How to Clone HDD to mSATA SSD in Windows 11/10/8/7 Easily
Overview of mSATA SSD
mSATA stands for "mini-SATA," which refers to a small form factor of solid-state drives (SSDs). mSATA SSDs support data transfer rate of 1.5 GB/s and 3.0 GB/s for high performance while enabling compact integration with a physical connector different from standard SATA drives.
Now mSATA SSDs, Crucial MX200 and Crucial M550/M4, are available from a variety of manufacturers, including Toshiba, Samsung, HP, Intel, SanDisk and Dell.
If you want to replace your HDD with mSATA SSD and keep all the OS and data files intact, the easiest way is cloning HDD to mSATA SSD using data migration software. I will illustrate how to do it in the following article.
💡As technology advances, the mSATA form factor was being gradually phased out in favor of the M.2 form factor, which offers even smaller sizes and faster data transfer rates. Therefore, you may also consider cloning mSATA to M.2 SSD, or cloning SATA to NVMe.
Why clone HDD to mSATA SSD
Cloning HDD to SSD has several advantages due to the merits of SSD comparing to traditional hard drive. The most significant improvement of cloning HDD to mSATA SSD are as below:
- Faster Performance: SSDs have much faster read and write speeds compared to traditional HDDs. This means that data access and transfer will be much quicker, resulting in reduced load times for applications and faster file transfers.
- Reduced Boot Times: SSDs can drastically reduce the time it takes for your operating system to boot up. This can be especially noticeable if you're upgrading from an older HDD.
- Space and Form Factor: mSATA SSDs are compact and designed for smaller form factors, which can be advantageous if you're working with a laptop or other device with limited space for storage.
On top of that, as is usually the case with SSDs, mSATA SSDs are more durable, quieter, and consume less power. But whichever reason you want to upgrade your HDD to mSATA, a handy cloning tool is what you need.
How to clone disk to mSATA SSD
To make it clear, you cannot “clone” anything with the help of Windows tool, backup utility or Disk Management. Thus, choosing one third party software is unavoidable. But you need to consider a few things before you choose one.
- First of all, this software should support aligning partitions to optimize SSD, so that you can make the most of the mSATA SSD.
- Second, it should provide options for you to choose whether clone every sector on the HDD or not. Your mSATA SSD may be smaller than HDD, in that case, you have to clone only used part instead of cloning the entire disk.
Qiling Disk Master Professional, the powerful cloning software, takes care of all of that.
It will clone used part only by default, and therefore allowing you to clone larger drive to smaller drive. If you would like an intact duplication of HDD, you can check sector-by-sector clone at the last step of disk cloning, in which you can also realize aligning partitions to optimize SSD.
Download this software and follow steps below to clone disk to mSATA drive now.
*Clone features in free trial can only be demonstrated. Please upgrade for full functionality.
Tutorial: Clone to mSATA with Qiling Disk Master
Backup files that matter a lot in case you lose it by inappropriate operations. Connect mSATA SSD with your computer via SATA to USB cable or SATA case.
Step 1. Install and start SSD cloning software - Qiling Disk Master. Click Tools and utilities, and select Disk Clone.
✎Note: Qiling Disk Master supports cloning data disks and system disks of all brands and partition styles, such as cloning MBR to MBR/MBR to GPT or GPT to GPT/GPT to MBR directly. But you still need to ensure the partition style of the target disk is compatible with your boot mode (MBR for legacy BIOS and GPT for UEFI).
Step 2. Select HDD as the source disk.
Step 3. Select mSATA SSD as the destination path.
Step 4. Check Align partition to optimize for SSD box, and click Proceed.
📑Tips:
- If you need to clone every aspect of the old HDD, make sure to check Sector By Sector Clone box.
- You are allowed to fit all partitions to entire disk by clicking Edit partitions on the destination disk.
- If you cannot boot from the cloned SSD, try changing the boot sequence in BIOS or disconnecting the HDD and boot again.
Summary
Clone HDD to mSATA SSD is as easy as clone HDD to other brand of SSD. If your mSATA SSD is larger than HDD, then you are likely to get unallocated space after cloning. Make sure to make good use of it.
Qiling Disk Master is able to clone SSD to SSD. It is also all-around Backup & Restore software that allows you to backup system and restore system, backup/restore disk, backup/restore partition, and synchronize files. Command line clone takes up less PC RAM and allows you to perform unattended tasks.
For advanced users, Qiling Disk Master Professional and Qiling Disk Master Server are better choices. Both of them supports command line backup, restore and clone. The second one is dedicated backup solution for Server users.
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