Best Way to Clone C Drive to External Hard Drive in Windows

How to clone or copy C drive to external hard drive in Windows 11/10/8/7 with ease when necessary? We are here to do you a big favor.

By @Lily Last Updated October 23, 2024

Cloning C drive is needed in various situations. Is there any way or tool that could make this process pretty easy? The answer is yes. Keep reading to get more about this.

Best disk cloning software for Windows - AOMEI Backupper

To make this job as easy as possible, a powerful and reliable software has been developed - AOMEI Backupper Pro.

AOMEI Backupper
Easiest C Drive Cloning Software

  • It offers the Disk Clone and Partition Clone features to help you copy an entire hard drive or a specified partition, such as copy Ext4 partition.

  • It provides the System Clone feature that can be used to clone the whole C drive as well as other system-related drives from an internal disk to an external disk.

  • It supports all editions of Windows 11, 10, 8.1/8, 7, Vista and XP. For server users, try AOMEI Backupper Sever.

Download Demo Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7
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How to copy C drive to external hard drive in Windows 11/10/8/7 easily

In this part, you can learn how to copy C drive to external hard drive with AOMEI Backupper. The cloned OS can boot successfully after cloning.

Preparations

  • Connect an external hard drive to your computer. The external drive should not be smaller than the C drive in storage space.

  • GPT disks only support 64-bit systems. If you are running a 32-bit system and want to clone MBR disk to GPT disk, upgrade your system to 64-bit first. Also, make sure the motherboard supports the EFI/UEFI before cloning to ensure your computer can boot successfully later.

Clone system drive to external hard drive

1) Install and launch the software. Select "System Clone" under "Clone" tab. The program will automatically select C: drive and system-related drives to be cloned.

2) Choose the external hard drive to store the cloned data.

Note: If there is more than one partition on the external hard drive, please clone the system partition to the first partition or the first available area on the target disk so that the system could boot from the target disk.

3) Click "OK" if you have already made a backup.

4) Click "Start Clone" to finish this operation. If the external hard drive is an SSD, you can tick “SSD Alignment” to optimize the performance.

Why do you clone C drive to external hard drive?

There are many reasons why you might need to clone C drive to external hard drive. Normally, 3 aspects are responsible for this action.

  • Portable Windows. When your computer, with the Windows system preinstalled in the C drive, fails to work and you have to buy a new one, you may want to clone C drive to SSD or HDD as a portable Windows before getting the new computer.

  • SSD for OS, HDD for storage. You might be planning to make your just-bought and brand new SSD as a boot disk and the old HDD as a data storage disk to enjoy a much better performance, but don’t want to spend much time reinstalling the OS and all your necessary applications. Cloning the system drive to external hard drive could be a great idea.

  • Speed up computer. When the performance of most computers tend to become terrible after a long time of usage due to numerous caches, applications, data, etc, you may decide to clone system drive to an external hard drive, like SSD, and boot it from SSD to improve the performance. That’s because SSD doesn’t contain any moving parts, which means a lot when it comes to raising the booting up and data accessing time.

FAQs about cloning C drive

1. Can I clone my C drive while using it?

Yes, AOMEI Backupper allows cloning while Windows is running. You can use your computer as normal during the cloning process.

2. How long does it take to clone a C drive?

The time varies based on the amount of data and the speed of the drives, but it typically ranges from dozens of minutes to a couple of hours.

3. Will the cloned drive be bootable?

Yes, if done correctly, the cloned drive should be bootable, allowing you to use it as your main drive.

4. Do I need to format the new drive before cloning?

No, specialized cloning software like AOMEI Backupper usually handles formatting during the cloning process.

Summary

AOMEI Backupper makes it easy to clone C drive to external hard drive. In addition, it also works well when you need to clone a hard drive or SSD. With it, you can back up system and create a system image to keep Windows and applications safe. Or you may need to set an automatic backup to avoid forgetting backing up in the future and data loss.