully should resolve the issue, and your drive should work perfectly without being stuck on the boot logo.
@@brandonr27this method worked perfectly for me
clone command: sudo dd if=/dev/nvme0n1 of=/dev/sda oflag-sync bs=128M status=progress
This is a command to clone the entire disk of /dev/nvme0n1 to /dev/sda using the dd command. The if option specifies the input file, which is the source disk /dev/nvme0n1, and the of option specifies the output file, which is the destination disk /dev/sda.
The oflag-sync option is used to ensure that data is written to the output file synchronously, which makes the cloning process slower but ensures that all data is written correctly.
The bs=128M option specifies the block size to be used when reading and writing data. A larger block size can improve performance but also increases the risk of data loss if the process is interrupted.
The status=progress option is used to show the progress of the cloning process in real-time.
Note that the sudo command is used to run the dd command as a superuser, which is necessary to access the disk devices. This command should be used with caution as it can overwrite data on the destination disk and cause data loss if not used properly.
I have a brand new SSD right out the box, do I need to do anything before cloning my old drive to the new one?
Perfect guide on how to clone the SSD! I could have gone down the Clonezilla route but this was much easier to do. Easily swapped a 1TB to 2TB SSD.
That's what I was thinking about doing originally, but I'm just doing this as well. I "might" make a clone at some point just to have a backup.
Yeah I watched the video for that and looked like a pain, I’d rather buy an enclosure lol..
how is it so far now? and did you have a dual boot 1TB setup
@@lyndongaming - so far mine is working great and I have had zero issues (*knock on wood*). I did not dual boot so I've honestly not tried that part of it - just booting into SteamOS only.
1tb wasn’t enough? i wish i had your problems man haha
Fantastic video, massive help! Only thing I would add: I had unallocated space on my 1tb after the clone command was successful. This partition was easily fixed (resized) by using the KDE partition manager utility in desktop mode on the Steam Deck. Once fixed, then I replaced the 64gb inside the Steam Deck.
how did you resize it in the partition manager im having trouble when i resize it dose not let make it bigger im using a 1tb as well did you resize before or after installing it?
@@ReZiDenTEv1L I resized before installing it. In my case, right clicked on the sda8 partition and dragged the slider all the way to the right. Unallocated space was showing as a yellow bar. Failing that, just install the 1tb after running the command, the Steam Deck resizes the partition automatically (found this out whilst doing a second Deck).
I have no unallocated space. Somehow DD did spread a 227gb /home partition over the whole of 900gb, no empty space before and after left. I checked with macOS Disk Manager but it shows the same 931gb disk which is full with only the small boot, swap etc partitions and the 227gb /home.
Word of advice for anyone looking to do this: Once you boot into the drive, let it run for a bit. I shut my unit down right after it booted in so I could screw the back on, and it would not boot into SteamOS anymore. A reclone, successful boot, and waiting a bit resolved the issue. Drive is now dual booted with no issues.
Same thing is happening to me. I turned it on, saw that everything worked perfect, turned it off to finish closing it up. Then it never booted back up. So you restared the whole process and that solved your issue?
@@SiriusLee128 Yes, i put the other ssd back in, recloned, installed the new ssd, turned on and let it run for 10 min, after which i tested a few restarts and a few shut downs
Was quick and easy to do, had it powered down and put it on the dock everything was there then it powered on by itself and everything was back to factory settings. Its up and running but I lost all my games and progress (mirco sd is still fine)? Can I just copy and paste the old 64GB folders over???
Works for me on first boot but whenever I restart it goes back to the setup page (page to select language), and data is lost. Tried it twice now, even left it for a couple of hours before restarting. Any idea what could be going wrong?
@@rhyslloyd5090 didn't have this happen to me. I would say go ahead and reinstall SteamOS (not a full reimage, just reinstall) i did that for my brother's deck that had the 'stuck on logo after cloning' issue and it booted up fine after reinstalling SteamOS, no data loss either
⚠IF YOUR DEVICE IS STUCK IN THE BOOT LOGO⚠
please read before giving up and losing all your data
1. First, place your original SSD into a Type-C enclosure and boot from it. Leave the new drive (the one you are upgrading to that is not booting) inside your deck.
