How to Duplicate Hard Drive to SSD in Windows [Bootable]
Can I Duplicate A Hard Drive?
Is there software that enables me to copy one hard drive to another or clone HDD? I was thinking about transfer all data to a new SSD and still able to load Windows 10 and everything should function correctly.
Duplicate, also known as clone, means to create a complete and functional copy of the source hard drive, i.e. make exact copy of hard drive. If the original one is a primary hard drive, then you should be able to boot Windows from the duplication as well.
The most common scenario for duplicating hard drive is when you get a new HDD or SSD and want to copy all the data and OS from the old one, e.g. duplicate HDD to SSD, SSD to another SSD. Also, it’s not a bad an idea to keep an exact copy of the hard drive as a backup in case it fails unexpectedly.
Then, what is the best bootable hard drive duplicator for Windows?
- Duplicate Your Hard Drive with Dedicated Software
- How to Duplicate A Hard Drive to Another with Clone Software
Duplicate Your Hard Drive with Dedicated Software
It’s true that you can transfer files between 2 hard drives by copying & pasting or dragging & dropping, but can you duplicate an entire hard drive like this?
The answer is NO. For ordinary files like documents or pictures, you can directly move them in File Explorer - but this does not apply to system files or hidden files.
To duplicate a hard drive containing enormous data and Windows installation, the best way is to use effective disk clone software. Thus you can copy the entire hard drive at once and make it bootable.
Whether you want to duplicate a data disk or system disk, Qiling Disk Master Professional is a good choice to help you clone HDD or SSD in Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP. It includes Disk Clone, System Clone, Partition Clone for you to choose, and offers the best flexibility:
>> By default, it will only copy used sectors, so you can clone larger HDD to smaller SSD as long as the SSD is large enough to hold all the data on the HDD.
>> If you want to make an exact duplication of the hard drive including the blank and logically bad sectors, you can also choose sector-by-sector clone. Thus even the system reserved recovery partition can function normally.
What's more, the software is also professional external USB hard drive duplicator, which allows you to copy USB stick to another USB drive effortlessly.
With it, the operation to copy hard drive will be greatly simplified. Download it and follow the tutorial to have a try.
*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).
How to Duplicate A Hard Drive to Another with Clone Software
Preparations to Duplicate Hard Disk on Windows 10, 11:
- Clean up the source hard drive - If there are some files and apps you don’t need anymore, delete them.
- Install the target hard drive - For laptop with only one slot, connect the target disk via SATA-to-USB adapter.
- Install hard drive clone software - Download Qiling Disk Master and install it on your Windows computer.
Qiling Disk Master Standard includes Disk Clone feature to copy the entire hard drive, Partition Clone to duplicate individual partitions, or System Clone to move Windows to another drive. Now I will introduce its basic operation.
How to duplicate hard drive to SSD with Qiling Disk Master:
1. Open the software, navigate to Clone tab and select Disk Clone.
If you want to transfer only the operating system, you can choose System Clone.
2. Select the hard drive you want to duplicate and click Next.
3. Then select the connected destination disk and hit Next.
4. For the target SSD, tick SSD Alignment to improve its performance. If you want to copy all the sectors on the source hard drive, you can also choose Sector By Sector Clone. Then click Proceed.
To clone hard drive with different size and avoid unallocated space, you can click Edit Partition to resize and rename partitions on the target disk.
After completion, if you want to use the cloned disk as the boot drive, you can shut down the PC and replace the old hard drive with the new one directly.
If you want to keep the old one as a storage device, you can press the required key (varies by manufacturer) during startup to access BIOS/UEFI settings, and select the cloned hard drive as the first boot option. After saving the settings, the PC will restart and boot from the selected hard drive.
✍Notes:
- The target disk will be overwritten during the operation. If there’s any important data stored on it, please use backup features of Qiling Disk Master to create a backup of it.
- After duplication, if the computer boot from the cloned drive properly, you can then decide whether to erase the old hard drive. Qiling Disk Master also contains a Disk Wipe feature to suit your needs.
Summary
The best way to duplicate hard drive is using disk clone software, Qiling Disk Master is an example. It enables you to clone a hard drive to another with secure boot, and the operation could be done with several simple clicks.
Not only disk cloning, you can also use it for data protection and disaster recover, it enables you to create system image on regular basis, and even restore system image to different computer.
If you want to use these powerful features on Windows Server, you can try the specialized Server edition.
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