The ULTIMATE Steam Deck SSD Upgrade Guide! (2023)
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- čas přidán 1. 08. 2024
- This is a step by step beginner's guide on how to upgrade your Steam Deck's SSD.
Everything you need to know on how to upgrade Steam Deck storage. I'll show you how to safely remove your old eMMC drive and install a new NVME SSD for improved performance and storage capacity.
In this video, I'm going to teach you everything you need to know about upgrading your Steam Deck SSD, including cloning your old SSD, installing the new SSD and, if needed, reimaging SteamOS!
I'll be upgrading my 64GB Steam Deck's eMMC 2230 SSD to a 2TB NVME WD SN740, and will share all the tips, tricks and issues I ran into along the way. Upgrading your Steam Deck's SSD is a simple process that can make a big difference in your gaming experience.
This guide will walk you through every step of the upgrade process, from cloning your old SSD to installation and reimaging your new SSD, whether it be 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB or even larger. By the end of this guide, you'll be up and running with the best Steam Deck gaming experience possible!
#steamdeck #ssd #upgrade #steam #steamdeckgameplay #steamgame #valve
What you need:
- Steam Deck (duh!)
- 2230 NVME SSD (see below for options and links)
- USB stick/microSD Card for recovery image (not needed for cloning, but good to have just in case)
- NVME enclosure (not needed for re-imaging)
- Small 0 size Philips head screwdriver
- Guitar pick/credit card/anything thin to pry open the Steam Deck
dd command:
sudo dd if=/dev/nvme0n1 of=/dev/sda oflag=sync bs=128M status=progress
Credit to Davy Chiu for the command and idea: • Steam Deck NVMe SSD Cl...
Rufus: www.rufus.ie/
Balena Etcher: www.balena.io/etcher
SSDs
Sabrent 1TB 2230
Amazon US: amzn.to/40BWcbu
Amazon UK: amzn.to/3KsIOk6
WD SN740
2TB
Scan UK: www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb-w...
AliExpress: www.aliexpress.com/item/10050...
1TB
Scan UK: www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-w...
AliExpress: www.aliexpress.com/item/10050...
512GB
Scan UK: www.scan.co.uk/products/512gb...
AliExpress: www.aliexpress.com/item/10050...
Accessories
iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit
Amazon US: amzn.to/3Med9Eh
Amazon UK: amzn.to/3McCFKc
Mouse
Logitech G Pro X Superlight
Amazon US: amzn.to/3nM4HlO
Amazon UK: amzn.to/3KwvtqU
Keyboard
Logitech K400 Plus
Amazon US: amzn.to/431DefM
Amazon UK: amzn.to/40VeAMe
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro - Why upgrade your SSD?
01:12 Video length
01:33 SSD buying options
03:00 Two methods: Cloning and Re-imaging
03:33 SD Card or USB for Recovery Media
04:21 Rufus vs Balena Etcher
04:59 Download Steam Recovery Image
05:12 Download Rufus
05:24 Flash recovery image with Rufus
05:41 Download Balena Etcher
05:52 Flash recovery image with Balena Etcher
06:02 Weird quirk with Balena Etcher
07:23 Stock SSD speed test
08:03 New 2TB SSD and NVME Enclosure Unboxing
09:01 Set sudo password
09:20 Check all attached drives
10:12 dd command and explanation
11:59 Battery storage mode
12:22 Tools and toolkit recommendations
13:24 IMPORTANT: Take out your SD card!
13:51 Unscrewing the back of the Steam Deck
14:37 Trying to open the back
15:56 Finally taking off the back
16:21 Unscrewing and removing the heat shield
17:12 IMPORTANT: Unplugging the battery
17:54 Unscrewing and removing SSD
18:44 Installing new 2TB SSD
19:12 Plugging the battery back in (sort of...)
19:21 LPT: Push the battery connector ALL the way back in!
