Disk clone means to copy all data from one hard drive to another, including the operating system, applications, documents, videos as well as all settings, etc. It is helpful in the following situations:
- Replace computer hard drive with an advanced one, such as replace HDD with SSD, replace SATA SSD with NVMe SSD, etc.
- Enlarge computer storage space. You may clone 128GB disk to 256GB disk, clone 500GB HDD to 1TB HDD and so on.
- Make a duplicate of your hard disk drive or solid-state drive as a backup.
Then, how to do disk clone on a Windows 10 PC? Professional disk cloning software is needed.
Best free disk cloning software for Windows PC
If you search for disk cloning tools online, one of the most popular options is AOMEI Backupper Standard. Here are some of the key features of AOMEI Backupper in regard to disk clone:
- Clone Various Devices: AOMEI Backupper allows you to clone an HDD, SSD, USB flash drive, SD card and memory card, etc. It supports various disk interfaces and brands, such as SATA/mSATA/PCIe and Samsung/SanDisk/Crucial/Seagate.
- Sector-by-Sector Clone: there is a sector-by-sector clone option, which allows you to clone every sector of the source disk to the target disk. This ensures that the target disk is an exact copy of the source disk, including blank sectors.
- Intelligent Clone: this feature allows you to clone only the used sectors of the source disk, which reduces the cloning time and saves disk space.
- 4K Partition Alignment: AOMEI Backupper can help you align partitions on the target SSD so as to improve the SSD performance and prolong its lifespan.
- Bootable Media Creation: you are able to create bootable media, such as a USB drive or CD/DVD. With a boot device, you can clone a hard drive without booting Windows.
However, the Standard edition has a big disadvantage – it cannot clone a system disk. If you want to clone a disk containing OS, there are two ways to go:
- Upgrade to higher editions like AOMEI Backupper Professional.
- Try the Disk Backup & Restore method. That is to say, you can create a disk image of the old hard drive and then restore the disk image to the new hard drive. It involves much more steps than performing disk clone.
How to clone one SSD to another
As SSD is more and more widely used, I’ll show you how to clone an old SSD to a new SSD in this part. Before you start, please install the new SSD on your computer. If there’s only one slot, try using an adapter or SSD enclosure to connect it. Also, backup files on the target SSD if it is not empty, because the cloning process will overwrite the destination disk.
Now follow the instructions below:
Step 1. Download free disk cloning software from the official website. Install and launch it on your PC.
Step 2. Choose Disk Clone under the Clone tab.
Step 3. Select the old SSD as the source disk and click Next. Please note you can only clone an SSD without OS because of the edition limitation.
Step 4. Select the new SSD as the destination disk and click Next.
Step 5. To improve the destination SSD’s reading and writing speed, it is recommended to check the SSD Alignment option. Finally, click on the Start Clone button to begin transferring data from the old SSD to the new SSD.
Step 6. After the cloning process is done, click on the Finish button. You can then open the cloned drive in File Explorer to see if all data is cloned over.
That’s all about how to perform free disk clone on Windows 10. AOMEI Backupper’s Disk Clone feature provides a comprehensive solution for users who want to create an exact copy of their hard drive. With its user-friendly interface, even a computer novice can handle a disk clone task easily.
What’s more, I find AOMEI Backupper is also the best free backup software for Windows. It can help you protect your computer from all aspects. For example, to protect computer OS, you can create a system image via System Backup. To protect important files/folders, you can create a backup image via File Backup. Just give it a shot!
