How to Clone HDD to SSD via USB Safely & Easily

Cloning an HDD to an SSD via USB means using a USB adapter to connect the SSD as an external USB and cloning HDD to SSD. This happens when you plan to upgrade HDD to SSD for better performance or a disk backup for data security, but your computer has only one hard drive interface. This article will tell you how to clone HDD to SSD via USB easily and quickly. Let's move on!

Make Everything Well-Prepared Before Cloning HDD to SSD

You can clone a hard drive to an SSD via the USB cable, but you need to prepare several items to achieve the desired result and smooth the process.

• A USB adapter. You can prepare a USB to SATA adapter to connect the SSD to your computer as an external USB drive.
• An SSD. You should prepare an SSD with enough capacity to hold everything on the HDD and pay attention to the disk interface, like SATA or NVMe, so that it can match your PC and be installed on your PC after the HDD to SSD clone Windows 10.
• Data backup. When cloning a disk, all data on the target disk will be erased and irrecoverable. Meanwhile, a backup is necessary for some unexpected issues that may happen to your PC. In this case, free backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup - comes to help.
• Reliable disk cloning software. Windows doesn't come with any built-in cloning feature to clone a hard drive. Therefore, you must use a third-party drive clone utility or HDD cloner to clone HDD to SSD via USB Windows 10.

In addition, if you want to clone an HDD to an SSD via a bootable USB due to corrupted system files or a PC unbootable error, you can create a bootable USB, boot your computer from that USB, and run disk clone software to clone the HDD to an SSD.

In the following section, you will learn about reputable disk cloning software that lets you easily and quickly clone HDD to SSD Windows 10 via USB cable.

HDD to SSD Cloning Software for Windows 11/10

As mentioned above, Windows has no preinstalled cloning features, so if you want to clone a hard drive or upgrade a hard drive to a solid-state disk, you must utilize professional disk cloning software. Under such circumstances, EaseUS Disk Copy, reliable and efficient disk cloning software, is a name that should come to your mind.

This powerful disk clone software can let you clone HDD to SSD different sizes, clone a smaller disk to a larger one, and vice versa. Also, this bootable disk clone software can help you clone hard drive with bootable USB when your system files are corrupted and the computer cannot start or boot, and migrate Windows OS to a brand new disk directly when connected to your PC.

🔥EaseUS Disk Copy: Best Disk Cloning Software

• Simple UI: Extremely user-friendly interface for SSD clone/upgrade.
• Wide Compatibility: Works with HDDs or SSDs of different brands.
• Disk Mode: Clone the entire HDD to SSD for a full disk transfer.
• System Mode: Transfer your Windows from one SSD to another.
• Partition Mode: Clone a specific volume from one disk to another.
• 4K Alignment: With auto-4K alignment for optimizing SSD performance.

Free Download

Windows 11/10/8/7

EaseUS clone software can suit you well in the hard drive cloning field. Just download it to your computer and use it to clone a hard drive with ease.

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How to Clone HDD to SSD on Windows via USB Cable

After downloading the EaseUS Disk Copy on your PC, to use it to clone HDD to SSD using a USB cable or transfer data from one SSD to another, please follow the guide below:

Before cloning:

• If your computer has only one slot, connect the target disk to your machine via a USB-to-SATA/NVMe adapter.
• If your computer has an extra slot, install the target disk into the empty slot properly, and make sure it is compatible.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Disk Copy and choose Disk Mode.

Install EaseUS Disk Copy cloning software on your Windows computer, then launch it and select Disk Mode from the left panel.

Step 2. Select the source drive.

Select the drive you want to copy, then click Select.

Step 3. Choose the target disk.

Choose the disk that you want to clone data to, and click Select. Note that the used space of the source disk should be less than the target disk capacity.

*At this step, you can also click the option "Save as an image file" to store your disk as a compressed image file, which can be restored without any data loss.

Step 4. Adjust disk layout.

Specify the target disk layout as your preference. You can choose among:

• Autofit the disk: makes some changes by default on the destination disk layout so that it can work at its best.
• Copy as the source: create a 1-to-1 copy of your source disk; the layout is the same as the source disk.
• Edit disk layout: allows you to manually resize/move the partition layout on this destination disk.

