Prepare Your Windows OS for our Upcoming Astro MiniPC Install and Configuration

[@YouGleIt]

I recently got the Quieter 4C and DiskGenius was a very easy and free tool with "System Migration" - My NVMe was just a little bit larger and after the simple migration, it turns out that it automatically set the new drive as "C" and it also set the new disk as the bootable drive. So, I had to ensure that the C drive was the faster drive. And the test showed that it was 10x faster. It really should have just been like this out of the box.

[@tostativerdk]

Receiving my Mele quiter 4C today and is will do a fresh Windows install on the faster drive as per your instructions. Thanks a lot for clear and easy guides making our astrolives more enjoyable! ❤

[@HydrogenAlpha]

My new MeLe Quieter 3C arrived yesterday. I've installed the NVMe as per your guide and the OS in installed now. Just about to embark on the next step for my mobile rig. You really are just about the best teacher and instructor on this subject. You don't patronise and you don't gloss over important detail. I can't thank you enough for the help you've been so far. V best wishes from Ireland.

[@No_no83]

Thank you for your dedication to the hobby. My rigs are working fine,but I always like to watch your videos whenever I'm free,or during cloudy weather. Your dedication is an example

[@PatriotAstro]

I hope to be back at it with more content soon!

[@EH-pm1ke]

I like your channel! Clear and concise, great presenter. No fluff or drama or product plugs. Well done.

[@PatriotAstro]

I try to keep it formal and educational. But I hope to have some fun at some point. :)

[@arklalaful]

So impressed. It all worked as presented. So useful for those of us, me, who have no idea how to proceed with such things. Thank you.

[@PatriotAstro]

You're very welcome!

[@johnmacdougall4545]

Hey Chad - your videos are top notch and very, very helpful. I recently bought a Q3 and a 1 TB NVMe SSD. I followed the group 2 process and it worked like a charm. No issues at all.

[@PatriotAstro]

Fantastic! Glad to be of help!

[@blaschii]

So happy this video exists! I just managed to install OS to the SSD without any issues thanks to you :)

[@PatriotAstro]

Glad I could help!

[@RussellsAstrophotography]

Hi Chad, thank you so much for this video. I've just followed along and installed the operating system onto my new SSD. I definitely would not have be able to do this without your awesome video. Thanks again, much appreciated, Russell

[@PatriotAstro]

You're welcome!

[@MADHIKER777]

Install complete, just as you directed.

[@divye.ruhela]

For group 2: Mele has made changes to their OneDrive directory 12 days before from this comment. Now, they have options for you to select between American & European versions of windows as well as pre-configured SSD or eMMC installs, as per requirement, so one can skip the script changing step and download the SSD installation directly.

[@DocAstro]

Thanks, where did you find this?

[@divye.ruhela]

@@DocAstro Official Mele webpage. Details are in the video. When you visit the said website, now you have options to choose

[@calimark7448]

Still valid 10/23. Got a new one today.

[@ianmacd66]

Great video series! I just finished adding an NVMe SSD to my MeLE Quieter3C. As luck would have it, I didn't discover these videos until after I'd already setup my mini pc. If it helps anyone else, I also installed a Crucial NVMe SSD and found that Crucial makes available a version of Acronis True Image on their support page to clone the original eMMC drive to the new NVMe drive so I didn't need to reinstall the OS and all my software. The whole drive installation/cloning process took less than an hour start to finish. Cheers!

[@johnhobbs8065]

Great video as always. I bought a Samsung NVMe SSD this morning and moved everything over from the MeLE eMMC using the free Samsung Data Migration Tool. Was done in 15 minutes.

[@PatriotAstro]

That is fantastic! Good to use a vendor approved and provided solution. Makes it easy!

[@paulwilson8367]

Well, this video got me through the upgrade and the migration to windows. As a non-IT, going into the bios of windows is not something I typically do. So the instructions were a must. Even so, there were moments where the lack of otherwise obvious directions were for me opportunities to make mistakes. I didn't realize, to begin with, that everything was to be done on a separate desktop, so I did it on the mini PC. I ended up circling back to the described method when I ran into problems. And of course, any time you are supposed to follow step by step windows procedures, you immediately discover that, on "this" computer, the same exact screen doesn't appear. No doubt, windows updates change things every time they are released. But my C drive now shows the NVMe as working as the main drive, and when I boot up, it looks right. So today I am on to video 3 and the downloads. I hope to have this on the scope very soon.