2. Open a terminal and run the following command. It is a modified version of the command featured on this video (it does the same thing but has been changed to reflect that the SSD we want to clone is now in enclosure and the new drive we want to clone to is inside our NVME slot) .
Please note that you may need to modify it based on your specific drive names.
3.Before you run the command make sure you enable "Manually block sleep and screen locking" under "Battery and Brightness". (I'm pretty sure this was what caused the stuck boot logo in the first place.)
*this was the command that worked for me*
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/nvme0n1 bs=4K status=progress
```
3. To identify your drives and their respective names, use the 'lsblk' command in the Konsole.
4. If you encounter any issues, ask ChatGPT for assistance, as it's how I developed this fix.
Following these steps successfully should resolve the issue, and your drive should work perfectly without being stuck on the boot logo.
Sorry ah quick clarification where do I put the specific name in the command to clone
Under rated comment. You are a life saver dude!
Working for me too!
Thank you for this! Such a great guide. Someone will need to hear this. I put my battery in storage mode before doing the swap as I've seen that recommended on iFixit. After the swap my deck wouldn't turn on. I went through the entire process several times and still nothing. My battery had 80% when I shut it down but it still wouldn't turn on. I decided to try plugging it in and magically everything worked perfectly. Something about putting the battery to storage mode I guess makes it so that you have to plug it in to get it to power on. At least now I'm a pro at swapping the SSD because I did it 6 times before plugging it in.
"I put my battery in storage mode before doing the swap as I've seen that recommended on iFixit. After the swap my deck wouldn't turn on"
Yes, because you had it in storage mode.
"I decided to try plugging it in and magically everything worked perfectly."
Because this is the only way to get out of storage mode.
@10:10
"We need to plug in the USB C cable to re-enable it"
Worked flawlessly... thanks for the easy instructions. Went from a 64gb deck to a 1tb.
This clone "sudo dd if=/dev/nvme0n1 of=/dev/sda oflag=sync bs=128M status=progress" command worked flawless. Upgraded my 256GB to 1TB with a Corsair MP600. Don't forget to remove the MicroSD before you open your Steam Deck and make sure "of=/dev/sda" is the correct targetdisk!
I got the same SSD, but I've noticed my deck is a lot more buggy after installing the newly cloned drive. I'm worried if it got corrupted during the clone process, do you notice any weirdness from awaking the deck from sleep after a long period or opening the steam overlay while in game?
I know this video is a year old, but seriously thank you man. Every single place I looked or searched had the wrong clone command line and it was driving me insane. I used the one you posted and it worked instantly so thank you for saving me from this headache I really appreciate it!
Everything worked exactly the same? As if you didn't do anything and the memory was just increased? No sign ins or messing with settings in desktop mode?
@@jawknee21 nope, everything was exactly the same but now with 2TB. setting stayed the same and everything.
Thank you for this video. I followed every step and swapped my 64gb to a 1tb seamlessly while exchanging my backplate for a jsaux transparent one. Wonderful tutorial.
Dude, thank you so much for this step by step tutorial. You made it so much easier than me cloning off an image of the existing drive onto an external drive, then restoring the image to the new SSD. This was straightforward and I was able to get it done in less than an hour, and had my old games on the new SSD without any issues.
Everything worked exactly the same? As if you didn't do anything and the memory was just increased? No sign ins or messing with settings in desktop mode?
Your guide was absolutely perfect sir, everything worked like a charm. Thank you so much!
I Installed a 1 TB SSD from Corsair MP600 Mini. This video is very helpful it worked flawlessly. I didn't even need to resign in. I also use a MicroSD Card.
everything worked as if it was the original ssd? Im just worried about having to re setup things like game pass and all the extra launchers and themes. I've forgotten how to do it all. thats why I haven't sent mine in for a warranty repair/replacement.
