Until macOS 10.15 Catalina, Mac users knew: their startup volume was a single volume, just as it appeared! (Okay, for Fusion drive users, there are two physical drives managed by software to.
What's the best free cloning software for Windows?
If your current hard drive has run out of disk space, exposed to disk write/read failures, or become too slow to boot Windows, you will request a hard drive replacement. But sometimes, you don't swap out an entire hard drive. Likewise, you want to make a copy of a single partition or a few, to keep an identical backup copy for forensic purposes.
So, when and why do you need to clone/copy a hard drive to another? These are four typical scenarios.
- Upgrade a hard drive: from a small one to a big one, or from an old one to a new one.
- Change HDD to SSD: to keep consistent with the new IT era of installing light and fast SSD on a desktop or laptop.
- Create a backup: to maintain a full and exact copy of a hard drive or a partition for future use, for example, unexpected disaster recovery.
- Recover data from a damaged hard drive: to gain a way of retrieving data from a corrupted hard drive that becomes inaccessible, or not readable.
To clone a hard drive means to make a 1-to-1 copy of the original drive. It's the quickest and easiest approach to replace a hard drive along with its data. By cloning a disk to a new one, you can escape from the tedious work of transferring data and programs on the new drive. Since disk cloning has so many benefits, what's the most popular and convenient cloning software for Windows users? EaseUS Todo Backup has its competitiveness.
EaseUS free hard drive cloning software is with a slick interface, plus a range of cloning options. Though it's free, you can find an array of functionalities available for time-unlimited use, which you can only see in the commercial versions of its top 3 rivals.
Download free cloning software to clone a hard disk
The cloning process is simple to follow, and you can learn it in a few seconds. However, you still need to take a close look at the several underlying points so that you can make full use of it without difficulty.
1. It's possible to clone a larger hard drive to a smaller one, for example, 512GB to 256GB, but the used space of the 512GB hard drive should be under 256GB. The rule applies to a drive partition as well.
2. As soon as you launch EaseUS Todo Backup on your computer after installation, the software will prompt you a message asking you to create an emergency disk. This is a very helpful feature in case your computer crashed and won't boot someday. You can try to boot the machine from the EaseUS Todo Backup bootable disk to perform a recovery.
3. What if you're planning OS migration from HDD to SSD? You can also ask EaseUS Todo Backup for help but have this prior notice in your mind: [1] to ensure an absolutely free entrance to the System Clone feature, you need to download thehome versionby visiting the product page. [2] It's a 30-day free trial, which is enough for you to finish the task of migrating the system C drive as well as the boot partition from one drive to the other.
Step 1.Can i organize my iphone apps on my mac. Launch EaseUS Todo Backup and select the 'Clone' feature from the list on the left.
Step 2. Choose the original disk as the source disk and click 'Next'.
Step 3. Choose a destination disk, which can be another HDD/SSD or an external USB hard disk. Just be sure that the destination disk is larger than the source disk. Tick the option 'Optimize for SSD' under 'Advanced options' when the destination disk is an SSD for improved results. Click 'Next'.
Step 4. Preview the disk layout and click 'Proceed'.
The final word
When it comes to the suggestion of the best cloning software for Windows, we put EaseUS Todo Backup on the top list, by viewing the aspects of its ease of use, capability, smooth cloning experience and a free trial of the system clone feature, which you can never enjoy in other third-party utilities.
Download EaseUS disk clone freeware now and spend the least effort to copy and clone a hard drive. EaseUS hard drive cloning software is just what you need to copy the exact data content of one hard drive to another, file-by-file and sector-by-sector. No data loss or system boot errors will ever happen.
Furthermore, it's a versatile data backup and recovery program for Windows computers, Windows-compatible storage devices (external hard drives, flash drives, memory cards, etc.), and network drives. One page is far from enough to introduce a comprehensive program, so let this video introduction give you a quick glimpse at what EaseUS Todo Backup is meant to help you with the daily computer safety and facility.
Summary :
MiniTool Partition Wizard is the best hard drive cloning software which can be used to clone hard drive easily and safely. Download the freeware now!
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Why Clone Hard Drive?
Disk cloning is very useful in hard drive management. Simply put, disk cloning copies the complete contents of a hard drive, including the files, the partition tables and the MBR to another location.
It is worth mentioning that when you clone a hard drive, both the source disk and the target disk can be used directly, which is regarded as a simple, direct duplicate (however, cloning is different from copy & paste, check Clone VS. Copy & Paste for the detail).
In the following situations, you may consider hard drive cloning:
- To upgrade to larger hard drivewhen the current hard drive is too small and cannot meet your data storage requirements any longer. For example, you meet the 'low disk space' issue but all partitions are almost full.
- To upgrade hard drive to more advanced SSDto enjoy smooth computer performance. This is extremely useful for those who want to upgrade system disk, as SSD offers faster read-write speed.
- You have a batch of computers (with the same configuration) to be installed.To avoid installing all computers one by one, you can install only one at first and then turn to hard drive cloning software to save effort and time.
- To make an exact hard drive backup.Through disk cloning, you get a copy of disk backup and avoid the trouble of data restoration when the backup copy is needed.
So the conclusion here is that if you are upgrading your hard drive to a larger one, or replacing it due to a physical failure, cloning hard drive is the easiest method to complete that task. Besides, doing hard drive cloning reduces the risk of any accidental data loss.
Recommended Hard Drive Cloning Utility
Since hard drive cloning is significant, you must be wondering: which is the best cloning software? In my opinion, MiniTool Partition Wizard is the top recommendation. I will give you my explanation.