[@Psychlist1972]

When I moved everything to a larger SSD in my PrimaLuceLab PC, I used Macrium Reflect. That was quite easy, but it required me to use my USB->Sata external adapter to have both drives connected because that PC had only one SATA connector inside and no eMMC. The MeLE has some pretty nice provisioning software, which you showed. Definitely a huge plus for going that route vs some competing products which require a number of other manual steps to configure and install.

[@PatriotAstro]

It does vary somewhat PC to PC depending on what parts they used to put it together. It is nice when a plan comes together though... :)

[@jsrothstein]

A note if you buy a Quieter 4C and choose to install Win 11 to a new, larger SSD without using a disk migration tool. I downloaded the Win 11 install file from MeLe's website, along with all driver files, and copied them to a freshly formatted USB drive. I booted the 4C with the drive inserted, and chose the drive. MeLe's install tool ran, and then instructed me to remove the USB drive. I did so and the 4C rebooted. The Intel splash screen came up, and then a Blue Screen of Death, advising that my PC needed recovery. After emails with MeLe and perhaps 5 tries with different USB drives and different Win 11 versions from MeLe's website, I was about to start a new install. I started the 4C, pressed F7 repeatedly, and brought up the BIOS install screen. This time, I noticed there was a Windows Boot Manager option that listed my new SSD. I chose that option instead of the USB drive. Windows 11 finished installing, and Win 11 now runs properly on my new SSD. I have suggested to MeLe that they clarify their install instructions on this point.

[@MADHIKER777]

Couldn't do this without your video!

[@siegfriednoet]

Interesting video again Chad and well explained

[@PatriotAstro]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Pilord]

Yes! Thank you! 🙏🏼

[@PatriotAstro]

Any time!

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

Hi Chad great video so thanks for uploading this, I've recently bought a Quieter3C & thankfully I haven't put any software on there yet. so it looks like I'll be upgrading mine soon before I install everything I just hope I can figure out the wifi connection as I'll be using it remotely at dark sky sites & not at home.

[@PatriotAstro]

Congrats! Ping me if you run into issues.

[@marvinwhisman3333]

Great series. Such valuable information. Hope you start a Patreon soon. :)

[@PatriotAstro]

I'm on the fence about the idea. I just love helping everyone, but I will say the video production process is soooo time consuming to make videos of a quality and content level I am happy with. I am thinking through if it is something I want to try. Hmm...

[@brandlc]

Great clear video - thanks!

[@jesuspineiro1622]

You can clone the system with Macrium Reflect. The non-commercial version is totally free and is 100% functional

[@adyjoy]

Would be good to pin this comment.

[@PatriotAstro]

Yep, other options are out there for sure. I'll heart this message so it heads up to the top of the comments. Thanks!!!! Just FYI, check your SSD alignment to make sure your partition falls on the expected SSD 4K bounds. That's the only piece I'm not sure Macrium does by default like AOMEI does.

[@PatriotAstro]

yep - will do!

[@DoctorAtomTNT]

this video helped me a lot, thanks!

[@digitizer3627]

Macrium Reflect 8 free does the job perfectly and its free!!

[@PopeAstro]

If you buy Samsung Nvme you can use the Samsung Data Migration App to clone onto the new drive.

[@ronm6585]

Thank you.

[@pathdoctor1]

Great info as always. Thanks! This has quickly become my favorite astronomy channel. I am in group 1. I have an already setup mini PC (MeLE Quieter3Q/Win11) and recently purchased a M.2 NVMe SSD. I was ready to pull the trigger on cloning the preinstalled system disk to the M.2 but I have stumbled (here and elsewhere) into a few horror histories about the end result. Many people complaining about being unable to boot into the new disk after a few days. Some advised to remove the preinstalled/original disk as a solution (not possible with the MeLE). I am hesitant to say the least about making the upgrade to the M.2 disk. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[@PatriotAstro]

I really wouldn’t worry about it. My assumption is that for some reason the boot order isn’t being maintained. If you’re really worried about it, you could leave the eMMC drive intact after changing the boot order. Just be sure never to use it and leave it alone. This way if the system ever boots from that disk, you could still have remote access to it in the short term. You’ll still need local access to change the boot order via the bios to get back to the new drive, but at least you could get to it in the short term. The scenario they are talking about isn’t really a disaster other than you would need to connect to it to fix the boot order. You’re not going to lose any data or anything like that as a result.