19:52 Turning Steam Deck on again and checking new SSD
20:41 Reinstalling heat shield
21:28 Reinstalling back cover
21:37 Putting all the screws back in
22:00 Panic: things go wrong
22:14 Taking Steam Deck apart again
22:24 Actually plugging battery connector in properly this time
22:53 Putting Steam Deck back together again
23:04 Success!
23:17 New 2TB SSD speed test
23:39 Congrats, all done with the cloning!
24:14 Re-imaging SteamOS prerequisites
25:20 Reimaging SteamOS via SD Card
25:42 Boot manager
26:08 Booting from SteamOS recovery media
26:22 Starting SteamOS re-image
26:55 Steam Deck SteamOS Setup Wizard
27:05 Inputs not working besides the touchscreen
27:31 Steam Deck SteamOS Setup Wizard Continued
27:43 Installing SteamOS and updating
28:03 Signing in to Steam
28:33 Steam Deck Onboarding
28:54 Checking new 2TB SSD shows up correctly
29:04 Trying to format SD Card
29:22 Force format SD Card
30:27 Formatting SD Card with KDE Partition Manager
30:59 Trying out 512GB SD Card with games installed
31:28 Success!
32:09 Thanks for watching! - Věda a technologie
Just small correction, you need to detach the battery first then you press power button several times to discharge any remaining power in circuit board. In this video, I observed that step is reversed so it might be mislead to some of people...
Sorry for the late response, but you're completely correct - I did it the other way round for some reason. I'll pin your comment so it's more obvious going forwards
honestly mate thats probably the best tutorial I've seen of ssd swaps on the deck. None of these other guys show how to make partitions. liked and subbed :)
Haha thanks for the kind words man, glad you liked it! And cheers for the sub!
Thank you bro, the video is just ..PERFECT. I had put off upgrading my 64 deck for so long, because I have been a mere console peasant my entire life and never did any tinkering )) and now I have my steam deck with all the space I ever wanted and whats important, completely STRESS FREE. you have saved saved my sanity and granted me freedom! :D and you are a very cool dude)) all the best to you
Glad it was helpful, thanks for the kind words!
Just want to mention that for those who are willing to tinker a bit or install plugins/utilities, Cryo Utilities 2.0 will move those shader caches to your micro SD card for you. That is a huge feature for me on my 64gb, in addition to the other performance tweaks. That said, I do plan on upgrading the SSD later on, and I appreciate this video!
Oh crazy, I had no idea! Thanks man, that's pretty much a must-have for the 64GB Steam Deck then
@Qasim Mahmood yeah! I started freaking out when my SSD filled up even with only a couple dozen games on my SD. Fortunately I did some digging, and found that Cryo can solve it. I've tested it too - as long as you initially move a game's shader cache once, further updates to that game will go to the SD as well. Yes, you have to do it again for new games, but it is a small price to pay for a quick solution, and for those who can't afford an SSD yet.
I'll definitely be consulting this guide again when I pick up an SSD in the future. Great content!
Moving Shader cache to Micro SD is not a good idea. This can cause massive stuttering issues. Shader cache needs to be on high speed storage. There's youtube videos showing the huge stuttering issues from moving the Shader cache to Micro SD.
@Saif0412 I haven't really noticed, and I'm sure depends on the games you play. But on the 64gb, an A2 sd card is about the same speed as the EMMC drive anyway, where space is a bigger problem. I definitely agree with you on the faster 256 and 512 ssd models though.
@@Saif0412just get a fast SD card, you'll be fine.
For a small channel, awesome video guide! Clear & concise, as well as explaining what the command lines mean.
Thank you mate, glad it was helpful! Yeah I really don't like running commands if I don't know exactly what they're doing and I'm a software developer myself anyway, so I thought I'd break it down because nobody else did!
Dude, amazing guide, did 64gb to 1tb and it worked perfectly. Surprisingly straightforward 🎉
Glad it was helpful, thanks for the kind words!
Great video clear and straight to the point, just upgraded my SSD thanks to your tutorial. Great work 👍
Thanks mate, I appreciate it! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Thank you for a good video! I followed it (instead of ifixed one) and everything passed smooth. 🙂👍
Worked great. Thank you
No problem mate, glad it worked!
