Easiest Way to Clone Hard Drive or SSD to External Hard Drive
Why clone hard drive to external hard drive?
Cloning hard drives, whether internal HDD or SSD, has become a common practice for millions of Windows users worldwide. This process involves copying the contents of one drive to another, often to an external hard drive, and is typically done for three main reasons: to create a backup of important data, to upgrade to a larger or faster storage capacity, and to transfer the operating system and installed programs to a new or replacement drive.
- Duplicate a copy for data security. Cloning a hard drive creates an exact copy of your HDD or SSD, allowing you to access your data directly without needing a temporary storage for the backup.
- Clone HDD or SSD to upgrade disk. Cloning a hard drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) transfers all data, including the operating system, system files, drivers, installed programs, and personal files, to an external disk. This allows you to use the cloned disk as a system disk for increased capacity or performance without reinstalling anything.
- Replace the bad disk. If your internal disk is failing, consider cloning it to an external hard drive and switching to the new one to ensure your computer stays bootable.
Best cloning software for hard drive migration
Windows doesn't have a built-in cloning feature, so users need to use third-party software like Qiling Disk Master Professional to clone hard drives in Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista and Windows 11 to external drives.
✧ Qiling Disk Master allows users to clone a smaller hard drive to a larger one, freeing up space, or clone a larger HDD to a smaller SSD using the Intelligent Clone feature, resulting in improved SSD performance.
✧The software provides a sector-by-sector clone function that helps users create an exact copy of the source disk, including blank or logically bad sectors.
✧Cloning software provides an option for SSD Alignment, which optimizes SSD performance during the cloning process, especially useful when cloning an HDD to an external SSD drive.
✧The software's "Edit Partitions" feature allows for manual or automatic adjustment of unallocated space, as well as conversion of the destination disk from MBR to GPT or vice versa.
Qiling Disk Master is a free download that doesn't include ads, making it a great option to try out right now.
Step by step guide: clone HDD or SSD to external drive in Windows 10 or 11
To demonstrate the use of this cloning software, let's clone an HDD or SSD to an external drive. Before starting, make sure you have the necessary items prepared, including the external drive, a computer with a compatible operating system, and the cloning software. The external drive should be at least as large as the source drive to accommodate the entire contents.
1️⃣ External drive The cloning process requires a compatible device to store the cloned data, such as a larger or smaller HDD, SSD, USB external disk, etc. Ensure the chosen device has sufficient capacity to hold the data from your original HDD or SSD, or the cloning process will fail.
2️⃣ If your computer has only one slot, use a USB to SATA adapter to connect your external hard drive. If it has two slots, you can directly slide your external disk into the slot and screw it tightly.
3️⃣ Initialize the external drive in Disk Management. Right-click the disk, select Initialize Disk, choose the same partition style (MBR or GPT) as the original disk, and click OK.
Here are simple steps to check the disk partition style:
- To open the Disk Management window, press Win + R to open the Run window, type `diskmgmt.msc` and hit OK.
- Then, right-Click the disk you want to clone and select Properties in the pop-up window.
- The Properties window should be used to select the Volume tab and confirm the partition style, which can be either MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition Table).
4️⃣ Backup important data and files on an external hard drive, but be aware that the cloning process will overwrite any existing files on the target drive.
To clone a hard drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) to an external drive, follow these steps: connect the external drive to your computer, download and install a cloning software such as Acronis True Image or EaseUS Todo Backup, select the source drive (HDD or SSD) and the external drive as the target drive, and then start the cloning process. The software will copy the entire contents of the source drive to the external drive, including the operating system, programs, and data.
Step 1. Launch hard drive cloning software Qiling Disk Master, then click Clone and select Disk Clone to proceed.
Step 2. Select the original HDD or SSD on your computer as the source disk, then click Next.
Step 3. Select the prepared external drive as the destination disk, then click Next.
Step 4. Check the operation summary and click "Proceed" to clone hard drive to external hard drive in Windows 10 or 11.
If your external hard drive is a large HDD or SSD, click "Edit Partitions" and choose "Add unused space to all partitions" or "Manually adjust partition size" to resize the partitions on the destination disk, otherwise the cloned drive may show the wrong size in Windows Explorer.
In addition to its other features, this tool supports converting disk types (MBR or GPT) to prevent boot failure. It also has an option to check the "SSD Alignment" box to improve SSD performance if the disk is an SSD.
Step 5. Wait until the cloning process is complete and click "Finish". Replace the old hard drive and boot from the cloned external drive. If both disks are connected, change the boot sequence in the BIOS to prioritize the external drive.
- To clone a hard drive, select the "Sector by sector clone" option to clone every sector, ensuring that the target disk is at least as large as the source disk, or the "Proceed" button will be disabled.
- If you want to migrate your operating system to an SSD, you can try the System Clone feature.
- Cloning a Windows 10 disk to an NVMe SSD can provide the best performance, as NVMe SSDs have the fastest transfer speed among SSDs. This can result in a significant improvement in system speed and responsiveness.
The cloning process may take longer for larger drives with more data.
Conclusion
You can easily clone a hard drive or SSD to an external drive using Qiling Disk Master Professional, a powerful cloning software. This software also allows you to move a hard drive to a new computer in Windows 11 and boot successfully, making it a convenient solution for creating backups, upgrades, or replacements.
It's a powerful tool that's packed with useful features and functions for managing your system, allowing you to backup your system to an external hard drive or NAS device, backup important files to cloud storage, and more - so why wait? Try it now!
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