Cloning hard drives is a good solution when it comes to or­gan­ising an efficient move to a new data medium. During the cloning, special tools create an exact 1:1 copy of the hard drive – you can also include hidden and currently used files in this process. We’ll explain how to clone a hard drive with trusted software and what pre­par­a­tions you need to make before a migration.

Cloning hard drives: when and why is it useful?

People usually clone hard drives when they need to switch from a hard drive (Hard Disk Drive /HDD) to a larger or a sig­ni­fic­antly faster SSD (Solid State Drive). As well as extensive quant­it­ies of data, you can also transfer an entire operating system. After a suc­cess­ful migration, a computer with a bootable hard drive including Windows can be booted up and used in its original state im­me­di­ately. Important user data and tools for everyday work, like email programs and painstak­ingly built bookmark lists, are available straight away. In addition, not only programs, but also in­di­vidu­al user-specific settings and ad­just­ments of programs are auto­mat­ic­ally adopted.

Some users also clone hard drives to back up data because they want to be able to quickly fall back on a ready-to-use complete solution with a func­tion­ing operating system in the event of a virus attack, for example. It’s a good idea to create a cloned re­place­ment data medium for emer­gen­cies at longer intervals. For daily backups, it’s better to back up your drive using an image file. It stores the data in a com­pressed form and can also be in­teg­rated into backup strategies, such as in­cre­ment­al and dif­fer­en­tial backups, and it saves storage space.

What do I need to watch out for when cloning a hard drive?

When cloning a hard drive, there are certain technical re­quire­ments that must be met. The new hard drive should have as much, or more, memory than the old medium. If a notebook hard drive is being trans­ferred to a new SSD, you will need an external hard drive enclosure or an SATA-to-USB cable. There are also af­ford­able docking stations that you can plug an SSD into and then connect it to the computer by USB. If the target SSD is already built into a sta­tion­ary PC, external con­nec­tions are not required.

A simple hard drive clone with user data can be created quickly and there usually no problems if suitable software is used. If a system is to be cloned, it’s a little more com­plic­ated. After the transfer, you must make sure that the new data medium is bootable and re­cog­nised when booting. With the most recent storage hardware, for example, Windows may require cor­res­pond­ing drivers in order to ini­tial­ise and integrate them when booting. Suitable drivers for manual in­stall­a­tion are usually available on the hard drive man­u­fac­turer’s website.

In addition, certain settings may need to be con­figured in the BIOS for the booting process with the new hardware. For example, the new hard drive may need to be defined as the primary boot medium. If you’re moving an operating system, you should also have a recovery medium (e.g. Windows CD-ROM) ready to carry out any necessary repairs.

When migrating an operating system, you can take the op­por­tun­ity to clean it up and stream­line it at the same time. Windows systems that have been in use for a long time and not cleaned regularly often have su­per­flu­ous data sets – e.g. in temporary in­stall­a­tion dir­ect­or­ies or in the browser cache. Old network links then stop working because they can no longer find their des­tin­a­tion. Bookmark lists contain links which are no longer of use.

After the migration and cleaning up, you’ll have an optimised system that performs better and more clearly. Of course, the cloning process goes a lot quicker if you’re working with smaller quant­it­ies of data. A time-saving migration of the operating system is only worth it if the Windows system that is currently in use is running cleanly and without any issues. Otherwise, it’s better to install a new operating system and not bother cloning the system that’s causing problems.

Before starting up the software for the cloning, you should remove any unneeded mediums from the system. Otherwise, in a worst-case scenario, the incorrect des­tin­a­tion drive may ac­ci­dent­ally be selected and ir­re­vers­ibly over­writ­ten. In addition, the fewer data mediums involved in the process, the easier it will be for in­ex­per­i­enced users.

Before a planned migration, you should take pre­vent­at­ive steps to protect yourself against data loss. It’s re­com­men­ded that you back up all or at least the most important data to a suitable backup medium that isn’t involved in the cloning, as any losses, e.g. over­writ­ten or damaged data, are usually im­possible to restore. If you want to use a used hard drive, you should check its data content carefully be­fore­hand and back up any old data. Having a backup copy also allows you to quickly restore the original state.

