Hard drive cloning software can cope a hard drive effectively. There are numerous disk cloner tools available online and selecting a suitable one is quite challenging. Just refer to this guide to get the top 6 free HDD to SSD cloning software we collected for Windows users.
By
Emily
/ Last Updated May 12, 2023
As its name implies, hard drive cloning software is a tool used to copy a hard drive (SSD, HDD, USB flash drive, SD card, etc.) to another storage media, through which you can migrate all contents from one location to another different one. So, the hard drive cloning program is necessary whenever you need to clone a disk for any one of the following purposes.
✎ Back up and protect vital data: Many accidents might lead to data loss when you use your computer. With the hard drive duplicated beforehand, you can get back crucial data when the original disk fails.
✎ Replace old hard drive with a new one: With the usage of your hard drive, you may feel that your hard drive is too old to run well. Thus, you need to change your old hard drive to a new one.
✎ Upgrade HDD to SSD: It’s well known that SSD (solid state drive) has better properties than HDD (hard disk drive). So, more users would like to clone HDD to SSD for an upgrade.
There are many species of hard drive cloning software available for your choice. But finding out the best one is a challenging task. To save your time and energy, we have searched the internet and picked the best six HDD to SSD cloning software with the highest score and most praise.
Suitable for: Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista system; home, individual, commercial and non-commercial use
Price: 100% free
AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a reliable disk management and cloning tool that can be used to create/delete/resize/move/clone partition, etc. It has been specializing in disk cloning for many years. Its graphical interface and easy-to-follow steps are friendly to all levels of users.
✍ Features:
✔ Available to clone disks and copy partition.
✔ Offer intelligent cloning methods: Clone Disk Quickly and Sector-by-Sector Clone.
✔ Support cloning hard drives of different sizes.
✔ Be flexible to edit partition size and complete the clone simultaneously.
✔ Able to clone drive with bad sectors and BitLocker drive.
✍ Limitations:
✘ Only support cloning MBR data disk.
Review: AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard comes with a lot of useful features to clone disks and partitions. The only demerit is the standard edition just supports MBR data disk clone, but this can be easily overcome by upgrading to its Pro edition.
Suitable for: Windows XP+ system; home, personal, commercial and non-commercial use
Price: Free & paid
Macrium Reflect is versatile hard drive cloning software that can be used to clone and image disks, partitions, and individual files. It allows you to restore from the image in the event of a partial or complete system failure.
✍ Features:
✔ Be able to clone the entire hard drive or partition.
✔ Support making backup images of folders and files.
✔ Available for SSD trim.
✍ Limitations:
✘ No incremental backup.
✘ No backup sync.
Review: Macrium Reflect is more like a disk & file image app that can quickly create a backup of hard drives and files. If you are for home and personal use, the free version is enough. The paid version is more recommended for professional users and businesses.
Suitable for: Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista system; home, individual, commercial and non-commercial use
Price: Free
AOMEI Backupper Standard is reliable Windows backup software to safeguard operating system, data and applications using backup, restore or clone feature. Its free network cloning and image development is being favored all over the world.
✍ Features:
✔ Offer disk cloning and imaging.
✔ Support incremental backup, automatic backups and real-time sync.
✔ Able to image and restore individual files, apps, folders, and entire disk partitions.
✔ Clone only used space or sector by sector.
✔ Allow SSD alignment.
✍ Limitations:
✘ Slow backup time.
✘ Not support sytem disk clone between MBR and GPT.
Review: AOMEI Backupper Standard is great for data backup. Its professional backup feature can always protect your system against crashes. Although some users complain about its backup time, it’s easy to understand when you think of it’s free.
Suitable for: Windows 7+ operating systems; personal and commercial use
Price: Free & paid.
O&O Disk Image is a disk management application that can backup the entire system while the computer is being used. Its clean and simple interface allows users to easily clone and make a duplicate of the entire hard disks.
✍ Features:
✔ Available to backup and restore individual files/folders.
✔ Support imaging and restoring individual drives/partitions.
✔ Equipped with incremental and differential backups.
✔ Able to make images of used sectors only.
✍ Limitations:
✘ No advanced disk cloning features.
Review: O&O Disk Image is a good disk image & clone tool but when compared with other competing hard drive cloning software, it lacks more advanced disk cloning features for the different cloning needs.
Suitable for: Linux, Mac, and Windows systems; personal and commercial use
Price: Free and open-source.
Clonezilla is the most widely applicable HDD to SSD cloning software. It is compatible with a range of opreating systems. This hard drive cloning and imaging application has been welcomed by millions of users for its fast backup time and great cloning features.
✍ Features:
✔ Support multicast cloning
✔ Apply to AES 256 encryption
✔ Able to clone MBR and GPT partition
✍ Limitations:
✘ No differential or incremental backup
✘ Online imaging or cloning is not supported.
✘ The user interface is difficult to operate.
Review: Although Clonezilla is a powerful open-source disk cloner and image program, which has attracted a number of computer users, most of them give up using this tool when seeing its complicated interface and navigation.
Suitable for: Windows and Mac systems; personal, commercial and non-commercial use
Price: Free and paid.
EaseUS ToDo Backup is one of the hard drive cloning software with simple steps. The free version only offers limited backup features like incremental and differential backup while the paid version allows system cloning, smart backup, email backup, and offsite copy.
✍ Features:
✔ Support disk cloning and image backup.
✔ Easy to back up system, disk, partition, and files.
✔ Cloud backup is available.
✍ Limitations:
✘ No file sync and mirroring,
✘ Not available for GPT/GUID partition table.
Review: Strictly speaking, EaseUS Todo Backup is an image backup and disk cloning application that can fully meet the needs of average users. But if you are a professional user, you can turn to any other disk cloner we listed above.
We hope you can select the best disk cloning tool for yourself after looking through our list of the top six hard drive cloning software on this passage.
If you want a tool that offers basic disk cloning and imaging features, the available products include Macrium Reflect, AOMEI Backupper Standard, and EaseUS Todo Backup. And Clonezilla is more suitable for sophisticated users.
For advanced disk management features, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard and O&O Disk Image should be your top priotity.
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