*If the target disk is an SSD, the option "Auto-alignment to 4K" will be checked automatically to optimize the performance of your SSD.

Step 5. Start cloning.

Click Proceed, and a message will appear, warning you that data will be lost. Confirm the message by clicking Continue.

Now, it will start executing the cloning task.

*The time it takes to clone a hard drive depends on how much data is on the source disk, and it will also be affected by the disk types, USB connection, etc.

That's it. After cloning, you can replace your old hard drive with the cloned SSD and boot from the cloned SSD successfully.

This video demonstrates how to clone a hard drive to an SSD using EaseUS Disk Copy:

 

How to Clone HDD to SSD with Bootable USB

If your computer cannot boot, you can also use EaseUS Disk Copy to help you clone an HDD to an SSD as it lets you create a WinPE bootable disk to boot your computer and then run the software to clone a hard drive. Here are the detailed steps:

Before cloning:

• If your computer has only one slot, connect the target disk to your machine via a USB-to-SATA/NVMe adapter.
• If your computer has an extra slot, install the target disk into the empty slot properly, and make sure it is compatible.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Disk Copy and choose Disk Mode.

Install EaseUS Disk Copy cloning software on your Windows computer, then launch it and select Disk Mode from the left panel.

Step 2. Select the source drive.

Select the drive you want to copy, then click Select.

Step 3. Choose the target disk.

Choose the disk that you want to clone data to, and click Select. Note that the used space of the source disk should be less than the target disk capacity.

*At this step, you can also click the option "Save as an image file" to store your disk as a compressed image file, which can be restored without any data loss.

Step 4. Adjust disk layout.

Specify the target disk layout as your preference. You can choose among:

• Autofit the disk: makes some changes by default on the destination disk layout so that it can work at its best.
• Copy as the source: create a 1-to-1 copy of your source disk; the layout is the same as the source disk.
• Edit disk layout: allows you to manually resize/move the partition layout on this destination disk.

*If the target disk is an SSD, the option "Auto-alignment to 4K" will be checked automatically to optimize the performance of your SSD.

Step 5. Start cloning.

Click Proceed, and a message will appear, warning you that data will be lost. Confirm the message by clicking Continue.

Now, it will start executing the cloning task.

*The time it takes to clone a hard drive depends on how much data is on the source disk, and it will also be affected by the disk types, USB connection, etc.

To Wrap Things Up

This article tells you how to clone HDD to SSD via USB in detail. With the help of professional hard drive cloning software - EaseUS Disk Copy, you can easily clone your HDDs to SSDs via the USB adapter or the bootable USB. This remarkable disk cloning software can help you clone a hard drive to another in just several simple clicks and your computer can boot from the cloned hard drive without any trouble. Just download and try this disk clone tool!

Free Download

Windows 11/10/8/7

FAQs on Cloning HDD to SSD Using USB

1. How do I clone my hard drive to SSD with USB?

If your computer cannot boot or you cannot perform a regular disk cloning task, you can try to clone a hard drive to an SSD with a bootable USB. To this end, you need to download EaseUS Disk Copy to create a bootable USB containing the Disk Copy and use the USB to boot your computer. After that, you can use EaseUS Disk Copy to clone a hard drive to an SSD.

2. Can I clone my SSD to a USB and copy the USB to the new SSD?

Yes, you can clone an SSD to a USB drive and then copy the USB drive to a new SSD. You need to make sure the USB is big enough to hold your data on your old SSD. In fact, the most direct way is to clone the old SSD to a new one using disk cloning software. You just need to connect the new SSD to your device and run the disk cloning software.

3. Does Windows 10 have disk cloning software?

Windows does not have cloning features. If you want to clone a hard drive on a Windows computer, you must use a third-party cloning tool, such as EaseUS Disk Copy and Clonezilla.

4. Can you clone SSD via USB?

Yes, you can clone a hard drive with a bootable USB or a USB-to-SATA adapter. If your computer cannot boot, you can clone a hard drive via the bootable USB, and if your computer can boot normally, you can clone a hard drive to another via the USB-to-SATA cable.