Thanks bud, complete confidence boost to replace my 64gb. Love your content.
Glad it was helpful mate, thanks for the kind words!
Hey man, greetings from Slovakia. You did absolutely amazing video, that help me successfully update my 64GB SSD to 1TB... thanks a lot :)
That's great to hear man! Congrats on the upgrade, and thanks for the kind words!
Awesome quality video. Looking forward to using it to upgrade my SSD today. Very good explanations and attention to detail.
Thanks for the kind words mate! How did it go, did you manage to upgrade your SSD successfully?
Excellent video. Hope you get more subs soon and make more great tech videos. Great job brother.
Thanks for the kind words bro, I really appreciate it!
Going to be using your video to do my ssd upgrade soon. Great video brother.
Glad it was helpful, thanks for the kind words bro!
Several months later when I’m switching my SSD from my LCD Steam Deck to my new OLED Steam Deck, I am still using this guide. Thanks so much for creating this video. Will see if you have a similar OLED Steam Deck guide.
Thank you for the guide. Extremely helpful! Used your cloning portion of the guide. Buy coincidence purchased the same external enclosure as you. The Sabrent enclosure really is the best for convenience.
Nice! Glad everything went well! And yeah, the Sabrent enclosure is really nice - pricey, but worth it imo because of the sheer convenience factor
Thanks for the guide! I got my 256gb model upgraded to a 1tb with no problems!
Nice one! Glad it was helpful, thanks for the kind words!
Wonderfully informative video. Thank you very much.
Glad it was helpful, thanks for the kind words!
Just used this guide to upgrade my lcd deck. Something I’ve been putting off bc it seemed to hard. Followed this guide and it was quick and easy. Thank you !!
Nice one! No worries at all mate, glad it was helpful!
Maaaan! Jazak Allah khair! Will do this soon!
BarakAllahu feek bro, no problem!
Thank you so much Qasim that was easy to follow. You are a genius man one love!
Thanks so much man, much love! ❤️
@@Qasim_Mahmood Salam alaikum Qasim. I just upgraded my Steam deck with your brilliant advice thank you so much brother.
Really great video man thank you. I like your channel a lot.
Thanks for the kind words mate, I appreciate it!
Brill bud, well presented including potential pitfalls. I shall be doing the same for my new Steam Deck as soon as the SSD arrives.
Thanks so much mate! How did your SSD install go in the end?
@@Qasim_Mahmood after watching this, without a hitch thanks bud 😁
Great job man. Just put in a 1tb drive and all seems fine. Trying game now.
Nice one mate, congrats on the upgrade! Is everything still working correctly?
Thanks!!
No problem, thanks for watching!
Thanks for the information it work well your awesome
Glad it was helpful, thanks for the kind words!
very good video subbed
Thanks mate, I appreciate that! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Bro that you sooooo much, followed your tutorial step by step and cloned my ssd to a 1tb ssd and installed it without issue….
Eyyyyy yess mate, that's so good to hear! 🥳 Congrats on the upgrade and clone bro, hope you enjoy all the new space!
Damn,you did well explaining all these to me like im a 5 year old. I will do the same thing you did!:) thanks!
No worries at all, thanks for the kind words! Have you done the upgrade yet? How did it go?
Glad you ssd has worked out. Picked up a 1tb micro card in the mean time while I wait for prices to fall. Looking forward to your future uploads 👍
Thanks mate! Out of interest, why did you decide to get the 1TB SD card instead of an SSD? The prices are pretty comparable, although I guess SD cards are more useful in general
@Qasim Mahmood I bought a 512gb ssd already for a pretty good deal. I'm going to use the micro card to hold less intensive games and emulations. I should have just bit the bullet upfront but oh well. You live and learn
Ahh I completely understand! I was so close to just buying a 512GB SSD, but I decided to bite the bullet and order the 2TB instead. I always end up regretting not getting a larger size in the future, so I thought I'd future-proof myself a bit
@Qasim Mahmood there's a popular phrase in my language that translates to: the cheap man pays twice. I have tried to remember this lesson when I make decisions. The thing is, I underestimated how much I'd like my steam deck and how big games have gotten lol
I upgraded from 64gb to 1tb and Sudo command made it smooth and easy. The whole process took around 20min including swapping the ssd's.