[@pathdoctor1]

I decided to do a full install on the M.2 SSD. Downloaded the file (Win11) from MeLE, unzipped it, copied it to the USB drive, changed the destination to SSD on the script, booted up from it and started installing. It looked good until I realized (too late) that the installation was being done on the native eMMC drive. The horror! All the the settings, installed apps/software (NINA, PHD2, Stellarium, SharpCap, etc) and drivers are now gone. I triple checked, the destination driver entered on the script is SSD. The M.2 SSD seems fine and shows as an installed driver I am about to give up on this project 😩 The appreciation for my ASIAir Plus has greatly increased.

[@PatriotAstro]

@@pathdoctor1 I’ve now done five of these without an issue. This seems like a silly request, but can you double check that you are editing the file on the USB stick? I had someone the other day that accidentally edited the file that they downloaded and not the configuration file they moved to the USB stick. It was a simple error but meant to be USB stick did not have proper configuration to perform the install on the SSD. :( sad to hear you had this issue. At this point you might as well try again and get it installed in the right place. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.

[@pathdoctor1]

@@PatriotAstro I tried again with the same results. I made sure (as before) that I edited the script after it was copied to the USB stick. I sent an email to MeLE, hopefully they are responsive and helpful.

[@PatriotAstro]

@@pathdoctor1 If you like, you can go to the 'about' section on my youtube channel to get my email address. Then feel free to send me some images of what you are seeing in the file, etc. Maybe i can help. You could even attach the config file if you like and i can compare it to what i have.

[@davidemaino7868]

Hi. Great video serie indeed. Just a quick question. Is the Crucial P3 NVMe 1TB disk supported by the Quieter 3q?

[@ariebakx]

Worth mentioning here. After the successful cloning to the nvme drive I used diskpart clean to wipe the emmc drive and re-initialised and formatted the emmc drive. In order to get only one partition that uses the full capacity of the nvme drive.This was apparently a bad idea as thereafter the Mele did not boot anymore at all. BsoD. "Your computer needs repair" and more horrible messages you don't want to see on your computer screen. The Mele windows installation usb stick does not allow you to make a choice on which drive to install. Eventhough the screen makes you believe you can . . . It just kicks off right away. Happened three times in a row. So now I am running from the emmc drive. Until just now I find out that by editing this script I can have windows installed on the nvme drive? This would be my preferred option of course. So should I only format the old emmc (now D) drive? That will leave the boot and recovery partitions intact. I guess the Mele still uses a section of the emmc to store data for the booting process, which were erased by my -diskpart clean- action?

[@johndeans9104]

Great video series. One problem: the WIndows installer from MeLe - despite setting the target as SSD - failed to install the new OS there. Hmmm. The progress of the installer seems to recognize the new 512 GB HDD, however no luck thus far. Second attempt underway. Are there any obvious items to check?

[@jfakatselis]

Hi Chad, thank you so much for your excellent video tutorials. I have a question. Should I peel off both sides of the heat transfer tape on the NVME SSD or just adhere it to the one side of the SSD itself? If both sides hopefully it will dissipate heat to the base. Please let me know what is best. Jim

[@PatriotAstro]

I would remove both sides of the clear plastic from the silicon tape.

[@RK-ed7cc]

Great channel. Just wish this stuff worked for me. Of course, I'm used to this stuff not working so No surprise there when it didn't. Everything was going good till I selected the thumb drive in the boot menu. I hit save and exit and it booted as if I hadn't. Not only did it not boot off the thumb drive but it booted normally and when opened selected This PC, it shows the emmc as c and the thumb drive as d and doesn't show the 1T SSD. Hmmm, back to the drawing board again. --Update-- Well, that went well. Figured I would try cloning. Guess not. Finally got the OS cloned over but when in BIOS it doesn't give me the option to select the SSD to boot from. Oh well. Guess I'll just have to stick with the eMMC. That's my luck.

[@PatriotAstro]

It sounds like you may have a bad NVMe drive. You may try to return it and get another one. If the BIOS doesnt see the SSD, that is almost always the case.

[@RK-ed7cc]

@@PatriotAstro That's what I'm going to try. Hopefully second times a charm. I think while I'm waiting for the new one, I'll get the MeLE mostly downloaded, and then try cloning it again.

[@BoeingBrian]

I just cloned my system using Macrium Reflect. It's free!

