Nowadays, disk clone isn’t an unfamiliar thing to computer users. If you perform disk clone, it will transfer everything from the old disk to the new disk, including the Windows OS, installed applications, documents, videos as well as all settings, etc. As a result, you don’t need to reinstall Windows and all your applications on the new disk. It’s really time-saving and labor-saving!
You may want to clone one hard drive to another in the following situations:
How to clone a hard drive in Windows 11/10/8/7? Just keep reading.
Free and easy disk clone software for Windows
To perform disk clone in Windows, reliable disk clone software is indispensable. AOMEI Back upper Standard is the best free disk cloning software worth trying.
◉ 2 Clone Types
To clone the whole disk to another disk, you can choose Disk Clone. To clone a particular partition to another partition, there is Partition Clone. Also, System Clone is offered in higher editions to help you transfer OS only to another drive.
◉ 2 Clone Methods
The program runs Intelligent Clone by default, which copies only used sectors on the source disk. If you want to copy both used and unused sectors on the source disk, there is a Sector By Sector Cloneo ption. Please note you should make sure the destination disk has at least the same capacity as the source disk before you choose the Sector By Sector Clone option.
◉ Various Supported Devices
AOMEI Backupper allows you to clone HDD, SATA SSD, NVMe SSD, USB flash drive, and SD card, etc. It supports various disk brands, such as Samsung/SanDisk/Crucial/Seagate/WD.
◉ Hot/Cold Clone
The clone task can be done while your computer is running or not. If you want to clone a hard drive without booting Windows, just create a bootable USB drive or CD/DVD with AOMEI Back upper to boot your computer. AOMEI Back upper will load up automatically after your computer starts up.
How to clone one hard drive to another
It should be mentioned that the Standard edition can only be used to clone a non-system disk. If you want to clone a system disk, you can either choose the Professional edition or try the backup & restore method (create a disk image of the old drive and then restore the disk image to the new drive).
Here I’m going to show you how to clone a non-system disk with the Standard edition. Before you start, please connect the destination disk to your computer and backup files on the disk if it contains any important data.
Step 1. Download this free disk clone software from the official website. Install and launch it.
Step 2. Click Clone from the left panel. Then choose Disk Clone to go on.
Step 3. Select the disk you want to copy data from and click Next.
Step 4. Select the target disk you just connected to store the cloned data and click Next.
Step 5. If the target disk is an SSD, check SSD Alignment to improve SSD performance. Finally, click Start Clone to begin data migration from the old disk to the new disk.
Step 6. The time the clone process will task depends on how much data on the source disk. When the process reaches 100%, click Finish.
Now you know how to clone a hard drive in Windows 11/10/8/7 with the best free disk clone software– AOMEI Back upper Standard. It enables you to clone an entire disk or a specific partition, and youcan transfer data between different disk types. No technical skills are required to run this software. Its intuitive interface makes the clone task a piece of cake.
In addition, it’s still the best free backup software for Windows. No matter what kinds of data you want to backup, such as OS, a disk, or individual files, you can find a backup solution in it. And you can create a backup schedule to have a backup run automatically. Just try it by yourself!