Niiice that's great to hear mate! Glad it went so smoothly
Mashallah brother, I really enjoyed this video. Felt like I was learning how to upgrade it together with u xD I like this format
Hahaha jazakAllah khair bro, thanks for the kind words!
Very good guide! only on my second boot after cloning the steam deck re-initialised itself and i had to start over (well just re mount the SD card etc and download the proton etc) but overall very good and well spoke!
Woah that's very strange! Did it work in the end? And thank you for the kind words man, really appreciate it!
@@Qasim_Mahmood hey, my pleasure! Yeah so luckily I did not install that much on my 64 gig. So it re-initialised so I had to remount my sd card and install my emulators again but it kept working perfectly ever since.
Honestly if you have the deck in battery maintenance mode you don't really need to unplug the battery but it is overall a good habit to unplug any power in general when opening electronics
Yeah that's a good point! As you said you don't really need to do it, it's just an extra layer of security. And it's not really a huge deal to unplug it, as long as you make sure to plug it all the way back in afterwards 🙃
I watched your video after upgrading. I should have seen it prior.
Thanks bro! How did your upgrade go?
Great bro you get huaying fan model 👍
Oooh I didn't even realise - nice! Seems like I got lucky
very interesting, I will try it for sure! Just one question: why should I set a new password if I already have one?
Salam brother Qasim.. Excellent video detailing the process.. Although im not a Steamdeck owner, I must say I am getting intrigued to upgrafe my 1tb OxPlayer1s to 2tb... Hmm.. 😅
Waalaykum assalaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh bro, thanks for the kind words! Hahaha it might be a good idea, especially if you use it for more than just gaming. And honestly even then, games are getting so big nowadays too
Do I need to expand the /home partition after dd? Opening in kde partition manager the partition is still 46.99gb
Update...followed your vid. All sorted, New 2tb ssd installed via cloning. However I had a big issue, after first installation it just hung on the steam deck logo. After some research I needed to re-clone. After doing that all good. Hope that helps anyone who experiences the same.
How did u Re clone if u were stuck in logo ? Just asking incase this happens to me
Ahhh that's a shame, sorry it didn't work first time but glad you got it working in the end!
I believe they just put in the old drive again, wiped the new one and re-cloned
First attempt failed to boot, no boot device, not sure why. Second attempt is currently cloning very slowly (36.8mb/s). Hope this works this time.
My cloning speed was at pretty much the same speed. It worked in the end
When you first tried it did it say could not find nvme01?
How did you connect to your internet if you can’t press steam x
Hello friend, it turns out that I changed the ssd of 64 for one of 1 tera sn740 M2 2230 but when it comes to doing the procedure to recover the system, when I select the pendrive where I have the image, the screen turns black and I leave the word error one after another, telling me a series of things that I obviously do not understand. Could you help me? Could it be that that SSD doesn't work? I have already tried sd memory and different pendrives. And he makes the same mistake.
Brother i need your help i got a steam deck and upgraded it to a 1 tb ssd. I installed steam os on a 64gb sd card but when i go to boot manager it is empty why is this?
Are you able to recommend any decent usb c chargers that also charges while playing on the steam deck ?
Oooh great question! Honestly bro, because I have 2 official chargers (I got one with the Dock) that's pretty much all I use. How does the official charger perform for you when you're playing games at the same time?
Hi, great video :) im thinking about upgrading to a 2 tb ssd. I dont really want to deal with having to download the os from scratch, does anyone know if its possible to clone the internal drive onto an SATA external drive (I have a LEXAR NQ100 2.5 SATA 480 gb SSD that i put in an enclosure) and then install the new internal drive into the deck, and then copy it over from the SATA -> NVMe that way? I really dont want to have to buy an enclosure for the NVMe drive just for this because I'd honestly never use it again. If anyone has any thoughts on what I should do please let me know!!
