Drive cloning isn’t unfamiliar to many computer users any more. You may clone one disk to another for different reasons. For example, your current hard drive is running out of space and you want to upgrade it to a larger one. Your computer is equipped with a low-level disk (e.g.: SATA HDD) and you want to replace it with an advanced disk (e.g.: NVMe SSD). Your disk is dying after being used for years and you need to change it to a new one…
There are many other situations when you need to clone hard drive.
Then, how to transfer data from one hard drive to another easily and safely? Keep reading to get the best disk cloning software to help you.
Best disk cloning software for Windows 11, 10, 8, 7
After comparing a bunch of cloning programs, I find AOMEI Backupper Professional works perfectly. It has all the features you need when cloning a hard disk.
◉ 3 Clone Types
There are three clone types available: Disk Clone, Partition Clone and System Clone. If you want to transfer all data from the old hard drive to the new drive, including the Windows OS, installed programs and personal files, try Disk Clone. You are allowed to copy data between different kinds of disks, such as clone HDD to SSD, clone SATA to NVMe, clone MBR disk to GPT disk, etc.
If you want to copy a particular partition on the disk, like C: drive or D: drive, you may choose Partition Clone. And you can only migrate Windows 10 to SSD via the System Clone feature.
◉ 2 Cloning Methods
AOMEI Backupper offers two cloning methods to meet users’ different needs. The default method is Intelligent Clone, which means only the used part of the source disk will be cloned. It will skip bad or blank sectors automatically during cloning.
The other method is Sector By Sector Clone. As its name refers, it will copy all sectors on the source disk, whether they are used or not. To enable this method, you should make sure the destination disk you prepare is equal to or larger than the source disk.
◉ Useful Clone Options
When you use AOMEI Backupper to clone a smaller disk to a larger disk, you may meet the cloned drive not showing full capacity issue. To avoid the issue from the beginning, you can adjust partition size on the destination disk via the “Edit Partitions” option. You can choose the sub option “Add unused space to all partitions” or “Manually adjust partition size” to edit partition size automatically or manually.
If the destination disk is an SSD, there is an option called “SSD Alignment”. You can improve SSD performance and prolong its lifespan by enabling this option.
How to upgrade a smaller disk to a larger disk
Since many users clone one disk to another to enlarge storage space, I’ll show you how to transfer data from a smaller drive to a bigger drive in detail.
Step 1. Connect the bigger drive to your computer and make sure it is properly detected. Also, backup files on it if it contains any data you don’t want to lose.
Step 2. Free download the best hard drive cloning software, install and launch it. At its main interface, click Clone > Disk Clone.
Step 3. You’ll move to the Source Disk page. Click on the smaller drive you want to clone and click Next.
Step 4. Then, you’ll see the Destination Disk page. Click on the larger drive you just connected and click Next.
Step 5. Click Edit Partitions at the left bottom of the Operation Summary page. Then, choose how to adjust partition size on the destination disk based on your need. If you want the program to do it for you, choose Add unused space to all partitions.
Step 6. Check SSD Alignment if the bigger drive is an SSD. Confirm you have chosen the right source disk and destination disk. Finally, click Start Clone to launch the cloning process.
To sum up
As you see, copying data from one hard drive to another is a piece of cake if you pick the best drive cloning software – AOMEI Backupper Professional. If you are trying to clone a data disk (a disk without Windows installed), the free disk cloning software – AOMEI Backupper Standard can do you a favor.
What’s more, AOMEI Backupper is embedded with the backup and restore features. You can use it to create Windows 10 backup and restore your computer whenever needed.
Also read: How to Repair Suspect Database in SQL Server