If you want to ensure that the clone will run flaw­lessly and that everything will work smoothly in an emergency, it’s sensible to take another pre­par­at­ory measure: Windows 10 can search for drive errors with its tools and fix any errors found.

Drive icon in Explorer (e.g. Drive: ‘Data’, Letter: ‘I:’) > right-click > Prop­er­ties > Tab ‘Tools’ > Error checking > Click on ‘Check’

Image: Windows 10: Window for Error checking the disk
Windows 10: Error checking disks with Prop­er­ties/Tools

Windows 10 doesn’t have a built-in feature for cloning hard drives. The process can be done in a secure and user-friendly way with trusted software solutions. Below you will find out how to clone hard drives with AOMEI Backupper Standard, Macrium Reflect, and Acronis True Image 2020. The examples only involve two data mediums. If multiple data mediums are connected, they will also be shown by the programs. This is why you must take par­tic­u­lar care to not select the incorrect des­tin­a­tion hard drive when testing!

Note

If the hard drive cloning fails, it may be because there are encrypted par­ti­tions on the data medium.

Hard drive cloning with AOMEI Backupper Standard

After the program opens, AOMEI Backupper Standard opens a start screen with various different functions. After clicking on the ‘Clone’ tile, you’ll be presented with further options. If you select the ‘System Clone’ option, a bootable copy including the operating system will be created. You can also clone par­ti­tions or hard drives. The following section will give you a step-by-step guide on how to create a hard drive clone:

Image: AOMEI Backupper Standard – Selection menu for cloning hard drives
Start screen of AOMEI Backupper Standard with options for cloning hard drives and par­ti­tions

After clicking on ‘Disk Clone’, the ‘Source Disk’ menu with a list of the connected hard drives will open. Select the data medium that you want to copy from this menu. After clicking on ‘Next’ you will be asked to select the des­tin­a­tion hard drive:

Image: AOMEI Backupper Standard: Source Disk selection menu
AOMEI Backupper Standard: Selecting a Source Disk
Image: AOMEI Backupper Standard: Destination Disk selection menu
AOMEI Backupper Standard: Selecting a Des­tin­a­tion Disk

After selecting a des­tin­a­tion disk and clicking on ‘Next’, an overview of the pending copy operation will appear:

Image: AOMEI Backupper Standard: Cloning operation summary
AOMEI Backupper Standard: ‘Disk Clone’ operation summary

You can define ad­di­tion­al op­er­a­tions at the bottom of the program window:

  • Edit Par­ti­tions (Partition size settings, Al­loc­a­tion of storage ca­pa­cit­ies)
  • SSD Alignment (this setting is re­com­men­ded to increase the per­form­ance of an SSD)
  • Sector By Sector Clone (exact 1:1 copy of the hard drive without any ex­cep­tions, also copies sectors that are currently in use, empty or faulty)

You can choose to display the details during the copying process and therefore closely follow the process:

Image: AOMEI Backupper Standard: Detailed display during a hard drive cloning
AOMEI Backupper Standard: Detailed display during a hard drive cloning

After a while, the copying process is completed:

Image: AOMEI Backupper Standard: Cloning completion display
AOMEI Backupper Standard: The com­ple­tion screen signals the end of the cloning.

Hard drive cloning with Macrium Reflect

Note

After starting the program, an English user interface opens by default. You can change the language by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+L.

When it opens, Macrium Reflect opens a user interface that lists the available drives and then starts the cloning process after you’ve clicked on ‘Clone this disk’:

Image: Macrium Reflect: Start screen
Macrium Reflect: After starting the program, the start screen lists the connected hard drives.