Unrelated kind of but my steam deck has currently locked me out because it doesnt have space to update and so im trying to boot into linux from my external drive to just delete some shaders for games im not playing right now . This process is really annoying and its why I'd like to avoid having to do something similar again for whenever I get rid of the 64 gb drive LOL.
Salam brother how's the ssd now is it still working? Planning on getting one at aliexpress and do you think it is legit.
Around 5:30 can you explain the purpise of those 2 programs? I ordered my Steam Deck 2 days ago, i already have my 2TB SSD that arrived yesterday, and I downloaded the SteamOS onto my computer and put it on a USB. What is the purpose of "flashing" it over with these 2 programs? Will it not work the way I did it?
Apologies for the late response! But essentially, with the SteamOS image you can't just copy and paste to a USB stick unfortunately, you have to "flash" it. And Rufus and/or Balena Etcher are the two easiest programs to flash an image onto a USB stick/SD card
I know i am late to the party. is there any prep we need to do to the ssd when we cloning. or will the cloning format and prepare the ssd.
Nope, no prep - the cloning should just format and partition the SSD correctly
hi guys, i put 512 gb on my steam deck, i have 64gb model, but on windows show 512 gb but on steam os show 64gb? how fix this?
This didn't work for me. I keep running out of space while running the command at 7gb exactly. Makes no sense considering its shown as a 1tb drive
Hey bro when you clone to the new ssd does that clone partitions aswell? I have a dual boot and was wondering if i have to repartition after and re install windows or does this clone the entiry of your old ssd
Oooh that's a very good question mate! I honestly don't know, but I have a feeling you can only clone one partition, so you'll probably have to repartition it again afterwards
@@Qasim_Mahmood update: bro i just did everything on your video and i can confirm it will transfer everything including windows partition! Only thing to note is that since it transfer all partitions you have to re allocate the unallocated space soooo i will be doing that in kde partition manager.
Edit: used gparted
Ordered a 2tb from ali for 100€, will be interesting if it is a legit one!
Assalamualaukim brother.. why do we need to enable the battery storage mode and when did you turn it back off, at what point? i am following the reimage method since i dont have the external nvme enclosure.
Waalaykum assalaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh bro! You don't strictly need to, but I'd highly recommend it, as that way the Steam Deck won't turn on when you're replacing the SSD. Battery storage mode turns off automatically the next time you plug in a power cable, so no need to worry about it!
@@Qasim_Mahmood JazakAllah Khair bhai jaan.
BarakAllahu feek bhai!
I got a 1TB SSD in mine. My MicroSD card is there just to keep dust out of the port.
Hahaha at this point it's pretty much the same for me 😂
I have the 512gb version of this SSD, While it's quite fast, In my system it's dropping it's health quite quickly, In just 2.5 months and 6.3TB writes my health is down to 96%
Biggest fan commenting 1st as per…
Hahahahaha much love 😘❤️
Thanks for watching! Click here to check out my review of the Steam Deck after owning one for 6 months: czcams.com/video/spkkkRCnwnU/video.html
Ok so I got to know. Why do you have to disconnect the battery? When I did this upgrade I didn’t and my deck is fine. I’m not saying do it, the safer bet is probably to disconnect it but I can’t find out why it’s so important to do so?
Side note: thanks for showing what a pain in the rear removing the shell is. Most other videos just cut away to it being open. The hardest part for me by far was just getting the back off.
