Easiest Way to Clone HDD to SSD via USB | Step by Step

AOMEI Backupper

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.

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Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

The advantages of cloning HDD to SSD via USB

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.

Preparations for cloning hard drive to SSD via USB

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. 

More powerful SSD cloning software 

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: 

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.)

How to clone HDD to SSD over USB (simple steps)

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.

Two alternative ways to clone hard drive to SSD via USB

Way 1: Clone HDD to SSD via 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.

Way 2: Backup and restore hard drive image to SSD

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.

Conclusion

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.