Easiest and best method. Went from 64gb to 1tb exactly like in the video. No issues. Excellent tutorial.
Your doing gods work mate if only they made stuff this easy rather than a clean drive lol.
These instructions were so good that you got a sub.
Let me also say the previous to doing the upgrade I typed the instructions in a document. The day I got my drive my internet had gone out for a few hours. Those instructions helped me get it done without issue.
Thanks for such a great video.
Many thanks, there's many guides out there about how to do the physical process of replacing the drive, but barely anyone touches on the subject of transferring the data, or if they do they use more complicated methods. This was very simple and easy to do.
This worked for me! I ended up saving the command line to a notepad doc on my PC then dropped it in my sync folder and it was as easy as copy and paste into the command thing and 20 mins later i had a clone of my SSD. Excelent thank you very much!
whats the sync folder?
Wow, finally a simple tutorial. Definitely going to do it the enclosure route instead of the USB stick method.
Thanks for all your hard work. I purchased my 2t card but it wouldn't detect the os / elf image. It was a lengthy process but well worth it. Just make sure you update this video so no one will make the mistake I did "YOU NEED TO COPY & PASTE THE TEXT YOU PROVIDED" LOL!!!
Thanks for showing the cloning technique, it REALLY helped me!
I updated vom 64GB to 1TB and your turorial worked like a charm.
Thank you so much ❤
I changed my 512 SSD to 2TB and it was very easy. Just follow the steps in the video and you’ll be fine. If you plug in the external SSD and it doesn’t show up on your deck that’s normal. Just follow the steps shown in the video make sure to copy and paste the clone command by pulling the video up on your deck.
Thank you! This worked perfectly for me. Also: To remove the back cover, I found it easiest to start in the right grip close to the trigger. Once the clips are disengaged from that side, the rest pop loose fairly easily.
Thank you for this guide. I used it last night and upgraded my ssd.
Nice
Awesome tutorial, this is much better than the rest I looked at that you needed a dock, sd card and a usb & usb adapter …. You’re tutorial was way much easier now my Steam Deck has 2TB SSD. Thank you! 😃😃
Hi. What's a good 2TB SSD for the deck?
Micron 2230 2tb
@@DavyChiu thanks! Would i be able to insert it into the SSD enclosure too?
Thank you so much for this video. Turned it on and it literally worked exactly as it did before with no further login or tweaking or anything. My only tip is I wouldn't pull on the battery's ribbon cable like that. I did that following the video and almost broke it, so I instead just used my fingernail to lightly pull at the plastic bit. Just wanted to throw that out there cuz I would have been terrified if I'd broken it.
From start to the end, I exactly followed this detailed guide and got the same perfect result without any issue or problem!!! Thank you so much🎉
Worked perfectly! Hats off to you good sir!
This worked for me once I'd initially formatted the ssd on my laptop. Thanks very much
I get this error when I try this method > dd error writing /dev/sda no space left on device
dd writing error often occurs when you use a dock or a hub or when the ssd gets too hot while the write process. I had the same problem before. But after connecting the external ssd enclose direct to the steamdeck (USB-C to USB-C) and cooling the target ssd with a fan everything succeeded 🙂
Dude! Thank you so much for this. You saved me so much time! Worked like a charm. Thanks again!
Took me a little while to get back because I had to get a stripped screw out 🤣 but it worked thank you, if anyone has a message pop up about not having permission jusy type sudo and then the command and it will work
Will this work on a 2tb ssd on my oled deck?
Thanks for the tutorial, upgraded my 64GB to a 512GB. Everything is working great!
This helped me immensely Davy. Many thanks for putting this together!
Thank you for this guide I sucdessfully upgraded my deck from 64 to 1 tb
didnt work for 2tb ssd got this message dd: error writing '/dev/sda': No space left on device
1+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes copied, 0.105996 s, 0.0 kB/s
Figured out the solution. MAKE SURE TO REMOVE MICRO SD CARD BEFORE DOING THIS
Thanks for this video worked well!
