Does Cloning Hard Drive Delete Everything?

I want to replace the HDD with SSD on my Windows 10 PC. After searching on the Internet, I know the easiest way is cloning. But I worry that cloning my drive will erase everything. So, does cloning a hard drive delete everything?

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Jerry· Answered on Jan 21, 2026

No. Cloning a hard drive will not delete everything on the source drive, but it does erase everything on the target drive. If you want to clone your HDD to SSD, everything on the HDD will not be changed, but SSD data will be deleted.

Many computer users want to replace an HDD with an SSD because SSD is more energy-saving and less noise-making and has a faster reading and writing speed, stronger durability, better performance, and reliability. And the easiest way to replace an HDD is cloning.

But cloning a hard drive will delete data on the target, so you need to back up data on the target drive before you start the cloning process. Unfortunately, Windows has no built-in cloning tools to help you finish the tasks. So, you need to use professional cloning software. At this time, the professional disk cloning tool - EaseUS Disk Copy comes to help.

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Windows 11/10/8/7

EaseUS Disk Copy is an easy-to-use cloning tool. It enables you to clone your systems, disk, partitions, etc. In addition, you can use it to clone HDD to SSD without reinstalling Windows and clone a hard drive. If you use it to clone your hard drive, you will keep everything on it.

Cloning a hard drive will not delete everything on the source disk but will delete data on the target disk. Therefore, you need to back up your data on the SSD if it is not a new one before you start cloning it.

Download the smartest and easiest Disk Cloning Software

Use EaseUS Disk Copy to upgrade small HDD, replace old/failed hard drive, migrate OS, clone HDD to SSD without reinstalling data.

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Windows 11/10/8/7

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