Best Free SSD Cloning Software for Windows 11, 10, 8, 7

Why need SSD cloning software?

Cloning SSD can be the quickest and easiest way to copy all contents including system files, applications, preferences, emails and all partitions from the SSD to another disk (HDD or SSD). And, you might need the best SSD cloning software Windows 10/8/7 for below reasons:

①Upgrade a slow HDD to a faster SSD
When your OS runs slow on a traditional hard disk drive, you can clone the HDD to a faster SSD to make computer work better with keeping everything intact.

②Replace failing HDD or SSD
If your old HDD or SSD is about to die, it is a great idea to clone hard disk to a new SSD drive before it won’t work any more in consideration of data security.

③Transfer mass data from HDD/SSD to SSD
Besides, using SSD cloning software is also an effective way to transfer mass data from HDD to SSD or SSD to SSD as“Ctrl+C” and “Ctrl+V” is not recommended for moving a large amount of data, especially boot or directory files, between different hard drives, which will make the boot files invalid.

Best free SSD cloning software for Windows 11, 10, 8, 7

For above purposes, you may want to find the best SSD cloning software so that you can easily and effortlessly manage the job. Here we would like to introduce the FREE AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard for SSD and HDD clone in Windows 11/10/8/7. It  is able to clone SSD to SSD/HDD, or clone HDD to SSD/HDD without losing any data. The following features to make SSD or HDD cloning easy and effective:

Clone a large disk to a smaller disk if you choose the “Clone Disk Quickly” method, since this way will only clone used sectors from source disk to target disk.

If the source disk contains Windows operating system, you can still boot the OS from the cloned SSD or HDD.

Copy all sectors, including the bad sectors, from one disk to another with “Sector by Sector Clone” method.

You can choose to make 4K alignment on the SSD partitions, which could optimize SSD reading and writing performance.

Allows you to clone only OS partition to SSD and boot from the cloned hard drive successfully after migration.

Preparatory work before cloning SSD

In order to clone SSD or HDD successfully, it is advised to get the following work done.

1. Connect the destination disk to your computer

To clone SSD, obviously, you will need a secondary disk as the destination hard drive. Then you have to connect it to your computer as well. If you are using a desktop, you can usually just install your new hard drive alongside your source SSD drive to clone it. If you’re using a laptop, however, that usually isn’t possible, so you’ll need something like a SATA-to-USB cable.

2. Back up any important data to an external drive

If you have any especially important data on your destination drive that you plan to clone, back it up to an external drive first, because all of them will be overwritten during the cloning process. 

3. Check out the destination disk's storage

Make sure the hard drive you’re cloning to has enough space to store all your data from the source disk.  If the source disk's total space is larger than the destination disk, but the used space is smaller than the destination drive, you can go with the "Clone Disk Quickly" method in the cloning process to clone only used space. Or you might need to free up space on the source disk first of all to make it as smaller as possible to fit the destination disk.

Start cloning SSD free in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7

Now we will take cloning a data disk from MBR to MBR as an example to show you how to clone HDD or SSD drive in Windows 11/10/8/7 step by step. 

★Tip:

The free edition only supports cloning the MBR data disk to another MBR disk.

If you need to copy the system from MBR to MBR, MBR to GPT, GPT to MBR, or GPT to GPT, please upgrade to the Professional edition.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, click "Clone" in the main interface and select "Clone Disk".

Step 2. Choose the hard disk that you need to clone as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 3. Select the destination disk to store the data on the source disk, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to “Sector to Sector clone”, and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.

Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk or tick "4k alignment" to improve the reading and writing speed of SSD if the target disk is an SSD drive.

Step 5. At last, click "Apply" and "Proceed" in the main interface to start cloning the hard drive.

Follow-up work when SSD clone is finished successfully

After you have successfully cloned the SSD drive via the recommended best SSD cloning software for Windows PC, you may also have the following work to do.

1. Replace the old hard drive with the new one

First of all, you might need to manually replace your new hard drive: open up your laptop or desktop via a screwdriver and then place the new drive into the hard drive slot in the device.

★Pro Tip:

To make it much easier:  you can take a photo of what your current hard drive looks like inside your computer before you remove it. This will help you know where the wires go when connecting your new drive.

2. Boot from the cloned disk

Secondly,  you can change the boot priority of the hard drive to make your Windows and other programs load directly from your newly cloned hard drive. Following is how to get it done specifically.

1. Restart your computer. During the initialization process, long press ESC, delete, F2 or other specific keys to enter BIOS environment.

2. Use the arrow key to access to Boot tab. System devices will appear in order of priority.

3. To boot computer from cloned SSD drive, move it to the top of boot sequence list.

4. Save and exit the BIOS setup utility. Then your computer will restart with the changed settings.

If the cloned SSD drive won’t boot, it may be because of bad sectors on source disk, loose SSD connection, partition style and boot mode conflict and some boot related drives missing out during the cloning process. You can refer to the solutions in the given link.

3. Wipe everything on the old hard drive for privacy protection

If everything works well and correctly on the cloned hard drive, and you plan to resell or donate the old one, you can wipe it completely so that no one can recover your privacy information. To do this, AOMEI Partition Assistant also provide such a feature called “Wipe Hard Drive”. If it is an SSD drive, please switch to "SSD Secure Erase" of Pro edition.

Bottom line

So, whether you want to upgrade your hard drive from an HDD to an SSD, or you just need to replace the current SSD with a new SSD,  AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can be the best free SSD cloning software for Windows 11,10/8/7. With it, you can quickly create a 1-to-1 copy of your old hard drive. Besides that, it allows you to copy partition to another hard drive.

More importantly, the AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional has more amazing functions, such as cloning MBR or GPT hard drive to GPT SSD, converting system disk to GPT without deleting partition, converting dynamic disk to basic disk without data loss, etc. To perform HDD or SSD clone in Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008/2003, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.

FAQs about SSD cloning

1. Why should I clone my HDD to an SSD?

•  Cloning an HDD to an SSD is done to improve system performance, reduce boot and load times, increase reliability, and lower power consumption. SSDs offer faster data access speeds and are more durable than traditional HDDs.

2. What do I need to clone my HDD to an SSD?

•  To clone your HDD to an SSD, you need:
  • A cloning software (e.g., EaseUS Todo Backup, Macrium Reflect, Acronis True Image)
  • The SSD connected to your computer (via SATA, USB, or another interface)
  • Adequate storage space on the SSD to accommodate all data from the HDD

3. Is cloning the same as copying files?

• No, cloning is different from simply copying files. Cloning creates a replica of the entire drive, including the operating system, system files, boot sector, and all partitions, ensuring the cloned drive is bootable and fully functional as a system drive.

4. What should I do if my SSD doesn’t boot after cloning?

•  If your SSD doesn’t boot after cloning:
  1. Ensure the SSD is set as the primary boot device in BIOS/UEFI.
  2. Use the Windows installation media to repair the boot loader by selecting “Repair your computer” > “Troubleshoot” > “Startup Repair”.
  3. Verify the cloning process included all necessary boot partitions.

5. Can I use my computer while cloning the drive?

• It’s recommended to avoid using your computer for other tasks during the cloning process to ensure data integrity and avoid potential errors. The cloning software often requires exclusive access to the drives being cloned.

6. What happens to my old HDD after cloning?

• After cloning and verifying that the SSD works correctly, you can:
  • Format the old disk and reuse old hard drive for additional storage.
  • Keep it as a backup.
  • Repurpose or safely dispose of it according to local electronic waste disposal guidelines.