How to Use Paragon Drive Copy to Migrate Windows 11/10/8/7
Quick Navigation:
- Overview of Paragon Drive Copy
- Stepwise guide to migrate OS using Paragon Drive Copy
- Super alternative to run Paragon disk clone
- To sum up
Overview of Paragon Drive Copy
Paragon Drive Copy is a feature-packed data migration and backup tool for advanced home users. It provides the most efficient way to migrate Windows OS from Windows 7 onwards. It also offers the ability to copy hard drive entirely or a partition separately.
What’s more, you are allowed to exclude certain files or folders when you are cloning larger drive to smaller drive. You can also perform partitioning operations to keep disks properly organized when copying a volume/partition. Now the product functionality is available as part of the all-in-one Hard Disk Manager. If you want a standalone version of Paragon Drive Copy download, you may contact Support.
Stepwise guide to migrate OS using Paragon Drive Copy
As you can see from the image above, the Drive Copy functionality is locked in Hard Disk Manager Basic version. So you have to upgrade to the advanced version to unlock Drive Copy. Learn how to use Paragon Drive Copy in detail below:
1. Connect a new disk to the computer. Launch Hard Disk Manager and open Drive Copy scope.
2. Select Tools > Migrate to open the wizard. Click Next on the Welcome page of the wizard.
3. In the next page, select your preferred migration scenario and click Next. Here I choose Operating system including programs, user folders, etc. If you want to let Paragon clone HDD to SSD, you may choose Whole disk including all partitions.
4. The wizard will search your system for supported operating systems. If several OSes have been found, you need to choose one to migrate from the list and click Next.
5. The program will pick system-related partition(s) automatically. Select a destination disk to hold the OS and click Next.
6. If there is existing data on the destination disk, you will be warned that all data on the disk will be lost during the migration process. Save all important data to another location and then confirm to proceed.
7. (Optional) If the destination disk is not enough in capacity to hold your OS, you’ll be prompted to exclude files from the main system partition. First click Calculate to know exactly how much data you need to exclude.
Tip: If the destination disk is the same size or larger than the source, then the data space calculation won’t be available in the program’s interface.
8. Review all parameters of the operation and modify them if necessary by clicking Back to go back to the required steps.
Tips:
● If the destination disk is larger than the source, the wizard will prompt you to expand the resulted partition across all on-disk space. Unmark the corresponding option if you don’t need that.
● If the destination disk becomes Bootable GPT after migration, you’ll see one more option that allows you to make OS bootable on this disk. You can also specify a bootable device at any time through Boot Corrector.
9. Click Finish to execute the operation immediately. There are two more options for you here: “Perform the operation in the simulation mode” and “Send e-mail notification about results of this operation”. Check them based on your needs.
Super alternative to run Paragon disk clone
Although Paragon Drive Copy works well in system migration or disk/partition copy, you should pay for all the functions and it only supports Windows 7 SP1 and later operating systems. Luckily, you can turn to the best Paragon Drive Copy alternative—Qiling Disk Master Professional.
- You are able to clone HDD to SSD or clone SSD to larger SSD using the Disk Clone feature.
- You are allowed to copy a specific partition like NFTS partition and Ext4 partition via the Partition Clone feature.
- You can also transfer only OS to another hard drive with the System Clone feature.
- It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit version of Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP.
Download and install Qiling Disk Master on your computer now to have a try!
How to copy one hard drive to another via Qiling Disk Master
Before you start, you must backup files on the destination drive, because all the data in the destination will be deleted in the cloning process. Then, follow the steps below:
Step 1. Connect the destination drive to your computer and make sure it is detected.
Step 2. Run the best disk cloning software - Qiling Disk Master. Click “Tools and utilities” tab page and select “Disk Clone”.
Step 3. Select the original hard drive on your PC as the source disk and click “Next”.
Step 4. Select the destination drive you have connected to your PC and click “Next”.
Step 5. Confirm the operation and click “Proceed”.
>> Edit Partitions: you can choose to resize partitions on the destination disk or not here.
>> SSD Alignment: it will improve the reading and writing speed of the SSD. Use this option if the destination disk is an SSD.
>> Sector by sector clone: it will clone every sector on the source disk whether it is used or not, thus costing more time. It requires the destination disk to be equal to or larger than the source disk.
Notes:
- As the source disk is the system disk, you need to change boot order in BIOS or replace the source drive with the cloned one to boot from it after cloning.
- To clone OS only to the destination disk, please use the System Clone feature.
To sum up
Now you know what Paragon Drive Copy is and how to use it exactly. To clone a disk more flexibly, you may choose Qiling Disk Master. Its intuitive interface makes the clone operations pretty simple. What’s more, it is embedded with the backup and sync features. You can backup multiple drives at once and sync local folders to OneDrive, etc. Don’t hesitate to give it a try!
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