How to Clone 2TB HDD to 1TB SSD [Bootable]

Cloning 2TB HDD to 1TB SSD can be easy with the help of best disk cloning software. And it also applies to clone 1TB SSD to 2TB SSD as well.

By @Delia Last Updated December 11, 2024

“How do I clone my 2TB hard drive to a 1TB SSD? I finally bite the bullet and bought a big SSD. The guides I'm seeing explain how you're supposed to clone the new drive with the data on the old drive to preserve the OS, drivers, etc. The problem is that my new SSD drive is half the size of the old drive? How do I deal with this?”

– Reddit

Can I clone 2TB HDD to 1TB SSD successfully? The answer is YES, you can successfully clone 2TB HDD to 1TB SSD without shrinking disk space or deleting useless files first, as long as you use qualified disk cloning software. Similarly, you can clone 1TB SSD to 2TB SSD or HDD with secure boot. If you also have such a problem, you can follow the below guide to solve it:

🌟 Video Guide: How to Clone 2TB to 1TB

If this video is too complex for you, we also provide you with a detailed text guide:

Preparations to Clone Larger HDD to Smaller SSD or Vice Versa

Before you clone your HDD to SDD, you should make some preparations:

Back up important data: Always back up your files before starting the cloning process to avoid data loss.

Choose reliable cloning software: Use reputable disk cloning software that can handle partition resizing, particularly when transferring from a larger drive to a smaller one.

Ensure proper connections: Install or connect the 1TB target SSD to your machine. You may need a USB-to-SATA cable on a laptop with only one slot. Make sure the SSD can be detected, if not, you may need to initialize it first.

Check available space: Make sure the target drive has sufficient space to accommodate the existing data of the source drive. Otherwise, you can uninstall some rarely used APPs or delete temporary files.

For choosing reliable cloning software, many tools allow you to perform bootable clones, but not all of them work well in cloning between different-sized disks. If you don't want the clone to fail when you migrate to a smaller disk or leave a lot of unallocated space when you clone to a larger disk, AOMEI Backupper Professional is a worthy choice. It handles well cloning 2TB HDD to 1TB SSD or cloning 1TB SSD to 2TB SSD with the following advantages:

AOMEI Backupper
Easy HDD and SSD Cloning Software

  • It has different cloning options: Disk Clone for entire disk migration, System Clone for migrating only OS, and Partition Clone for selected partitions.

  • The default Intelligent Clone mode allows you to copy only used sectors and thereby clone larger drives to smaller drives, such as cloning 2TB to 1TB.

  • If the target drive is larger, you can also use the Edit Partitions feature to clone and resize the hard drive, thus avoiding unallocate space and make the full use of the disk capacity.

  • It also supports cloning all partitions to SSD with Sector by Sector Clone. You don't need to worry about missing any boot-related partitions, such as the UEFI partitions or hidden recovery partitions.

  • It has an SSD Alignment feature to accelerate the reading and writing speed of the target SSD disk.

  • It works with all disk brands (WD, Samsung, Seagate, Dell, etc) and interfaces (SATA, NVMe, M.2, U.2, etc).

Download Demo Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7
100% Secure

In addition, if your computer is not bootable, you can choose to create a bootable USB or CD/VD to clone the hard drive without booting Windows. Operation time will be shorter and many potential troubles would be saved that way.

Comprehensive Steps to Clone 2TB HDD to 1TB

Then, let’s see how to clone a hard drive to an SSD or another HDD with different sizes on Windows operating systems.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Backupper Professional on your PC. Click Clone and then Disk Clone. If you just want to migrate OS to SSD and use HDD for storage, try the System Clone feature instead.

✍Note: AOMEI Backupper supports cloning data disks and system disks of all brands and partition styles, such as cloning MBR to MBR/MBR to GPT or GPT to GPT/GPT to MBR directly. But you still need to ensure the partition style of the target disk is compatible with your boot mode (MBR for Legacy BIOS and GPT for UEFI).

Step 2. Select the source drive you want to clone and click Next. In your case, it should be the 2TB HDD.

Step 3. Select the 1TB SSD as the destination disk and click Next.

Step 4. On the summary page, check the option SSD Alignment to improve the performance of SSD. Click Start Clone, then it will start to clone only used sectors in the hard drive and move it to the new SSD. Go get a cup of coffee, or get on with your other work.

🌟Tips:
  • Sector by Sector Clone: It allows to clone all sectors of a disk to another, whether used or not. It requires the destination disk to be equal or larger than the source disk.
  • Edit partitions: It allows you to adjust partition size during the cloning process, so you won't be troubled by a cloned hard drive with unallocated space left.
  • This software also applies to clone 1TB HDD to 500GB SSD, clone 1TB HDD to 250GB SSD, clone 500GB HDD to 250GB SSD, clone 500GB SSD to 1TB SSD, etc.

Boot from New SSD

After cloning, you still need to check if the cloned SSD is bootable. Only in this case, you can use it to finally replace the old hard drive. Try the following steps:

  1. Shut down your PC completely.
  2. Replace the 2TB HDD with the 1TB SSD to boot from the cloned drive.
  3. Restart the computer, if it starts normally, then the cloning is successful.
  4. You can also insert an old hard drive back if you want to use it for storage, but remember to check the boot order in BIOS/UEFI settings, the cloned SSD should be in the first place. Or, you can wipe the old hard drive to free up more space.

In a few cases, you may find the cloned SSD refuses to boot. The reasons are various in different situations, but you can refer to this article for help: cloned hard drives or SSD won’t boot. See if you’re in one of those troubles.

FAQs on Disk Cloning

1. Can I clone 1TB HDD to 500GB SSD?
 
Yes. You can follow the above steps to clone from 1TB hard drive to 500GB SSD easily. No technical skills required.
2. Does cloning a hard drive copy the OS?
 
If the disk you are cloning is a system disk, the OS will be cloned to the target disk. Normally, cloning a hard drive clones everything on the disk.
3. How do I make a cloned SSD bootable?
 
To boot from a cloned drive, first, you need to make sure there is an operating system installed. Secondly, set it to the first boot order in BIOS. You may need to change UEFI from/to Legacy if you clone between MBR and GPT. Still, a hard drive that can’t start may result from various factors. Check out the provided link to find out more.
4. How long does it take to clone a 2TB hard drive to SSD?
 
The time varies from several minutes to hours, and it depends on multiple reasons, such as the amount of data on your disk, the reading and writing of both HDD and SSD, whether there are bad sectors on the disk, etc.

Bottom Line

You see, it is quite easy to clone 2TB to 1TB SSD with one comprehensive disk cloning utility since it takes care of all issues you may be concerned about. You can clone 1TB SSD to 2TB SSD by repeating the above steps.

After cloning the hard drive, it is suggested to keep AOMEI Backupper Professional installed. The cloning software is also reliable backup software that provides you robust backup solution. Let it help you protect your computer in all-round.