Yeahh it's really just for safety reasons, just in case there's any residual electricity flowing through the system. You should really disconnect the battery then click the power button a few times just to make sure there's nothing left in the circuit
And I know exactly what you mean about the shell - that's why I left it in the video! Everyone else made it look so easy, but I was struggling to open the thing for ages man
@@Qasim_Mahmood cool man that’s for explaining that one for me. Glad I didn’t blow up my deck just ran the risk of electrocuting myself lol
So why the rufus. If you got the steam image on the usb and the rufus formats the usb. Doesnt that negate all that progress
Rufus is actually just to get the image onto the USB - first it formats it then it flashes the image. You can't just copy and paste it onto a USB unfortunately, you need to use a tool like Rufus or Balena Etcher to flash the image
@@Qasim_Mahmood is their a process to use sd card in steam deck to download reimage. Remove, Then swap SSD. After new SSD. Use data on sd to complete reimage?
@@summersol5That's a great question! I mean, SteamOS is just Linux so it should definitely be possible, but I've never seen anyone do it yet. If you search for how to flash an SD card on Linux, you should be able to just download the image, flash it onto the microSD card in your Steam Deck, swap the SSD and then install from the microSD card
Ok i followe everything but there is a problem invalid dd invalid nummber 128m i cant pass that, any fix?
Did you try capital “M”?
@@FuckingRichie no does it have be
@@FuckingRichie no not working i have this edd: error writing /dev/sda: no space left which is bs i have 1tb sabrent ssd.
@@ImperialAgent-us3kn putting the m as capital worked for me but then I get a error where it can’t find my NVMe steam deck drive
Can i use this ssd on x99 micro2 motherboard
I don't see why not! The main trouble you'll have is not being able to screw it down though as it's too short, but I believe you can find extenders to make it similar to a 2280 size
@@Qasim_Mahmood how about on x99 micro motherboard with m.2 e slot
Like the video, but there must be a faster way to clone. I'm going from a 1tb that's almost full to a 2tb in a usb 3.1 nvme enclosure. To get to 1GB took an hour and a half (144KB/sec). By my calculations this is gonna take @ 60 days to complete :(
Found the problem. Missed the "M" at the end of bs. Suspect this means it was doing 128 bit block size.
Ahh no wonder! For me it was fairly quick, but that makes sense if it was doing 128 bits at a time. Glad you figured it out in the end!
I do it and it works when I first boot it up, but when I restart the deck it goes back to the setup screen to select the language and if I complete the setup the data is gone. Tried it twice and got the same result. Any idea why?
Oh very interesting! Do you still have the USB/SD card plugged in? And did you format it afterwards? I think what's happening is when you turn the Steam Deck on, it's boring from the recovery media (i.e. the USB/SD card) instead of the internal SSD. You'll need to format it for use in the Steam Deck
@@Qasim_Mahmood nothing else plugged in, just the SSD, works on first boot with all data as before, but after a restart it's just like it's a fresh install of the os.
Man that's so weird! Honestly I'm really not sure, but at this point I'd probably get another recovery media setup, preferably on a different USB/SD card, and go through and reimage SteamOS again. Might just be a dodgy SteamOS installation. Sorry I couldn't be more help!
I get a message that said invalid number 128m
Ahhh I'm sorry to hear, how id you fix it in the end?
If you cloned your ssd (58gb approx) why did your new ssd show 1.8tb free of 1.8tb?
The cloning process is pretty cool - it clones whatever is on your existing SSD, and whatever space is left, it adds onto the volume as empty space. My initial SSD was 64GB (58GB usable) and the new one is 2TB (1.8TB usable). So it cloned the 58GB, and the rest of the 1.8TB it added onto the new volume as extra space
Is the new free volume/partition added right after dd? Looking at the kde partition manager, I dont see the remainder of the 1.8TB
You can use a 2280 much cheaper instead of a 2230 frightening ly expensive
True, but I'd rather not cut down a 2280 myself 😂
I change my 64gb to my 4tb
Woahh congrats man! Which 4TB SSD did you use, and how much did it cost?
I cant understand a word you're saying
I'm sorry to hear that, thanks for the feedback!
Damn,you did well explaining all these to me like im a 5 year old. I will do the same thing you did!:) thanks!
No worries at all, thanks for the kind words! Have you done the upgrade yet? How did it go?