Removing your sd card fixed this? Didn’t fix it for me
I didn't plan on actually doing this myself but I was curious and I watched the video and I had no idea you could type that way
Worked perfect, i copied your script and pasted it and it worked woth no issues, games will update shader cache after though.
My NVME enclosure from a few years back was apparently made before this form factor existed. Seems like it was fine just not having it held down flat though.
Simple as can be! Everyone's making these guides about using programs on a pc and including another piece of storage as the middle man between SSDs using a bunch of steps.
Davy Chiu thank you so much you made my day I tried flashing the drive with a flash drive micro sd nothing worked but this . I've been working on this for 3 day thank again 👍
Worked great, no problems! Thanks for the guide!
Sweet tutorial. That command line stuff looks scary but I’ll give it a whirl when the time comes. 64 just isn’t enough for the old aaa that I play because the shader cache sizes are bonkers
Nice job. We need more from the deck upgrade videos.
Is there a way to determine if it was successful with cloning before swapping? I followed the instructions but in storage it still seems like it has nothing on the SSD
Ran into one small issue from my own idiocy, make sure you capitalize the M in 128M ! or it will not work
My new SSD did not get recognized by my USB enclosure, so I decided to change my SSD and installed Steam OS with a USB Boot Stick.
Not so comfortable as your method, but in the end it works as it should. 😅
Great guide. Upgraded my 64gb to 512gb. :)
thanks for this.just cloned 1tb full games kioxia bg4 to 1tb kioxia bg5 and swaped ssd to 2 of the decks i have and worked fine :) i wanted my new kioxia bg5 to my 512 version steam deck thats why :)
Did you have to format the ssd before the cloning process?
Hi, i'm having trouble with this process. I'm using a 2TB nvme and I get an error message error writing /dev/sda: No space left on device. But I'm using an empty 2tb drive, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated, thank you
I figured it out! I was using a hub that was giving me that error. Once I switched hubs, it all worked fine!
@@openboxtherapy1010 how did you fix that hub I need help
@@wetdreams2818 I used another hub. The problem is that NVMEs use a lot of power so if your hub isnt able to maintain consistent power throughout the process, then it'll just fail. Luckily I had another hub, and it worked.
@@openboxtherapy1010 what’s another hub I can use
@@wetdreams2818 Unitek uHub H6
So this worked perfectly but after the initial boot I'm stuck on the steam logo. Any idea what's going on with that or how to fix it?
Same here. Did you fix it?
What do you mean puts battery into shipping mode and then we need to connect the usb? Connect the USB into what?
Thanks! This worked grear and easy for me :)
No issues so far yet :)
I have dual boot on my ssd. Is there a way to do this but to only clone the SteamOS partition?
Thanks for the video. I have the Deck with the new cooler, and it's even easier.
Anyway, remembering my question, you DON'T NEED to format it before. It didn't even ask me to relog after the installation. Only weird thing, is that it re applied the update from 12th September, I already installed.
Worked like a charm! Thanks!! Great video!
Copied the steps, but the steam deck claims theres no bookable device with the new ssd inside. Any ideas?
Worked without a hitch. Just remember to copy the lines perfectly, the dd command is apparently known as "disk destroyer" :)
Awesome. Thanks for the great tutorial and figuring this out.
Thank you it worked perfect. I have no tech experience and it was easy. ❤
Thank you very much for this great tutorial, it helped me a lot.
Unrecognized operand 'status-progress' switched it to status=progress and it is working
I've cloned my 512GB SSD drive to a new 2TB SSD from Sabrent but I don't know why the process almost took 3-4 hours for me.. literally almost ran out of battery. Luckily I charged it enough before doing this.
i get the error writing "dev/sda" no space left help
This was awesome and exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!
I seem to have borked it by experimenting with loading up the old drive to experiment with it. Got any ideas on fixes? I think just repeating the process might do the trick.
It did not.. :( I even tried to re-image the Deck with the recovery tool, but no luck.
