[2025] What is the Best Software to Duplicate Hard Drives?

Why Should You Duplicate Hard Drives?

Duplicating a hard drive, commonly known as cloning a hard drive, refers to creating an exact copy of all the data from one hard drive and transferring it to another. Doing so lets you move your files, the operating system, applications, and settings to a desired drive. Here are some key reasons why you might need to duplicate hard drives:

★ Data Backup: Protect your data from hardware failure, malware, or accidental deletion.
★ Upgrading Storage: Transfer all your data to a new, larger drive without losing any files or settings.
★ Migrating System: Move your entire operating system to a new computer or SSD for faster performance.
★ Improving Efficiency: Save time by cloning your drive without reinstalling everything from scratch.

What is the Best Software to Duplicate Hard Drives?

When it comes to duplicating hard drives, not all software is created equal. Below, we’ll explore several popular hard drive duplication software in 2025: 

➤ Clonezilla is a great disk cloning and imaging tool designed for creating backup copies of hard drives and partitions. It is commonly used for system recovery, deployment, and migration. With Clonezilla, users can clone hard drives to SSD or HDD, or create compressed image files for backup or transfer purposes.

➤ Macrium Reflect is a powerful disk imaging and backup software for Windows. It allows users to create exact backups of entire drives or individual partitions, including system drives, which can be restored in case of data loss or system failure. It also can clone a full disk or individual partitions on a drive 

➤ AOMEI Partition Assistant is a professional disk management tool offers multiple cloning options and modes, making it a top choice for both beginners and advanced users. With it, you can effortlessly copy the entire drive, specific partitions, or OS to another SSD/HDD on Windows 11, 10, 8/8.1, and 7. Compared to other tools, it provides many practical features to simplify and optimize your disk management.

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Let’s use this software to duplicate hard drives step by step. Before proceeding, prepare a suitable destination drive with enough storage and connect it to your PC internally or externally. Please note that all data on the selected destination disk will be erased once you execute the operation. It is advised to back up important data in case of unexpected errors.

Option 1. Duplicate an Entire Disk

Duplicating an entire hard drive is ideal when you want to create a complete backup or transfer all your data to a new drive. AOMEI Partition Assistant simplifies this process with its intuitive interface and powerful features. Here’s how to duplicate the entire disk using this software:

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant.

Step 2. Click the "Clone" main tab and select "Clone Disk".

Step 3. Choose the hard disk that you want to clone as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 4. Select the destination disk to save the data migrated from source disk, and then click "Next".

Step 5. Check the source and destination disk in the Confirm interface. If everything goes right, click "Confirm" to continue.

Note:

If the destination disk is an SSD, you can enable the "4K alignment" option to enhance its read and write speed.

If you’re cloning data to a smaller SSD, the first cloning option may be unavailable (grayed out).

If you choose the "Sector to Sector Clone" option, you won’t be able to adjust the partition sizes on the destination disk.

Step 6. You can change the partition size on the destination disk by clicking the "Settings" button.

• Clone without resizing partitions: This option duplicates all partitions to the destination disk while maintaining their original sizes. It is only available if the destination disk has equal or greater storage capacity than the source disk.
• Fit partitions to entire disk: This option clones all partitions to the destination disk and automatically resizes them proportionally to fill the entire available space. It’s ideal for maximizing storage utilization on the destination disk.
• Edit partitions on this disk: This option allows you to manually adjust the size of each partition on the destination disk according to your specific needs.

Once you’ve made your adjustments, click "Save" to apply the changes and proceed with the cloning process.

Step 7. To commit the "Pending Operations", please click "Apply" and "Proceed". Then the cloning process will start.

Option 2. Duplicate Specific Partitions

Sometimes, you may only need to clone specific partitions rather than the entire disk. This is useful when you want to back up a particular section of your drive or transfer data to a new location. Follow these steps to clone partitions using this hard drive duplicator software:

Step 1. Right-click the partition you want to clone and select the "Clone Partition" tool to run the partition clone.

Step 2. Select the destination partition to store your data, and then click "Confirm". Alternatively, you can select unallocated space as the destination partition.

Step 3. Then, check the source and destination disk in the Confirm interface. After all is set, you can click the "Confirm" button to continue.

Step 4. If you want to change the partition size, click the "Settings" button and make adjustment as needed. Then, click "Save" to continue.

Step 5. To commit the "Pending Operations", please click "Apply" and "Proceed". Then the cloning process will start.

Option 3. Duplicate Only the OS

If you’re upgrading to a new drive or computer and only want to clone your operating system, AOMEI Partition Assistant’s "Migrate OS" feature is the perfect solution. Here’s how to clone only the OS using this software:

Step 1. Click the "Clone" main tab and select "Migrate OS".

Step 2. By default, the system-related partitions will be selected as the source. Please click "Next" to continue.

Step 3. You can either select a whole disk, a single partition, or an unallocated space as the destination location to save the OS and then click "Next".

Step 4. Check the source and destination disk in the Confirm interface. After all is set, you can click "Next" to continue.

Similarly, you can click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size. Then, click "Save" to save the settings.

Step 5. Click "Apply" and "Proceed" to commit the operations.

Step 6. Then, you might be prompted to choose "Restart into Windows PE mode" or "Restart into PreOS mode".

Step 7. Once the migration is complete, you will get a successful message. Then, you can change the boot drive and boot your PC from the new HDD/SSD.

Summary

This article explores the best software to duplicate hard drives - AOMEI Partition Assistant. Whether you need to clone an entire disk, specific partitions, or just your operating system, this software provides a user-friendly solution for all your needs. Additionally, this software provides multiple practical features, including converting MBR to GPT disk without data loss, initializing new disk, freeing up drive space, etc.

FAQs

Q1: Is it safe to duplicate hard drives using AOMEI Partition Assistant?

Yes, it is safe to duplicate hard drives using AOMEI Partition Assistant. Please download software from official sources.

Q2: Can I clone a hard drive to a smaller SSD?

Yes, as long as the used space on the original drive is smaller than the capacity of the destination SSD.

Q3: Do I need to format the destination drive before cloning?

No, most cloning software will automatically overwrite the destination drive. However, ensure you back up any important data on the destination drive before starting.