Hard drive cloning involves duplicating everything from your original hard drive, including applications, files, folders, partition layout, operating system (if present), downloads, programs, and settings, onto your destination storage. Essentially, the target hard drive will be an exact replica of the original one.
The reasons to clone hard drive
There are several reasons why you might need to clone hard drives:
Improve Performance:
As your hard drive accumulates large amounts of data and files, your computer’s performance can slow down. Cloning your hard drive to a larger or faster drive can significantly enhance your computer’s speed and overall performance.
Data Backup:
Hard drive cloning provides an easy way to restore your data if you accidentally delete files or fall victim to virus or malware attacks.
Upgrade Hard Drive:
When you want to change your hard drive but worry about losing personal data, cloning allows you to transfer everything to the new drive seamlessly. It’s also a convenient method for upgrading from a smaller, slower drive to a larger, faster, and more reliable one.
Save Time and Effort:
Cloning the entire disk, rather than copying individual files or folders, saves significant time and effort, making the process more efficient.
What’s the best way to clone a hard drive?
Then we have a general knowledge about hard drive cloning, so how to clone hard drive? Is there any easy and free way?
Luckily, there is plenty of cloning software in the data protection field. You need to choose a well-performance hard drive software. Some factors such as multiple functions, usability, accuracy, and cost of such software should take into consideration. Hence, considering the comprehensibility, one of the best free external hard drive cloning software—-AOMEI Backupper Standard is recommended to you.
AOMEI Backupper Standard offers several distinguished features:
- Compatibility: It is a robust cloning software compatible with Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista, supporting both HDD and SSD cloning.
- Versatility: You can clone entire disks or specific partitions. The advanced version also allows system clones, ensuring comprehensive data replication.
- Intelligent Cloning: The software enables intelligent cloning by copying only used sectors from the original disk to another, skipping bad sectors. This feature allows seamless cloning to smaller SSDs and helps clone disks with bad sectors without hindrance.
- Backup and Restore: In addition to cloning, AOMEI Backupper Standard is a comprehensive backup and restore solution. It simplifies disk backup with just a few clicks, making the process effortless and efficient.
Before we move to the next part, let’s make some preparations before you clone hard drive:
- Data Backup: Before performing a clone, make sure to back up crucial data on your target disk. The cloning process will overwrite all information on the target disk with the original data.
- Storage Space: Make sure that the target disk has enough space to accommodate the original data. The available space on the target disk should be equal to or larger than the used space on the original disk.
Full guide: how to clone hard drive in an easy way
Here is the tutorial presented to show you how to clone a hard drive with AOMEI Backupper.
Step 1. Click on “Clone” from the menu on the left-hand side, and then choose “Disk Clone.”
Warmly note:
If you want to migrate your OS system, please choose System Clone, this feature is available in at least Pro edition.
Step 2. Choose the source disk, which is the original hard drive you want to clone. Click “Next” to proceed.
Step 3. Select the destination disk to which the source disk will be cloned. Click “Next” to continue.
Step 4. In the following window, select “Start Clone.” Wait for the process to complete, and once prompted, click “Finish” afterward.
Hard drive cloning is invaluable for data backup, hard drive replacements, and upgrades. It allows you to duplicate all the contents of your original hard drive onto a target drive. However, choosing reliable cloning software is crucial. AOMEI Backupper is an excellent example, offering robust cloning capabilities at no cost. This software is one of the best external hard drive cloning software, like SSD, HDD and so on. If you’re looking for easy and effective hard drive cloning, AOMEI Backupper is definitely worth trying out.
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