How to Easily Clone Hard Drive to SSD (Bootable)
Why Clone Hard Drive to SSD?
Now, more and more users tend to clone hard drive to SSD, this article summarizes some common reasons why cloning hard drive to SSD drive. You can read on for more details.
- Improve performance: The most important reason why many users want to clone hard drive to SSD is to improve performance by cloning disk to SSD. Compared with hard drives, SSDs have faster read and write speeds, which can greatly improve the startup speed of the system. Especially for users who like to play games, you can get a better gaming experience by replacing the disk to an SSD.
- Backing up data: When you clone a hard drive to an SSD, it is equivalent to making a one-to-one exact copy. Everything on your hard drive, including the operating system, programs, files, etc. Even if your source disk accidentally fails, you can still use the SSD to access the backed up data normally.
- Reasonable allocation of disk space: Many users will use SSD as a boot disk to improve boot speed and enjoy better performance, and then use the previous hard drive as a storage disk to store data. This will better allocate disk space.
Free and Reliable Disk Cloning Software to Clone Hard Drive to SSD
You need a professional cloning software to help you clone hard disk to SSD. The free disk clone software AOMEI Backupper Standard is a good choice. It can help you clone hard disk to SSD easily, and use SSD Alignment function to speed up SSD read and write speed. What’s more, after cloning, you can successfully boot your computer from the cloned SSD. It also supports multiple Windows operating systems (Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista) and different SSD brands (Patriot, WD, Crucial, Samsung, etc.).
- Clone a larger hard drive to a smaller SSD: The software’s Intelligent cloning feature by default only clones used sectors on the source disk. So you can easily clone big disk to small disk.
- Clone a disk to a larger disk: This software allows you to clone the source disk to a disk of equal or larger size, you can use the Sector by Sector Clone feature to clone all sectors on the source disk, whether they are used or not.
- Run cloning tasks in the background: Cloning tasks can be done in the background, so you don’t have to close other applications in use while the disk is being cloned.
Stepwise Guide for Cloning Hard Drive to SSD
Next, this article will provide you with detailed graphic tutorials to operate. First download this free disk cloning software, and install it. Before starting to clone the disk, it is recommended that you backup files to an external hard drive to protect the data safety, because the cloning process will erase all the contents of the target disk. After backing up your files, you can follow the steps below to start cloning your hard drive to an SSD.
Step 1. Open the freeware AOMEI Backupper Standard, and click Clone > Disk Clone.
Note:
Standard version allows you to clone MBR to MBR (system disks), and the data disk for free. If you would like to clone disks between two GPT disks or between GPT and MBR disks, you can upgrade to the Pro version to achieve the goal.
Step 2. Choose your hard drive as the source disk and click Next to continue.
Step 3. Select your SSD as the destination disk and click Next.
Step 4. Tick SSD Alignment to accelerate the reading and writing speed of your SSD. Confirm all your operations and click Start Clone to clone hard drive to SSD.
Notes:
- Edit Partitions: This feature allows you to change the partition size automatically or manually (advanced edition).
- Sector By Sector Clone: This feature can clone all sectors if your target disk is the same as or larger than the source disk.
Many user want to know how to make cloned SSD bootable, you just need to change the boot order in the BIOS, and set the SSD as the first boot option. In addition to disk clone, it also can help you move program files from C to D if you need.
Summary
Cloning a hard drive to an SSD can improve performance, protect data security and allocate disk space reasonably. You can clone hard drive to SSD with the free and reliable cloning software AOMEI Backupper Standard. Whether you want to clone a small disk to a large disk or clone a large disk to a small disk, this software can easily help you achieve the goal. Its SSD Alignment function can help you accelerate the read and write speed of SSD. It supports various brands of SSD as well as various Windows operating systems. It also supports NVMe Swap. What’s more, after cloning, you can successfully boot your computer from the cloned SSD.
Besides, this software also provides system clone and partition clone features to meet your various cloning needs. You can choose according to your own needs. Download this software and you can explore more useful functions yourself.