Clone Hard Drive to Larger Drive Without Reinstalling Windows and Programs

What You Need to Clone Hard Drive to Larger Drive

Does your hard disk often run out of space which makes you unable to upgrade the software, applications, system or store more data? If you are suffering from such kind of things and decide to purchase a new hard disk, it's definitely a huge project and time-consuming job to reinstall everything, especially the operating system and all the applications on the new hard disk. Fortunately, EaseUS Disk Copy can reduce your worry of reinstalling everything on your new hard drive.

Here are all the essential things you should prepare before taking actions to upgrade to a larger hard drive:

#1. A way to connect both hard drives to your computer

If you're using a desktop computer, you can always try to install the second drive alongside your old hard drive to clone it. It's impossible for laptops to install two hard drives together, so you should prepare something like a SATA-to-USB cable to connect the larger hard drive (HDD or SSD) to your laptop via USB. By the way, you can also install your new drive in an external hard drive enclosure to replace the USB cable.

#2. A copy of EaseUS Disk Copy - your best disk cloning choice

Customers treat EaseUS Disk Copy as the model of the disk cloning market. First of all, it provides users with the most efficient way to clone not only an entire hard drive but a single partition to the other. With the multiple built-in features, you can migrate OS in one click, upgrade hard disk, clone HDD to SSD, and even replace a failing hard drive without booting into Windows.

With the help of EaseUS clone, it's all too easy to clone an old hard drive to a larger one.

Video Tutorial on Cloning Hard Drive to Larger HDD/SSD

For a direct guide, watch and follow this video, you'll successfully clone your hard drive to a bigger HDD or SSD:

How to Clone Hard Drive to Larger Drive with EaseUS Disk Copy

EaseUS Disk Copy is very easy and quite safe to use. Any time when you need to upgrade hard drive from old to new, from small to large or from a mechanical HDD to stable SSD, feel free to apply EaseUS Disk Copy.

Follow the steps to clone your hard drive to a larger one without reinstalling Windows and programs:

Step 1: Choose "Disk mode" and select the smaller hard drive as the source disk.

Step 2: Choose the bigger hard drive to save the data and then click "Next".

Step 3: A warning message tells you that the data on the destination disk will be overwritten. Click “OK” to continue if you do not have important data on the destination disk.

Step 4: Edit the disk layout and then click "Proceed" to continue.

• "Autofit the disk" resize the layout on destination disk according to the size of it to make the disk as the best status.
• "Copy as the source" doesn’t change anything on destination disk and the layout is same as source disk.
• "Edit disk layout" allows you to manually resize/move partition layout on this destination disk.

Step 5: Wait for the process to complete.

Clone Hard Drive FAQs

1. Can I clone a larger hard drive to smaller SSD?

Make sure that the used space on your hard drive is less than that of the total capacity of the SSD. Right-click on your hard drive in Windows Explorer, and choose Properties. There you will check how much space has been used. If the used space is within the SSD capacity, download EaseUS Disk Copy to clone the larger hard drive to smaller SSD. 

2. How do I install a larger hard drive?

After cloning a smaller HDD to a larger hard drive, you can now safely remove the old drive from your computer. Next, replace the old hard drive with the larger hard drive.

3. How to clone a laptop hard drive?

To clone a laptop hard drive to a new one, you need to use a SATA-to-USB cable or an external hard drive enclosure to connect the new drive to your laptop. Next, follow the above guide to use Disk Copy to clone a laptop hard drive.