Can you clone HDD to SSD via USB? how to do it easily? Scroll down to learn more and follow a step-by-step guide to clone hard drive with secure boot.
If you want to skip the basics of cloning HDD to SSD via USB, you can directly go to the step-by-step guide below.
The USB here actually means the USB to SATA adapter. It allows you to plug external devices with SATA interface (such as hard drives and SSDs) into your PC's USB port. Thus, you can access a hard drive's data externally and clone HDD to SSD easily. Here are two scenarios for its application:
Case 1: You decide to replace old HDD (hard disk drive) with an SSD (solid state drive), then you can use an SATA to USB adapter to connect the SSD as external USB drive, and clone HDD to external SSD directly. After that, just remove the internal HDD and replace it with the cloned SSD. Case 2: If your laptop’s hard drive has a major malfunction and Windows cannot boot up, you can remove the old drive, install an SSD with Windows installed to boot the computer, and connect the failed HDD via USB as a temporary external drive. Then you still have a decent chance to copy your files from HDD to SSD.
In either case, it's a more straightforward way to clone HDD to SSD via usb, because it eliminates the need to transfer data to a transit media first and then to the target. If the source hard drive contains OS, the cloned SSD will be bootable as well.
Now, check the following contents to make preparations for hard disk upgrade.
Except for USB adapter, you need to check or prepare some others things. If your computer is a desktop, things will be much easier. If your computer is a laptop, please think it over seriously.
1. Get secure access to internal hard drive. The hard disk clone will lose its meaning if you cannot disassemble the internal hard drive and replace it with SSD. If you are not sure, you can consult with laptop manual or contact with computer manulfacturer for support.
2. Choose a right SSD for replacement. Most laptops have 2.5-inch drives with 7 or 9.5mm thickness, and different interfaces, such as SATA, and NVMe. Just confirm your laptop manual and then purchase the right SSD.
3. Create a disk backup for disaster recovery. If you have done in-depth research online, you may already know that many examples of cloned SSD won't boot. To avoid this situation, a backup is necessary.
To clone HDD to SSD using USB adapter, SSD cloning software is needed. Here, AOMEI Backupper Professional is highly recommended. It's simple and easy to understand, even for novice. Also, it has many outstanding features:
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π₯π» Flexible cloning options |
You can clone the entire hard drive or only selected partitions (e.g. system clone) as per your needs. |
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π‘ Intelligent cloning |
This feature copies only the used space of hard drive, solving a big heache for many users, e.g. clone large HDD to smaller SSD without boot issue. You can also tick "Sector by sector clone" to clone all sectors whether used or not if the destination disk is larger than or equal to source disk. |
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π SSD Alignment |
This feature again enhance the reading and writing speed of SSDs as well as extend SSD’s lifespan, especially useful when cloning hard drive to SSD or cloning SSD to larger SSD. This is because hard disks and SSDs are structured differently. |
| π¨πͺ Bootable USB clone | Embedded with the Create Bootable Media feature, it allows you to create a bootable USB first and then clone hard drive with bootable USB if your computer malfunctions. |
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πUser-friendly GUI |
An intuitive interface can help you clone disk easily and quickly without extra skill required. |
To try it out, you can download AOMEI Backupper Professional here and follow the guide below to clone HDD to external SSD in Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11.
(PS: This software supports Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista. For server users, try AOMEI Backupper Server.)
To clone HDD to SSD over USB adapter with the SSD cloning software - AOMEI Backupper, follow the steps below.
Step 1. Connect SSD via SSD-to-USB adapter and make sure it can be detected on your computer.
Step 2. Launch AOMEI Backupper, and select “Disk Clone” under the “Clone” tab.
Step 3. Select your HDD as the source disk, then click “Next”.
Step 4. Select SSD as destination disk, then click “Next” to continue.
Step 5. In this window, you can preview the operation result. Then, tick "SSD Alignment" and tap on “Start Clone” to begin the operation of cloning HDD to SSD via USB. Wait for the process to complete and then click “Finish”.
More useful features you can enjoy in this software: • Edit Partitions: This feature is mainly used when cloning disk to larger disk to avoid unallocated space left after cloning. By enabling this feature, you can adjust the partition size of the destination disk manually or automatically. • Clone GPT system disk to MBR: Some cloning software won't allow you to clone disks with different partition styles, but AOMEI Backupper will. The cloned disk can boot into Windows successfully after changing boot mode in BIOS.
In this way, you can not only clone HDD to external SSD but also clone external hard drive to internal successfully.
What's more, this software is also an M.2 SSD cloner that can help you clone M.2 SSD to M.2 SSD. You can also use it as USB bootable cloning software to clone a bootable USB drive.
If you don't have a proper USB adapter, you could consider using a third drive, such as a USB flash drive, as a transit media to clone HDD to SSD drive.
However, this involves performing two cloning processes. One is to clone hard disk to USB drive and the other is to clone USB drive to SSD. The steps are the same as above. But you need to replace the old drive with new SSD before cloning to it.
Except for SSD clonig software, AOMEI Backupper is also a powerful backup and restore software, which can be a great alternative to clone HDD to SSD via USB.
But this way needs two steps, first, create a disk backup (or system backup) and then restore it to SSD. Please remember that backup only works after restoration. To prevent a sudden boot failure, you may create bootable disk in advance and restore/clone HDD to SSD via bootable USB.
For details, please refer to image Windows 10 to SSD.
As you can see, AOMEI Backupper Professional can help you clone HDD to SSD via USB effortlessly. And it also supports cloning HDD to Samsung SSD, replace hard drive in ASUS laptop, clone hard drive in Windows 10, etc.
By the way, it's also an excellent backup and restore tool, which can acheive the same effect as clone feature. With it, you can backup entire hard drive, selected partitions, and selected files. Just give it a try and it will become your best assistant in helping you protect your PC data.