An ad­di­tion­al program window for the selection of the hard drive will open. After clicking on ‘Select a disk to clone to’ you can select the des­tin­a­tion hard drive in a separate view:

Image: Macrium Reflect: Destination hard drive selection menu
Macrium Reflect: Select the des­tin­a­tion hard drive in the program window that opens

Afterward, the des­tin­a­tion hard drive (1) will be displayed in the program window with the source hard drive:

Image: Macrium Reflect: List of source and destination hard drives
Macrium Reflect: List of hard drives involved in the process

After clicking on ‘Next’ (2), in the following step, you can decide whether further copying processes with the same hard drive should be planned and saved. Clicking on ‘Add schedule’ (1) opens a planning wizard for the auto­ma­tion of regular backups:

Image: Macrium Reflect: Timer for regular cloning
Macrium Reflect: Creation of schedules for the regular cloning of hard drives

After clicking on ‘Next’ (2), a summary of the copying process is displayed:

Image: Macrium Reflect: Window with a summary of the tasks
Macrium Reflect: Summary of the tasks in the copying process

After clicking on ‘Finish’, you can give the backup an ap­pro­pri­ate name (replacing the standard name ‘My Clone’). You can also save the cloning process for further re­pe­ti­tions (as an XML file):

Image: Macrium Reflect: Query about the timing of the cloning
Macrium Reflect: Query about the timing of the cloning and the name of the backup

After clicking on ‘OK’, a con­firm­a­tion prompt that requests a final con­firm­a­tion of the cloning opens. If the box is checked (1), the process will start when you click on ‘Continue’:

Image: Macrium Reflect: Final confirmation of the cloning
Macrium Reflect: Final con­firm­a­tion prompt before the cloning starts

A status window provides in­form­a­tion about the progress and com­ple­tion of the cloning:

Image: Macrium Reflect: End of the copying process
Macrium Reflect: The com­ple­tion screen signals the end of the cloning

Hard drive cloning with Acronis True Image 2020

To create a hard drive clone with Acronis True Image 2020, you must follow these steps:

After opening the program, select ‘Extras’ from the sidebar and then click on ‘Clone disk’. You will then be asked to select the ‘Clone mode’ – you can choose between ‘Automatic’ and ‘Manual’. Automatic cloning is usually suf­fi­cient for normal use cases. If you need more flex­ib­il­ity during the data transfer, you can change and apply ad­di­tion­al settings in manual mode. In the next step, you must choose the source disk. After clicking on ‘Next’, you then must choose the des­tin­a­tion hard drive that you want the clone to be saved onto. After the final check of the con­figured settings, click on ‘Proceed’.

It’s not possible to clone dynamic disks with Acronis. In Windows operating systems, dynamic disks are used to allow for the use of complex storage and data man­age­ment ar­chi­tec­tures (e.g. for creating spanned volumes). In addition, the man­u­fac­turer points out that a Windows system can be trans­ferred to an external hard drive via a USB port, but the PC cannot then boot from the external drive. Instead, they recommend cloning a system drive via SATA cable and then con­nect­ing an SSD or HHD drive to it. With certain desktop PC’s, SATA con­nec­tions can be accessed from outside, if not they can be found directly on the mainboard. You can find in­struc­tions on cloning laptop hard drives here.

After the hard drive cloning: format­ting free storage space as volume

If you transfer a clone to a larger hard drive using this program, any un­al­loc­ated storage space on the des­tin­a­tion drive remains free. With Windows Disk Man­age­ment, you can format the space as volume and then use the entire storage capacity of the data medium.

You can access the Disk Man­age­ment by right-clicking on the Windows icon on the left-hand side of the taskbar and selecting ‘Disk Man­age­ment’ from the menu that opens. The un­al­loc­ated storage space is displayed below the list of the drives. Right-click to open the menu. Then click on ‘New Simple Volume’ and a Windows wizard will open:

Image: Windows 10 Disk Management: Window for creating simple volumes
Windows 10: Creating a new simple volume in Disk Man­age­ment

The wizard guides you through several steps in which various settings can be made. You can assign the volume an in­di­vidu­al drive letter or path. At the end of the procedure, the volume will be displayed in Windows Explorer and you will be able to use it to store data:

Image: Windows 10: Window to assign a drive letter
Windows 10: Assigning a drive letter in the Disk Man­age­ment
Image: Windows 10: Formatting partitions in the wizard
Windows 10: Format­ting the settings and labelling of a simple volume
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