[@Nodalema]

Amazing again, thank you. Could you respond to a comment below that someone made that the original drive is fine for typical imaging (as apposed to video imaging for planetary and solar). Is this the case, or is there still a benefit for upgrading to an NVME for long exposure shooting? Thank you!

[@PatriotAstro]

Sure - I'll say it here too. 100% NOT REQUIRED. Especially if just pure long exposures. A faster drive will definitely help with short exposure solar/lunar/planetary type imaging and will speed the system up from an overall application and windows perspective as well. If you want, you can always start with the system and use it out of the box. If it starts to feel slow, you can then choose to add the NVMe SSD at that time and even clone the windows system partition then. You do not need to rush into this. Personally, I know I run into issues based on my own system use, so I start this way out of the gate.

[@Frantisek7403]

Great video.Updated my Mele3 with suggested 1TB SSD.Did a full new installation,but the pc is freezing really badly now. Have you hear if some else have the same experience?

[@PatriotAstro]

I’ve done four installs myself and haven’t had any freezing problems at all. Maybe open up the case and remove the stick for a second and then re-insert it. Maybe it’s not quite seated properly although I’m not sure that’s it. I wonder if it could be a bad SSD stick?

[@Frantisek7403]

@@PatriotAstro Hello.I was almost ready to do whole re installtion once more,but then I got an idea to connect my new small portable router to the mini PC and connect to it trough that.Everything work well then.So,problem is in my home network.Maybe a good point for other who would face the same issue in the futute.

[@JethroXP]

Great walk through! I did it just this weekend and it worked perfectly. Having setup a few AstroPCs now I've found there is a "best" order for installing the software. I did it in this order: Enable .NET Framework 3.5 in Windows Features (to support ASCOM) ASCOM 6.6 ZWO ASI Camera Drivers ZWO ASIStudio (if for nothing else had to have a FITS viewer) ZWO ASCOM Drivers CPWI for my Celestron Mount and focus motor ASTAP ASTAP H18 Star Database SharpCap PHD2 NINA

[@PatriotAstro]

You are REALLY close to my methodology I will share in video 3 of the series! .NET3.5 gets forgotten by many people until they try to do the first install... :) You'll see I do it very early on as well! Great minds think alike! :)

[@PatriotAstro]

LOL... Actually, thinking about it,... I can't recall if i did .NOT3.5 in this video you commented on, or in my next one. But either way, it is there! :)

[@BBowles_in_PC]

This video is very timely for me. I'm setting up a portable rig and am waiting on a new Mele 3, new Pegasus PowerBox, and two NVMe SSD's. One will be installed in my existing Mele 3 after I clone its eMMC and the other will be installed in the new Mele 3. My question is can I clone the two NVMe SSD's from the eMMC that already has all the programs installed. In other words, will the new Mele 3 boot ok from the cloned NVMe from the existing Mele 3 that has everything installed? Obviously, I'm trying to avoid installing all the astrophotography programs into the new Mele 3.

[@ansonchen4919]

This video does help a lot. Btw I installed a crucial p3 1TB into my mele Quieter3 and the case gets so hot during the booting process. Is it necessary to install thermal pads and heat sink for the NVMe SSD?

[@PatriotAstro]

Definitely need the thermal pad between the SSD and the case. You don’t need a heatsink, and as a matter of fact, I don’t even think you could find an SSD with a heat sink that would fit in that case. You should just be fine with the thermal pad.

[@ansonchen4919]

@@PatriotAstro What thickness would you recommend to ensure the SSD & the case are in contact?

[@Pilord]

Highly appreciated! Being a member of group 2 ;), this was what i was waiting for. I own the quieter 3, i understand the max transfer rate of 2000mb/s, so will order an ssd accordingly. Since im very new to astrophotography, would be 2TB an overkill if i use the quieter 3 only for astrophotography? Thank you!

[@PatriotAstro]

This really depends on how you plan on using the device and how often you plan on moving the images off to a processing computer. 1TB is a lot of space! Let’s assume you somehow only end up with 500GB for images and video storage. Even at a 50MB image file size you can keep 10k images locally. If capturing videos of the sun, moon, or planets … even with a 5GB per file estimate, which is likely high, you can store 100 files.