Sorry for a 4th message here. Turns out if you have a clone image and then use the official recovery tool, it will work. Always back-up your files kids!
Straightforward to the point. TNX
Does the new SSD not have to be formatted prior to this? I've seen other tutorials suggesting it must be converted to GPT partition first.
After the reboot, all games from the old ssd are gone. Everything had to be reinstalled on the new one. Only the games on the SD card are still available. Not so good!
Same, works to start off with but goes back to startup after reboot. Did you find a solution?
i tried this with a 1TB drive to a 2TB drive and it seems to only work to boot a single time but then upon restarting, the OS breaks and cannot boot properly. I have repeated this 3 times (SSD swapping back and forth) and can verify i am targeting the correct disks via lsblk.
I have no idea why its not working past the first boot.
The only thing I can think of that may be an issue is possibly because I formatted the drive to NTFS to speed test it before i did the `dd` and maybe that extra space is not getting formatted properly via the DD command
any luck yet? I have the same issue right now :( Upgrading from 64GB to 2TB...
@@KingMoeha I ended up cloning my disk using Macrium to make a backup then I made sure when I restored the clone to the new disk I selected the option to wipe the target drive ahead of time.
That worked. My theory was that because I had previously formatted the drive to NTFS, DD was only overwriting 1TB and the remaining space on the 2TB drive was still left formatted incorrectly
worked beautifully, thank you so much
I keep getting error no space left on device
Help
I recommend reseating the drive in the enclosure and if that doesn't work, check it on another computer. You may have gotten a defective or fake drive.
I figured it out kde program setup so it could read the ssd
@@charlespittman3084how
@@charlespittman3084would you mind explaining a little more I’m having the same problem.
Perfect, this is great. Thank you :)
Hi, great video!! Will this also clone the windows partition as well?
After you disconnect the battery, you need to press the power button to ensure all the power is drained.
That’s a nice tip. But Valve recommends to put the device into power storage mode via its UEFI options, which ignores all power button presses till you connect it to power charger again. But I’m lending indeed your method to get out the last bit of juice in the circuits
No you don't. It won't hold that much power in. The largest capacitor on there is smaller than your pinky fingernail. I'm an electrical engineer and I'm telling you it's unnecessary.
I don't recommend this but I left mine plugged in. Didn't want to break anything unclipping it. Nothing happened all good.
@@krisadams7100 interesting. I did this when I added additional m.2 to my girlfriends laptop and the same thing was done in the video tutorial. I watched another tutorial because I was having trouble removing the screw and that video said to unplug the battery so I kinda started freaking out. I read on Reddit too that it’s not a big deal leaving battery plugged in for laptop upgrades like ram and storage so I felt a bit better after that. After I got it installed and loaded it up, everything was good and was able to format the hard drive.
I unplugged the battery when I upgraded my steam deck and probably will again if I ever do it again in the future but still interesting that nothing bad happened when you did it
Just did this from a 512 GB drive to a 2TB WD sn740. Took me just a few minutes. Beware that the destination of the dd command might not be exactly the same mount point. Easy to check with KDE partition manager
Hello there, thank you for the video and the clone command. You did not format the new SSD? The clone command is enough to do?
I followed this guide exactly, I was Eben able to boot up the deck and see my games and storage details under settings. However. I then restarted my deck and everything I try and turn it on it stays stuck on the logo. Please help!!
Time saver video right here my friend!
Im pretty confused, i followed this exactly but when i turn the device back on it doesnt recognize the new ssd as a boot disk. I am able to boot from file in the bios and it works exactly as i would hope but it needs to boot from file every time it is hard shutoff.
Hi Davy! Thank you so much for making this tutorial. I was wondering if you encountered a problem where everything loads fine the first boot after installing the drive, but after that it no longer boots and gets stuck on the konsole screen saying root account locked. I formatted the 2tb drive and tried again and the same thing happened - boots fine first time, then after shutting it down and restarting it no longer boots.
Appreciate anyone’s help here!
