Tech

Easily Clone Your Windows Disk with 5 Steps

By
3 Mins read
2049
0
Share

With daily use, Windows computers will encounter many problems like virus attacks, hardware failure, human error, system crash, etc. These situations may cause serious problems, even data loss. Hence, you may want to create an exact copy of the critical data, which is called clone. In this article, we will offer you the best free solution to protect your precious data.

Three Types of Clone You May Need

Generally speaking, there are three types of clone that you could use:

Disk Clone: Clone the entire system hard disk or data hard disk with everything.

System Clone: Clone all system partitions that hold the Windows system files, or boot files.

Partition Clone: Clone the partition that you want to backup.

The disk clone is the most popular feature that many users need. So, here we will show you the 2 ways to clone an entire hard disk easily.

Solution 1: Exclusive Brand Disk Cloning Software

As a matter of fact, if you get the following brands of SSD or HDD, you may obtain the exclusive cloning software:

  1. WD or SanDisk hard drives: Aconis Ture Image WD Edition. 
  1. Samsung hard drives: Samsung Data Migration software.
IMG_256
  1. Transcend SSD: Transcend SSD Scope. Sometimes, you will Transcend SSD Scope not working for system clone.
  2. Intel SSD: Intel Data Migration Software.
IMG_256
  1. Toshiba SSD drives: NTI Echo cloning software called NTI Echo 5.
IMG_256

You could use these data migration tool or disk cloning software to clone entire hard drive or system. However, they have some shortcomings listed below:

  • The disk clone of Acronis True Image is a paid function.
  • The dedicated disk cloning software is not compatible with other brand hard drives.
  • They only migrate data from the Windows computer to the specified hard drive, it’s not working if clone vice versa.
  • Some of them owns limited features, the system clone or partition clone is not supported.

Solution 2: Best Free Hard Drive Cloning Software – AOMEI Backupper

Considering the limitation of the exclusive data migration software, you may want to turn the free backup software – AOMEI Backupper Standard for help. Why?

  • It’s for any brands of hard drives, solid state drive (SSD), no brand limitation.
  • Enables you to clone larger drive to smaller drive, as well as clone HDD to larger HDD or SSD.
  • Clone everything without reinstalling Windows operating system, installed programs, and other settings, etc.
  • Accelerate the reading and writing speed for the SSD if you clone HDD to SSD with SSD alignment.

Let’s see how to clone hard disk easily in Windows 7/8/10 with AOMEI Backupper (take clone HDD to smaller SSD for example).

  1. Perform the disk cloning software – AOMEI Backupper Standard after installation, choose Clone tab -> Disk Clone then.
IMG_256
  1. Choose the Windows 7/8/10 system hard drive (HDD) as source disk to clone, and click Next to go on.
IMG_256
  1. Select the smaller SSD as the destination path to save the Windows OS, installed programs, etc. from the larger HDD, and hit Next.
IMG_256

Tips: 

  • Before cloning, make sure the smaller SSD has the enough storage space to store the data from the source disk. Otherwise, AOMEI Backupper will notify you This selected disk is too smaller, and you can’t go any further.
  • Please backup important data on the SSD in advance, because your SSD drive will be overwritten during the cloning process.
  • If you prefer to backup to cloud, please try free cloud backup solutions.
  1. Click OK if get the overwritten notice.
  1. Check SSD Alignment and press Start Clone to clone larger HDD to smaller SSD easily.
IMG_256

Besides, there are some settings you should know If you clone a smaller drive to a larger one:

Sector by sector clone option enables you to clone all the sectors (blocks) on the source disk whether the sector is blank or corrupted.

Edit partitions option allows you to edit all the partition size and location to fully use the storage space on the destination disk.

Summing Up

Although Microsoft Windows do not provide you the built-in disk cloning software, it’s not difficult for you to find one. It’s easy for you to clone or migrate everything from one computer to another one as long as you find the right hard drive cloning software. If you would like to clone Windows 10 to another SSD, clone individual partition to other locations, etc., AOMEI Backupper will do you a big favor as well.

2049
0
Share