Developed by MiniTool Solution Ltd., MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition is regarded as the best disk cloning software for Windows users, including those who are running 32/64 bits Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows7.
As free hard drive cloning software, MiniTool Partition Wizard offers two ways to clone hard drives for hard drive upgrade or data backup, including 'Copy Disk' and 'Migrate OS to SSD/HD' (if you only want to clone the system).
All you have to do is put the new drive in the computer as a slave or secondary drive and use this disk cloning software to clone the old drive to the new one. Once the process is complete, switch the new drive to the primary and then you are good to go (for hard drive upgrade).
Just press the button to have free hard drive cloning software downloaded!
Knowing what MiniTool Partition Wizard is, let's have a look on how to clone a hard drive by using MiniTool Partition Wizard. Here we just take clone hard drive Windows 10 for example, and MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition should be the right choice.
Note:- To use 'Copy Disk Wizard', both the source disk and target disk must be basic disks.
- The target disk will be cleaned during the cloning process. Please make sure it can be cleaned; otherwise transfer data out at first.
Step 1. Run MiniTool Partition Wizard to the main interface, then you can see all your hard drives connected to this PC are shown in the middle panel and some operable features are listed in the left panel. Now, select Copy Disk feature to clone hard drive.
Step 2. Here you need to select the target disk (must be basic disk) and click Next to continue. Make sure you know which drive you are cloning to so you do not overwrite the wrong drive.
Step 3. Here come the copy options. If you are copying from a GPT disk, you are able to see 2 options. (4 options when you are cloning an MBR disk, see details here.)
- Fit partitions to entire disk: all partitions will be cloned to the target disk and take up its full capacity according to the partition size proportion.
- Copy partitions without resize: all partitions will be cloned to the target disk according to the original partition size. This option is available when the target disk is large enough to hold all partitions on the source disk.
After you have made the copy options, you can customize each partition size according to your own preference. Then click Next to go on.
Step 4. Then you can see a note which reads 'To boot from the new disk, please configure computer BIOS settings. Make sure the new disk is configured as the default boot disk.' Please keep this in mind if you are cloning the system disk before you click Finish.
Step 5. Finally, you need to press the Apply button located on the toolbar to start hard drive cloning.
For a more intuitive guidance, please watch this video:
RECOMMEND:
Want to know more information about how to successfully boot computer from the new hard drive? Now, you can find answers from our previous post: 2 Ways to Boot from New Hard Drive after Copying Disk or Migrating OS.
In fact, MiniTool also puts forward another tool that helps disk cloning which is called MiniTool ShadowMaker. Although it is mainly designed for Windows backup, it also comes with useful Clone Disk feature. To get the details of how to use this disk cloning software, you are suggested to read Clone OS from HDD to SSD.
Tips for Cloning Your Hard Drive
Now you know how to clone hard drive by using MiniTool Partition Wizard Fee Edition. Here I would like to put forward some tips to help you deal with cloning issue better.
- Don't just copy & paste files to another location on your hard disk if you are leading the operating system. Use professional disk cloning software like MiniTool Partition Wizard to help you.
- Use another hard drive, especially an external hard drive for your backup copies, because there is less chance of losing/damaging computer and external hard drive at the same time.
- At least one cloning copy should be kept well. Don't erase the current backup unless you are going to create a new one.
- If you use your computer frequently, back up your data often. Having a recent backup is always good for data recovery. Apart from hard drive cloning software, professional disk imaging software is also recommended to save effort.
Further Reading: Cloning VS. Imaging
When dealing with backup issue, cloning or imaging is always the question asked by many users. Many people choose to make a disk image, while many prefer hard drive cloning. Before I state my opinion, I would like to start with cloning VS. imaging.
One may ask, 'what the heck is the difference between cloning and imaging?'
Imaging is frequently used for preventative backup, which means you never know when you need the backup image for data restoration. Today most disk imaging software offer schedule backup feature, and you can set to back up daily, weekly, or monthly. Besides, incremental backup and differential backup are provided, making it possible to save hard disk space.
If something bad happens, you can have the original image for restoration purposes without having to reinstall Windows and other applications.
Read Mac Hdd
Disk cloning is more significant for hard drive replacement or hard drive upgrading, which means probably you will use the destination disk right away. When you clone a hard drive, actually you are cloning the entire contents of the drive instead of creating an image file.
How To Clone Mac
The only issue you need to concern is that you need to have another physical hard drive that is large enough to contain all data in the original drive. During the cloning process, all contents on the target disk will be cleaned so be sure that you are operating the right disk.
Software To Clone Hdd To Ssd Mac
The conclusion here is: although cloning and imaging both back up and restore data, whether to choose cloning or imaging all depends on what you want to accomplish. In a word, for frequent backup issue, imaging software is better; for hard drive upgrading issue, free hard drive cloning software should be given the priority.
Summary
Here comes to the end of this post. In this post, I mainly tell why you need to clone hard drive, which tool is the best disk cloning software, how to use it to clone hard drive, the differences between cloning and imaging, and several tips on hard drive cloning. Hope all these information is helpful in dealing with your hard drive cloning issues.
Now it's your turn to have a try. Just download this free yet professional hard drive cloning software - MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition and start cloning hard drive. I believe you can do everything smoothly as long as you follow the wizard correctly. For any suggestions or questions towards using MiniTool Partition Wizard, please contact [email protected] or leave us comments below. Much appreciated!