How to Mirror a Hard Drive to SSD without Losing Data [2 Ways]
Why mirror a hard drive in Windows?
Mirroring is a technique that allows a system to automatically maintain multiple copies of data, ensuring that in the event of a disk hardware failure, a system can continue to process or quickly recover data.
Mirroring a hard drive involves creating copies of the drive to ensure continuity in case of failure, and it's recommended to store these copies in separate devices like another hard drive, SSD, or external hard drive, which is similar to backing up a PC to an external hard drive.
Cloning a hard drive is often mistakenly referred to as mirroring, which is a separate operation from hard drive backup. However, cloning a hard drive can still achieve the goal of protecting data. As a result, learning how to mirror a hard drive in various Windows versions, such as Windows 10, Windows 7, and Windows 8, becomes increasingly important and urgent.
How to mirror hard drive with professional software in Windows
You can create a mirror image of your hard drive using Windows' built-in tools, such as Backup and Restore or File History, if you only want to create a backup image of the hard drive.
Using the Windows snap-in tool as a mirroring solution can be a roundabout approach, especially when using File History. This method requires backing up one hard drive twice, once for files and once for system programs, which can lead to issues with restoring the mirrored images later. If File History fails, you may need to consider alternative backup solutions.
You can mirror a hard drive to another using professional software, such as Qiling Disk Master Professional. This software provides an intuitive user interface that allows you to clone a hard drive and backup a hard drive, making it easy to mirror a hard drive to an SSD, external drive, or another hard drive. Additionally, it enables you to clone a large hard drive to a smaller drive, as long as all data on the source can fit the smaller one.
To mirror a hard drive to an SSD in Windows 7, there are two ways to do so. (follow next part to learn how)
How to clone a hard drive to smaller SSD quickly in Windows 7
Step 1. To mirror your laptop's hard drive to a smaller SSD, you'll need to connect the SSD to your computer using a USB-to-SATA cable, ensuring it's detected by Windows.
Step 2. To install Qiling Disk Master Professional, click the download button and run the program. Next, click on "Clone" and then select "Disk Clone".
Step 3. Choose computer hard drive as the source.
Step 4. Choose the smaller SSD as the destination.
Step 5. It is suggested to tick the option "SSD Alignment" to improve SSD performance and prolong SSD lifespan, then click "Proceed".
Tips:
- The "Sector by sector clone" option is available for cloning a hard drive to a larger or same capacity disk.
- To mirror a hard drive on Windows Server 2012, you can use the Qiling Disk Master Server edition. This allows you to create a mirror of your hard drive, which can help protect your data in case of a hardware failure.
How to mirror hard drive to external drive in Windows
This method will create a backup image of a hard drive, allowing for easy restoration in case of data loss or system failure.
Step 1. Connect an external drive to your computer, ensure it's formatted for use, and then open Qiling Disk Master Professional. From there, click "Backup" and select "Disk Backup" to proceed.
Step 2. To mirror a hard drive, click on the "Disks" tab and then select the hard drive you want to mirror from in the pop-up window.
Step 3. Select a partition on external drive as the destination path.
Step 4. Now, set custom configurations, compression level, and encryption in the Options section. In the Schedule section, choose your daily, weekly, and monthly backup modes. Finally, manage your disk space in the Scheme section and click Proceed.
Tip: The mirroring process for your files can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on the size of your files and the write speed of your hard drive.
Summary
Qiling Disk Master is a great solution to mirror a hard drive in Windows 11, 10, 7, and other Windows OS. It not only helps mirror a hard drive but also clones a single partition like the system drive to an SSD. For instance, you can clone your boot drive to an SSD using this software. Additionally, it can be used to clone a hard drive with bad sectors in Windows. The software also allows you to create a bootable USB in the Utilities tab, which is useful in case your system crashes unexpectedly.
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