Clone SD Card to Larger Card without Data Loss (FREE)
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- About SD card you’re about to clone
- Why clone SD card to larger card?
- Best free tool to clone SD card in all Windows systems
- How to clone SD card to larger SD card securely
- Summary
About SD card you’re about to clone
SD cards, or Secure Digital cards, are small, portable memory cards used to store data in various devices. They are commonly found in digital cameras, music players, Android phones, tablets, and personal computers. The SD card slot or reader allows users to insert and remove the card as needed.
SD cards have four card families: SDSC, SDHC, SDXC, and SDIO. They come in three sizes: original, mini, and micro. SD cards also have different capacities, file systems, and brands available.
Cloning an SD card to a larger one is a viable option if you need more storage space. You can clone the SD card to a larger one and format it as a different file system if needed. It's recommended to use mainstream SD cards from reputable brands such as SanDisk, Polaroid, Silicon Power, Samsung, Transcend, Lexar, and others. These brands offer high-quality SD cards with reliable performance and compatibility.
Why clone SD card to larger card?
In general, several common reasons account for the behavior of cloning SD cards in all Windows systems, like cloning Raspberry Pi SD card to larger card. See if you're in one of those situations.
- Not enough space to store data. When attempting to clone an SD card, you may encounter an error message indicating that the target SD card is in low disk space. This means that the SD card does not have enough free space to accommodate the contents of the source SD card. To resolve this issue, you can try the following:
- Long-term data protection. Cloning an SD card can be a useful technique for creating a backup of your data. By making an exact copy of the SD card, you can recover your data quickly in case the original SD card fails, is infected by a virus, or is lost. This can be especially important for important files, such as documents, photos, and videos.
- As a fast recovery method. Once your SD card is damaged or corrupted, you can easily replace it with a new one, without having to worry about restoring data or experiencing any loss. This is especially convenient, as it saves you time and effort that would be required to recover data from a damaged SD card. With a new SD card, you can simply format it and start using it, without any hassle.
In addition to the benefits of SD card cloning, another factor that contributes to the popularity of this method is the ease of transferring data between SD cards. This process is often necessary when upgrading to a new SD card or replacing a damaged one. However, the real challenge lies in figuring out how to clone an SD card to another SD card in Windows 10, 8, or 7 in a secure and efficient manner.
Best free tool to clone SD card in all Windows systems
Cloning an SD card to a bigger SD card is a straightforward process that can be achieved using a reliable and powerful software. Qiling Disk Master Standard is a free yet professional SD card cloning software that can help you clone your SD card to a bigger SD card with ease. This software is renowned for its reliable and powerful features, making it an ideal choice for cloning SD cards. With Qiling Disk Master Standard, you can clone your SD card to a bigger SD card, as well as a smaller SD card, without any hassle. The software is designed to be user-friendly, making it easy to use even for those who are not tech-savvy.
- Intelligent Clone: It clones only used sectors of SD card, not limited to Android or Raspberry Pi, thus you can easily clone SD card with different sizes, even for smaller ones.
- Sector by Sector Clone: With this option, you can clone all sectors of SD card to another one, including bad sectors and empty sectors. You can also clone SD card to smaller card without choosing it.
- Flexible cloning solutions: Except for cloning the entire SD card, you can also clone specific partitions on it.
- Support all the SD card families and brands, such as Polaroid SDXC, Silicon Power (SP) Micro SDXC, Samsung SD Card, etc,
In addition to its reliable and powerful features, Qiling Disk Master Standard also allows the cloning process to run in the background, ensuring that it won't interrupt your use of the PC. This means that you can continue to work on your computer while the cloning process is underway, without any hassle or disruption.
Qiling Disk Master offers a hassle-free experience with its user-friendly interface, allowing you to complete the cloning job with ease. Before getting started, simply download Qiling Disk Master and you'll be ready to go. This software is compatible with a wide range of Windows operating systems, including Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, XP, and Vista. If you're a server user, you may want to consider Qiling Disk Master Server, which is specifically designed to meet the needs of server users.
How to clone SD card to larger SD card securely
Cloning an Android SD card to a larger SD card using Qiling Disk Master is a straightforward process. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you prepare and complete the cloning job:
✬ Two SD card readers: The SD card can only be connected to the PC through the card reader, so please prepare it and make sure it's recognized by your PC.
✬ Transfer all the data to Android SD card: The data on the Android device may not be completely stored on the SD card, so you need to transfer it first.
✬ Backup files on the larger SD card: The target SD card will be overwritten after cloning, thus if there are any important files, please backup them in advance. Make sure you’ve chosen the correct one in the steps as well.
✬ Sufficient battery electricity: Sudden power surge may result in data loss if the cloning process is not complete.
1. Connect both SD cards to your PC and make sure they can be detected properly. Open Qiling Disk Master Standard. Click Tools and utilities and then Disk Clone.
2. Select the smaller SD card as the source disk. Click Next.
3. Cloning an Android SD card to a larger SD card using Qiling Disk Master is a straightforward process. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you prepare and complete the cloning job:
4. Confirm your operation and click Proceed to clone SD card to larger card easily. Wait for the process completes.
Related tips:
👉 Tick Sector by Sector Clone option to clone all sectors of SD card. Please note it will make partition editing unavailable.
👉 Click on Edition Partitions to resize the larger SD card size. You have 3 options in the following.
- Copy without resizing partitions: It will not resize the partition size.
- Add unused space to all partitions: It will reallocate the unallocated space to each partition of the target disk, appropriate for the disk size.
- Manually adjust partition size: It allows you to extend unallocated space to any partition on the destination disk you want. More flexible but require human intervention.
- ★Tips:
- To clone a specific partition only, please choose Partition Clone in the first step.
- You’re allowed to clone SD card to USB flash drive through above steps.
- Besides SD card, you still can use this software to clone hard drive or SSD, regardless of disk size and model, such as, cloning Windows 10 to NVMe SSD, cloning hard drive to larger drive, clone large HDD to smaller SSD, etc.
- If you cannot connect two SD cards to your computer simultaneously, it is suggested to do the backup & restore operation. Firstly, connect the old SD card and create a backup with Qiling Disk Master. You can backup SD card to computer directly. Secondly, disconnect the first card and connect the larger SD card to your PC. Finally, perform image restore to the larger SD card, and done.
Summary
Cloning an SD card to a larger SD card using Qiling Disk Master Standard is a straightforward process. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you prepare and complete the cloning job:
Besides, Qiling Disk Master is also a powerful backup solution and disaster recovery tool for Windows. It is suggested to keep it installed to set continuous data protection for your computer. You can also create bootable media just in case.
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