I need some help. After typing in the command it doesn't let me type in my Sudo password on the keyboard.
You need to setup the password first with command “sudo passwd”.
thank you, it worked without any issue..
This does not work. When you want to go to desktop mode after you turn on the steam deck it is basically a black screen of death. You cannot reach desktop mode. How do you prevent that from happening?
Ok i followe everything but there is a problem invalid dd invalid nummber 128m i cant pass that, any fix?
Help! I followed the steps, messing up along the way and having to correct myself, but near the end, I had the new drive installed, and it booted into gaming mode and had all my games exactly as they were on my old drive. I had forgotten to put in my microsd card, so I shut down my steam deck, inserted my microsd card, but this time it booted as if it were the first time my device was setup. I selected my language, wifi, and clicked continue on the next screen and it started "installing" something, I pressed the STEAM button and shut it down the safe way, but it took a while, potentially finishing whatever it was installing. I then turned it on, let it do its "initial setup" thing, thinking maybe it just needed to refresh. All my games were gone, going over to installed, shows 0. I go into desktop mode, and I notice all of my files and folders that I created (like notes and everything) is still there. What's going on? Can I fix this?
Edit: I decided to start from scratch, I deleted the new ssd, cloned it again, re-inserted the micro sd this time, and it booted up fine with everything I had before, I even launched a game to make sure. So I then decide to reboot it to see if it stuck, but it didn't, it put me back in the welcome screen again.
Please understand I'm trying to get this right, From the video I didn't see you prepare the drive in any type of way. Are you saying I can just insert a new drive into the enclosure, run the command in the terminal, insert the new drive into the Steam deck and it works?!!! No formatting the drive nor expanding partition ( I'm going from 64GB to 1 TB)?
Yes, the dd command copies everything exactly and SteamOS will do the expanding on boot.
thanks for the video, was curious why it makes you sign in, but still loads all your stuff?
Probably a security measure if it loses power completely.
Hello. I tried this last night. I have all my emulation,and other things that i would really like to not have to start from scatch. It seems to have successfully cloned/copy my original nvme content, but after I finished putting in the new 1tb drive my SD would not launch correctly. I got an error message saying something about the boot,and if I would like to go to boot options. Sorry I can't quote the exact error message. I'm at work while rewatching this video. A couple of questions. Does the new drive need to be formatted prior to this process? If so what format? And or does the new drive need to have a clean install of steam os already in it before the transfer/clone process. Thanks to anyone for any help.
there is no need to format the drive first!
Not sure you'll see this, but the enclosure you linked says it only supports down to 2242 drives, is this just a mislabel or a different enclosure from the one used in the video?
@arobeeTV the description is incorrect, it supports 2230 as you can see in my video
I am stumped, I have bought the EXACT enclosure and a WD_Black 2TB, but EVER SINGLE TIME after typing the command it will only download ~7.8GB then say “ no space left on device “ & can’t find a answer anywhere :/
7.8 is a pretty specific number. Reminds me of dealing with FAT formatted drives (they have a 3.9gb limit)
Is the drive already formatted/partioned?
On the Steam Deck Desktop, find the "KDE Partition Manager" tool, find your and check.
For a brand new drive for me, the only options NOT greyed out are "Refresh Devices" and "New Partition Table" with my SSD selected. If you have other options, try shredding the existing partition table ((Top of screen) > Partition > Shred).
...u need to delete the drive on windows with partiotion manager and make sure u took gpt dont format at all and put it back to the steamdeck, than u should be able to do it :)
I am getting "dd : failed to open '/dev/nvme0n1' : Permission Denied - please let me know how to get past this thanks - EDIT: added "sudo" before the dd part of the command and it worked. EDIT EDIT: Excellent video; everything is working perfectly - I did not even have to re-login, it just booted up like normal. Thanks!
Please help! I got everything I just don’t know how to find my sudo password. I don’t ever remember setting something like that up.
Did you need to mount the attached drive prior? Did you get a prompt? I'm not getting a prompt and so I want to make sure.