[@Pilord]

@@PatriotAstro thank you, since i really dont know how large those,lets say 300sec exposures can get, i was just wondering. Alright, so 1 TB should be more than enough. 👍🏼

[@hael8680]

If I may interject. I use the Q3 with the original drive (256Gb). It has no issue handling downloads from a 2600MC camera and running everything else. I would consider going to a faster drive only if I wanted to do lucky imaging of planets and sun. I don't know how that would affect the generated heat and how warm the computer would get as it is fanless. That info may save you some $ that you can use somewhere else.

[@PatriotAstro]

Agreed, I pinned a message above too. The case is designed for heat dissipation but does get warm (hot). I am going to try to stress mine and see how hot i can get it. :) Then I'll even try to add an external heatsink as a cheap test as well. Let everyone know how it goes later.

[@MalcolmMoos-yz1hz]

Well I'm stumped, sorry to say. The install starts apparently normally and then hangs with the following: "Failed to apply target image to selected disk[3]-> Deployment image Servicing and Management tool Version: 10.0.22000.1 Error: 3 The system cannot find the path specified The DISM log file can be found at X:\windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log" Any advice would be appreciated

[@PatriotAstro]

Glad we could take this offline via email. Hopefully it turns out to just be a bad drive. Talk soon.

[@IronMan-2024]

Hi Chad! Starting to put together my first rig. I’m looking at the MeLE downloads for Windows 11 and there are three image sizes, 10GB, 37 GB, and 57 GB. I have a MeLE Overclock 3C with a fan instead of the Quieter series. Is there a difference between those images?

[@tizocsuarez1563]

Great video as all your previous videos. question, i am getting an error msg TOO MANY IMAGE FILES when i try to boot from the usb drive. tried it different times with different drives but still the same result, anyone encountered the same or similar? any advice on where to look? thanks and greetings from Costa Rica

[@jeff5163]

Would it be ok to install the tiny11 version of windows or would I need the extra stuff that comes with a full install?

[@PatriotAstro]

You know, ... I haven't tried this. My concern would be supporting apps or app requirement changes over time. If you give it a shot, let me know!

[@DocAstro]

The image is no longer available and their forum not accessible. Can anybody give me a link to the image? Thank you!

[@thomaswicker4368]

Hi All -- I just bought a Quieter3 and a M.2 NVMe module. I want to move the OS (Windows 11) to the NVMe, and I have studied you videos, which are excellent by the way. However, the download page on Mele's Onedrive page doesn't work. I tried this morning and it was downloading very slowly -- it would have taken 3-4 hours -- but then the download failed. Now when I try to hit "download" nothing happens at all. Is Mele having a webpage problem? Any thoughts? I am stuck....

[@PatriotAstro]

Did you ever get this working? I have seen some download issues with their site from time to time but I just tried this past week and it worked ok for me.

[@KJRitch]

Do you get an activation license key with the Mele that you use on this fresh copy of Windows 11 on the NVMe? How do you transfer the license? This is my first Windows machine. Thanks.

[@dzpossible]

Hey Chad, I'm running into an issue here. I followed your guide until the step where I modified the file to set target disk as SSD. However, when the miniPC installs the new OS, it went right back to eMMC drive. Is it because I have formatted the SSD? Thanks!

[@PatriotAstro]

I'm way behind on responding to comments so maybe you sorted this already... Not sure why. Do you see the OS on both drives? You may just need to go back into the BIOS and reset the boot order to make the new SSD higher up.

[@angrydragon1977]

Looks like mele has files that are already edited for ssd install.

[@PatriotAstro]

It possibly has been updated. I did notice the win10 vs win11 downloads differed in their scripted install path.

[@jinyoungheo7803]

Hi, may I ask how you provide power to Quieter3Q? It requires usb-c input 12v (24w) but could not find good adpater which I can use in the offgrid where I cannot use the mini PC's 110v adapter. The old mini PC that I have used for last multiple years accepts 5.2mmx2.5mm plug (12v) so I can connect the PC to Pegasus powerbox directly.

[@adyjoy]

Seem commonly available. Got mine from ebay (DC 5.5mm/2.1 Female Jack to USB Type-C male Plug-Adapter)

[@PatriotAstro]

Have you tested this yet? I ordered some components and am about to start testing in the upcoming days. I'm a little concerned about the Q2/Q3 label warning that it doesn't support PD power. It shouldn't be an issue if going straight off 12v dc BUT I want to figure out the usb-c pinout usage first before I recommend something that may cause an issue. I'd like to recommend the cable you mention as well as an unterminated usbc cable that can be wired into powerpole connectors or something similar.

