How To Clone A Hard Drive In Windows 10

Cloning a difficult drive comes with several benefits that brand information technology an easy mode to become the most out of your storage solutions. Cloning allows you to create a 1-to-1 copy of your hard drive, which is useful when y'all need to backup or transfer data. Even better, information technology also allows y'all to copy over your Windows 10 installation with your preferences and settings completely intact.

Before you can create your ain clone deejay, it'southward of import to get familiar with the process. We'll assist y'all learn some technical terms, besides equally get an understanding of how to clone a hard bulldoze properly.

In this article, nosotros provide a step-by-step guide at how y'all can clone your hard drive and explain why someone would want to exercise this in the first place.

Why y'all should clone your difficult bulldoze

There are several reasons why you may desire to clone your hard bulldoze. You may want to upgrade your hard drive to one with more storage, such equally upgrading from 500GB to 2TB. Or you may be interested in increasing your PC's performance past swapping out your traditional hard-disk drive (HDD) to a solid-state drive (SSD).

one. When upgrading your difficult bulldoze

I of the biggest reasons to upgrade your hard drive is a lack of infinite. If that sounds similar y'all, cloning your hard drive to a new 1 is a smart move that volition let yous to increase your PC's storage capacity without losing whatever of your quondam files.

If your device has room to install 2 hard drives – most desktops and some laptops allow for this – yous could employ your initial difficult drive as a fill-in drive. And so, you can apply your new drive equally your master option. This allows you to keep certain cloned files on your initial difficult drive, such as your Windows operating arrangement every bit a backup. This is ideal just in example y'all encounter any issues when yous install your new hard drive.

ii. Increase PC operation

PC performance is important to every user, simply it'due south especially vital for those who push button their machines to the max, like gamers, video editors, engineers, and other creative pros. If yous prioritize speed and efficiency, chances are you desire to apply an SSD. Or you may want to swap out your SSD for 1 with more than storage capacity. In either case, cloning your initial difficult drive over to the new i is a great fashion to continue all your information.

PCs likewise tend to slow downwardly one time they get a depression disk space warning in their main hard drive. Cloning that bulldoze to 1 with a higher capacity means you won't achieve your storage capacity. If yous're a gamer, this means you can avoid lag in the center of a heated online match. And for video editors, this helps prevent crashes or irksome downs when you're rendering 4K video or other high-quality media.

What to practise before cloning your hard drive

At that place are several important steps to accept earlier you create your clone bulldoze.

1. Back upwards any important data to an external drive

If you have any especially of import data on your drive that you plan to clone, back it up to an external drive get-go. This is crucial because you will overwrite all of the data on your initial hard drive during the cloning process. You don't want to lose any of information technology in the instance something goes incorrect.

two. Check the hard drive's storage

Make sure the hard drive you lot're cloning to has enough space to store all your data. It'southward easy to encounter space problems, particularly when upgrading from an HDD to an SSD. If the original is an HDD with 1TB of infinite, brand sure your new SSD can handle that amount. If yous attempt to clone likewise much data, the hard drive cloning process will fail and it will overwrite all of your data. (Luckily you backed everything up first like we suggested in Stride ane.)

three. Be prepared to open up your device

Go on a screwdriver nearby and so you can open up your desktop to swap out the difficult drive once the cloning completes. When performing a difficult drive cloning, yous need to double-check that your new hard drive is properly connected to your desktop PC.

4. Have the correct cable handy for your laptop

And if you own a laptop with but 1 difficult bulldoze slot available, make sure you ain a SATA to USB cablevision to connect your new difficult drive to your device during the cloning process.

How to clone a difficult drive

It may sound intimidatingly technical, but cloning a difficult drive is really a straightforward process. Still, it does take several steps to follow to make certain you do information technology properly, otherwise you could lose your data. (Doublecheck that backup!) Here's how it works.

1. Boot up 3rd-party software or the Organisation Paradigm tool

Windows ten comes with a built-in tool chosen System Image to aid transfer your hard drive. System Epitome just works if you are cloning your difficult drive to a larger difficult bulldoze, and so yous tin can't use it to clone hard bulldoze partitions. It also uses a process called imaging, which differs from hard drive cloning in several ways. Primarily, information technology creates a backup drive instead of a 1-to-1 copy.

Considering of these limitations, you may want to utilize third-party disk cloning software. This simplifies the procedure, making information technology a amend option for less avant-garde PC users. AOMEI Backupper Standard and Macrium Reverberate Gratuitous are 2 well-rated third-political party bulldoze cloning software options.

2. Start the cloning process

Using either AOMEI Backupper Standard or Macrium Reflect, you can now start the cloning process. For laptop owners, make certain your device is plugged into an electrical outlet and receiving power.

Select your original hard drive, which is too known as the "Source deejay"
And so, select the new difficult drive that you volition clone to, also known equally the "Destination disk"
Click "Start Clone" in AOMEI Backupper Standard or "OK" in Macrium Reflect

The procedure may take several hours, depending on the size of the drives. To prevent whatsoever potential hiccups, your PC needs sufficient power during the cloning procedure. Make sure you lot practice not turn off your device until the cloning procedure is complete.

iii. Finish the cloning process

In one case the procedure completes, click "Finish" to wrap things up. Before it ends, nonetheless, you lot will have the choice to resize the partitions on the new hard drive.

4. Connect new difficult drive

After y'all clone your information to your new hard drive, you need to manually replace your new hard drive. Yous can do this by opening up your laptop or desktop and then placing the new drive into the hard bulldoze slot in the device.

Pro tip: If this sounds complicated, here's a tip to make information technology much easier: Take a photo of what your current difficult drive looks like inside your computer before you remove it. This will help you know where the wires become when connecting your new drive.

If your PC has more than one hard bulldoze slot, yous may want to leave your initial hard drive connected. This is helpful in case anything goes wrong and you need to restore a fill-in. You can exercise this with an external USB bulldoze, which we recommended using prior to first the cloning procedure.

5. Make your new hard drive bootable

The final step in successfully cloning a hard drive is changing the boot priority of the hard drive. This allows your newly cloned hard drive to be the primary drive and that Windows and other programs load directly from your newly cloned hard drive.

To change the kick priority on your arrangement:

Restart your PC
Press the F2 central upon startup to enter BIOS
Once the BIOS loads, navigate to the boot option and select the new hard drive every bit the first kick device
Press the F10 cardinal to salvage changes
Exit

If yous followed this process correctly, you should now have a successfully cloned hard drive.

Summary

Whether you want to upgrade your hard drive from an HDD to an SSD or you simply need more storage chapters, the best way to get there is by cloning your difficult drive.

With cloning, you create a 1-to-1 copy of your old hard drive. This allows you to use your PC with its Windows operating system, installed programs, and saved user preferences completely intact. While the process may seem intimidating at first, information technology is the most straightforward and efficient method to copy over your operating system and files to a new hard drive.

About the Author: Daniel Horowitz is a contributing writer for HP Tech Takes . Daniel is a New York-based author and has written for publications such as USA Today, Digital Trends, Unwinnable Mag, and many other media outlets.

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