Freeware: Clone Hard Drive in Windows 11, 10, 8 And 7

Why need to clone hard drive?

Clone hard disk is the process of migrating all data of one hard disk to another hard disk. In other words, it is a copy of the disk. Cloning a hard drive keeps all data intact and saves a lot of time and effort compared to a fresh install.

Usually, people want to clone hard drive in Windows 10 or Windows 11 for the following reasons:
✎ Replace Hard Drive with SSD for faster reading and writing speed.
✎ Replace the failed hard drive with a good one.
✎ Transfer all data from one disk to another to backup.

What you need to prepare for cloning hard drive?

 Before cloning, we need to do some preparations in advance to make sure that cloning can be completed successfully.

▶ Download freeware for cloning hard drive in Windows 11/10/8/7

To clone hard drive to SSD/HDD, a reliable cloning software is necessary. I suggest you use AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, which is one of the best cloning software on the market.

It is not only completely free, but also very simple to use, which is very suitable for beginners. It provides two cloning methods: Clone Disk Quickly and Sector-by-Sector Cloning. The former only clones the used space on the hard drive, while the latter clones all sectors on the hard disk.

In addition, it has many other popular features. For example, merge partitions to extend the size of partitions, wipe hard drive for reuse, convert data disk from MBR to GPT, and more.

★Tips:

For cloning a system disk, please upgrade to Professional edition.

If the PC you are going to clone cannot start normally, you can even clone hard drive from boot.

If you are running with Windows Server, you can turn to Server Edition, which is designed for Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, 2012(R2), 2008(R2), 2003 users. 

▶ Install the new hard drive on the PC

Then, you need to connect the new hard drive to the computer. As for the types of hard drives, there are HDD and SSD. SSD is divided into SATA SSD, and M.2 SSD. Among them, M.2 SSD is the best performance one. Different types of hard drives have different connection methods. Next, I will show you how to connect the M.2 SSD to the computer:

◥ If your computer has only one M.2 SSD slot, connect it to the computer via an M.2 SSD to USB adapter and make sure it is connected correctly.

◥ If your PC has multiple M.2 SSD slots, do the following:

▾ How to install M.2 SSD on the desktop

Step 1. Use a screwdriver to open the case. Once you find the location of the M.2 slot, insert the M.2 SSD.

Step 2. After inspection, replace the cover.

▾ How to install M.2 SSD on the laptop

Step 1. Use a screwdriver to remove the laptop back cover.

Step 2. Find the location of the M.2 SSD slot, insert the M.2 SSD into the corresponding connector, and make sure the connection is firm.

Step 3. Set screws. Then install the back cover.

▶ Initialize the hard drive

After connecting the hard drive to the PC, you need to initialize the hard drive if it is new, otherwise, it will not be recognized by Windows.

Step 1. Download and install AOMEI Partition Assistant first. After opening it, right click the new hard drive and select "Initialize Disk".

Step 2.  To avoid changing the boot mode, set the partition style (MBR or GPT) to be the same as the old hard drive.

How to clone hard drive and boot from it successfully

In this part, I will show you the specific steps of cloning hard drive with AOMEI Partition Assistant. 

Warning: All data on the destination disk will be erased during the clone, so please back up anything required before clone.

Step 1. Click the "Clone" button at the top pane.  Then select "Clone Disk" under the menu.

Step 2. In the pop-up window, select disk clone method and click "Next" to continue. In our case, we choose "Clone Disk Quickly".

Step 3. Disk 1 is selected as the source disk by default. Choose the target disk (a new hard drive or SSD to receive clone contents of the source disk) and click "Next" to continue.

Step 4. The next page tells you how to boot the operating system from the destination disk. Then, edit partitions on the destination disk if you want to.

Step 5. You can preview the operations you did. To save the changes, you must click "Apply" on the toolbar.

Step 6. After clicking Apply, a window will pop up, listing the "Pending Operations". Confirm the operations you did and click "Proceed" to execute.

If cloned the system disk, you should boot Windows from the new hard drive. If there is only one slot, you can boot the computer after replacing the old hard drive with a new hard drive. But if you want to keep both the old hard drive and the new hard drive, you should change the boot drive.

Did you see? This is how we do with AOMEI Partition Assistant, you can follow the steps to clone hard drive to HDD or SSD easily and safely.