[@PatriotAstro]

You can see my reply below as well but I am working on it. I want to do a bit of testing before I recommend something I'm not happy with. USBc makes it a bit frustrating to work with... :)

[@adyjoy]

@@PatriotAstro I bought it based on recommendations on an astronomy forum, but I haven't actually run with it yet - I'm waiting on your 'installing software' video before using my new quieter2 in anger (waiting for vid 3 to make sure I set up the software optimally ;-) ), The supplied MeLe power brick is labelled as a bog-standard 12VDC power supply that they seem to have randomly stuck a completely inappropriate type-c USB connector on. I see the MeLe warnings about the PC not supporting PD as saying "don't use any of those cleaver PD type-c PSUs you've got because our device is a dumb 12v device - it won't give your PSU the right PD signals, and your PSU will only provide 5v... [of course this is conjecture on my part and appreciate you can't make recommendations without being 100% confident].

[@PatriotAstro]

@@adyjoy Right, so walking into this testing, my assumption is that connecting a PD brick to it could be bad as it may push way more power to the Q2/3 during an attempted PD power negotiation that is certain to fail. With that being said, we only need leads to the USB-c power pins and not the USB2/3 data channel pins or PD pins so it should be pretty straight forward. I don't think they are connecting any of the other leads but the only way to be certain would be to cut through the power cord that came with the Q... and I may just do that. :) I also cannot see a way for that cable you are using to be wired wrong unless they connected PD but that just wouldn't make sense on a center positive post connector since there is only pos/neg on that end.

[@hael8680]

You lost me at the boot option #?. It doesn't say SSD in option #1 AND I would have suspected the new drive to be anything else than option#1. Logically the original drive should be in that spot.

[@PatriotAstro]

Ya, so it is a computer boot thing... Option 1 is by default a PXE boot which is a way to boot a system from network location. It is often used to do things like automatically re-image a corporate computer in business environments. In a business environment where you are maybe using these Q2/Q3 devices to run video screens throughout an office building, you way want to be able to re-image all of these with new software someday without the need to go touch each one of them. Putting PXE boot first allows for that to work. If the SSD were first, PXE boot would only ever happen if the SSD failed. Since you are almost certainly never going to use PXE booting for this system, I just put the new disk there instead.

[@rurumburak3651]

Hi Chad, here I am again. Hanging at 8.35.after all. I finally managed to start the system with the thumbdrive installed. But when it comes to the automatic reboot, it doesn´t. The lat massages I get before (now working with Win11 Pro) are: The operation completed successfully. # ******* Backup ssp files and apply SiloedPackages ******* The system cannot find the path specified. File Not Found ****** Copying over some files to eMMC ****** Please waiting... GML_Driver Then it shuts down and does not reboot. Any idea what I might have done wrong or could do better? Thank you so much in advance Matt

[@PBGPapaBear]

Does this make it faster

[@rurumburak3651]

Hi Chad, finaly found the time to work through this project. Unfortunatelly I already get lost at 6.28. I am working with Win10 Pro on a Quieter2. When opening the scripts folder there is no such Startnet file. And the search doesn't bring up any helpfull results either. Any suggestions how to proceed? Thank you in advance and best regards, Matthias

[@rurumburak3651]

Sorry, I was a little over-hasty. Just missed the comment that this section is covered on the MeLe Support site....

[@klotzi8245]

Hi. I tried group 1 installation (cloning my c drive). I tried 2 times. I am sorry, but it didn't work. After cloning, restart and changing the boot order > blue screen. Wouldn't the d partition created by cloning have to be renamed to c first?

[@klotzi8245]

Edit: Meanwhile everythings works fine. Keep an eye on your nvme partition before cloning! ;-)

[@KJRitch]

I'm using a wireless 2.4ghz keyboard. I can't break the boot cycle with F7. I tried rapid repeats, holding down F7 but it keeps going and then shows a screen with time and date. I press the enter key and it goes to login. Do I need to buy a wired keyboard to do this? I have the 16gb version with the 256gb included Mele Quieter 3Q

[@KJRitch]

I used the 2nd method on Mele FAQ pages. Press and release DEL key quickly while starting up. It puts you in the BIOS. Choose Boot and change the boot option to the USB drive. Don't understand why F7 doesn't work on my wireless keyboard. I even tried pressing ESC while pressing and releasing F7. I haven't used Windows since retiring 7 years ago.

[@DawidSorokad_worms]

There is a free Samsung data migration software worked great for me.