Get larger capacity. Get better performance. Make an exact copy of system for backup.
Does Windows have a cloning software?
Many users may wander if there are any cloning software, unfortunately, the answer is NO. If you don’t mind making more effort, you could consider using built-in backup software. It allows you to create a system image and include other partition(s) on the disk and then restore to larger SSD. Note that you need an intermediate device to store the backup image temporarily.
How do I clone my hard drive to a larger SSD?
As mentioned earlier, Windows does not provide any cloning software, so you can use backup and restore software provided by Windows or turn to a third-party free disk clone software for help. AOMEI Backupper Standard is a good choice. By using it, you can directly clone a hard drive to another one or SSD with its “Disk Clone” feature, which will include the operating system, installed programs, personal data, system drivers, etc. And it still supports cloning only used sectors, so you can get more space and greatly avoid low disk space warning. In addition, it is capable of further accelerating the writing speed and reading speed of an SSD disk.
Clone hard drive to larger SSD in Windows 10 step by step
To clone hard drive to larger SSD, you need to make some preparations: Then, continue to see steps below and clone hard drive with this software: Step 1. Launch AOMEI Backupper Standard, click Clone and Disk Clone subsequently. Note: The free version is designed to clone MBR system disk to MBR. Step 2. Select your source hard drive (here is Disk0) and click Next. Step 3. Select the larger SSD as destination disk (here is Disk1)and then click Next. Step 4. Then, in the Operation Summary window, check the disk info and customize the cloning settings. Then, click Start Clone to start the cloning process. SSD Alingnemnet: It’s used to boost performance of SSD disk and prolong its lifespan. Sector by Sector Clone: It allows you to clone all sectors of a hard disk including the hidden recovery partition or boot partition(s), such as, system reserved partition. Edit Partitions (supported by the professional version): It’s to adjust the partition size of the destination disk, here is larger SSD disk, so the cloned hard drive does not have unallocated space left. Now, your hard drive may be cloned to a larger SSD successfully, and you still need to check if the cloned hard drive is bootable. Restart your computer to let it boot from the new SSD or switch the HDD and SSD, then set the new SSD as the first boot option and keep changes you made and restart your computer.
Summary
That’s all for how to clone HDD to larger SSD in simple steps, you just need a free disk clone software like AOMEI Backupper Standard and follow the on-screen instructions to finish the entire process. It supports cloning only used sectors or all sectors of a hard drive, so you can choose the way you want to clone. In addition, you can still choose to clone only system partition with its “System Clone(supported by the professional version)” feature, clone data partition with “Partition Clone”, etc. If you want to clone a hard drive or only partition, please download this software to have a try.
