How to Clone HDD to HDD Without Losing Data

Looking for a way to clone HDD to HDD? Learn our step-by-step guide to clone the entire HDD to HDD for copying all data, including your OS, using EaseUS Disk Copy.

HDDs (hard disk drives) are traditional storage mediums with spinning platters to read and write data. HDD is much cheaper and easier to recover data from if damaged, while offering more storage capacity than SSD. This is why HDD is still widely used for data storage and computing. To clone an HDD, connect both drives, run dedicated cloning software, select the old HDD as the source and the new HDD as the destination, and initiate the clone process. We will walk you through the details for cloning hard drive.

What You'll Need for Cloning a Hard Drive

To clone a hard drive on your computer, you must prepare something to make the HDD-to-HDD cloning process smooth and successful. The following are what to do before cloning hard drives:

➡️Prepare Your Drives

• Connect the new HDD: Connect your new destination HDD to your computer via a USB to SATA adapter or an external drive enclosure if your PC has only one slot, or plug it into an available SATA port on your motherboard if your PC has 2 slots.
• Ensure sufficient space: The new drive must be at least as large as the used space on your old drive.
• Backup your data: While cloning creates an exact copy of your old drive, a backup of important files on an external drive or cloud storage is always a good precaution.

➡️Choose and Install Cloning Software

• Download and install a disk cloning tool from a reputable source, as Windows does not have a built-in tool for this purpose.
• Popular options are EaseUS Disk Copy (user-friendly), Macrium Reflect (a little complicated interface), Clonezilla (free but command-line based), and Acronis True Image (expensive).

You may also need a screwdriver to unscrew the PC's backup case and ensure your PC has enough power supply for the HDD data transfer.

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Best HDD to HDD Cloning Software Free Download

As mentioned above, you will need a disk cloning tool to help you clone an HDD to an HDD or clone an HDD to an SSD, but how can you find a reliable and easy-to-use cloning software? Although free disk cloning software is available, such as Clonezilla and Rescuezilla, many users find them hard to use because they do not have a simple UI for disk cloning.

If you're looking for easy-to-use and effective disk cloning software, consider EaseUS Disk Copy. It is a dedicated, safe, and reliable cloning software that helps clone hard drives from different manufacturers.

It has an extremely streamlined user interface that can help you clone a hard drive with only 3 steps. EaseUS disk clone software lets you clone hard drives of different sizes and upgrade from HDD to SSD without reinstalling Windows. If your target disk is new, it lets you directly migrate Windows onto it.

Just free download it on your computer to copy HDD to another HDD.

How to Clone Hard Disk to Another in Windows

After downloading EaseUS Disk Copy, you can clone your hard drive to another. The following is how to clone HDD to HDD Windows 10/11:

Step 1. Launch the software: Open the EaseUS cloning tool and find the "Disk Mode" option.

Step 2. Select source and destination drives: Choose your old HDD as the "Source Disk" and the new HDD as the "Destination Disk".

Note: If your new HDD is larger, you can choose an option like "Auto-fit the disk" or "Edit disk layout".

• "Autofit the disk" will do changes by default on the destination drive layout so that it can function at its best status.
• "Copy as the source"will not change anything on the target disk, and the disk layout is the same as the source.
• "Edit disk layout" will let you manually resize the partition layout on the target disk.

Step 3. Start the clone: Initiate the cloning process, ensuring you're cloning the entire disk to capture the operating system and all data. All data on the destination disk will be erased during this process.

The time to copy hard drive depends on how much data is on your hard drive and your connection methods.

This video demonstrates how to clone an HDD using EaseUS Disk Copy:

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What to Do After Cloning HDD to Another HDD

After cloning the HDD to another HDD, you need to replace the HDD with the new HDD and boot your computer from the new drive to ensure it starts up correctly and that all your files, applications, and system features are functioning as expected.

If you use a desktop and want to keep the old HDD, go to the BIOS settings to set the newly cloned HDD as your first boot device by pressing one BIOS key (usually F12, F2, Delete, or Esc).

If you use a laptop, you must replace the old hard drive with the new HDD using a screwdriver or other tools. You don't need to access the BIOS settings because a laptop usually has one tray for a hard drive. Afterward, you must format the old HDD to use it as your storage drive.

If you get the cloned hard drive won't boot issue, refer to the following article:

To Wrap Things Up

This article explains how to clone HDD to HDD in detail. Whether you want to upgrade your HDD to a larger one or create a copy of your original hard drive for data security, cloning a hard drive to another will always be your choice because cloning can help you copy data from one hard drive to another without losing anything, including the data and Windows.

As illustrated above, you must use a dedicated third-party cloning tool to clone a hard drive. EaseUS Disk Copy, with a simple UI design and fast cloning speed, can be your great companion. It can help you copy HDD to HDD with simple steps and without boot issues. Just download and try it!

FAQs on How to Copy HDD to HDD

1. Does anyone know of a good way to clone a hard drive for free?

You can apply free disk cloning software like Clonezilla or Rescuezilla to clone a hard drive for free. They can help you clone HDD to SSD for free or clone HDD to HDD for free.

2. Can I clone a larger HDD to a smaller HDD?

Yes, you can clone a larger hard drive (HDD) to a smaller HDD, but only if the total used space on the larger drive is less than the capacity of the smaller drive.

3. How long does it take to clone a 1TB HDD?

Cloning a 1TB HDD can take anywhere from under an hour to several hours, depending on the speed of the drives, the connection type, the amount of data actually on the drive, and the specific cloning software used.

4. Do I need to reinstall Windows after cloning?

No, you do not need to reinstall Windows after cloning your drive, as cloning creates an exact, bootable copy of your operating system, programs, and files onto the new drive, allowing you to boot from it immediately without having to set everything up from scratch.

5. What's the difference between cloning and imaging?

Cloning copies a hard drive's contents to another physical drive, creating a bootable, direct replacement. Imaging creates a single, compressed file (an archive) of a drive's data, valid for backups and storing multiple versions of a system, but requiring special software to restore.

6. Why isn't my computer booting from the new HDD?

Your computer may not be booting from the new HDD due to an improper boot order in the BIOS/UEFI settings, a loose or faulty hard drive connection, or a missing operating system on the new drive.