If you are looking for the best free clone software for Windows 10 to migrate OS and data from HDD to SSD, AOMEI Backupper Standard will be an ideal choice. The easy-to-use interface is acclaimed by a lot of users.
Released on July 29, 2015, Windows 10 has improved many features, so more and more users upgrade their system to Windows 10. However, the danger of data loss still exists. To keep the data safe, cloning Windows 10 after installing it is necessary. Literally, cloning Windows 10 means making an exact copy for it.
Windows 10 clone can solve a lot of problems. For example, if you don’t satisfy with the HDD of your computer and you want to change it to a solid state drive for better performance, you can clone hard drive in Windows 10 to SSD.
Or if you want to upgrade the hard drive to a larger new one, cloning Windows 10 and all the applications to the larger new hard drive is a good way.
If you are looking for the best free cloning software for Windows 10, AOMEI Backupper Standard deserves a try. If you are looking for disk clone software with more advanced features, AOMEI Backupper Professional can't be missed.
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AOMEI Backupper Standard |
AOMEI Backupper Professional |
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Features |
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How to Transfer OS |
Create a system image or disk image in advance and then restore it to a new hard drive. (Full steps >>) |
Directly copy OS and data from the old disk to the new disk. No restoration process is needed. (Full steps >>) |
To try out the free edition, click this download button.
Best free disk cloning software for personal use.
To enjoy a direct way to transfer OS, use the download button below.
Easiest hard drive clone software for Windows PC.
Let's say you have backed up Windows 10 to a USB drive. Follow the steps below to move Windows 10 to SSD:
Step 1. Connect the target SSD and the USB drive with the created system image to your computer. Run this free OS migration software for Windows 10 and click Restore > Select Task.
Step 2. Select the system backup task and click Next.
Step 3. Select Restore this system backup and check Restore system to other location. Then click Next.
Step 4. Select the SSD as the destination path and click Next.
Step 5. On the Operation Summary window, check the box before SSD Alignment and click Start Restore to transfer Windows 10 to the new SSD.
Before cloning Windows 10, you need to prepare a storage hard drive which is large enough to store the data of the old hard drive. It could be a local disk, external hard drive, or USB flash drive.
Here is the step-by-step guide for how to clone HDD to SSD with the best cloning software for Windows 10 - AOMEI Backupper Professional.
Step 1. Launch AOMEI Backupper. You will see the main interface of it. Click Clone and select the clone type: Disk Clone.
Note: If you want to clone only Windows 10 instead of the whole system disk, choose the System Clone feature.
Step 2. Select the original hard drive as the source disk and click Next.
Step 3. Select the destination disk and click Next. Here you can select a different local disk or an external hard drive you plugged in before.
Note: It is suggested to choose a blank disk. If there is important data on the target hard drive, you should backup data first because it will be overwritten after cloning.
Step 4. You can confirm the clone information here and set more for your cloning. To clone Windows 10 from HDD to SSD, SSD Alignment is recommended because it will accelerate the reading and writing speed of the SSD. After all the settings, click Start Clone to launch the process.
>> Edit Partitions: it allows you to adjust partition size on the destination disk. >> Sector By Sector Clone: it will clone all the sectors on the source disk, even if the sector is blank or it is a logically bad sector. Thus, if you check this box, it will take more storage space and longer time.
Step 5. After the process reaches 100%, click Finish to exit.
1. What’s the difference between cloning and imaging?
Cloning creates an exact, bootable copy of your drive, which can be used to replace the original drive. Imaging, on the other hand, creates a compressed backup file of your drive, which can be restored later but isn't directly bootable until it’s restored to a drive.
2. Do I need to reinstall Windows after cloning my drive?
No, when you clone your drive correctly, the new drive should be bootable, and you won’t need to reinstall Windows. The cloning process transfers the operating system, applications, and data exactly as they were on the original drive.
3. How long does it take to clone a Windows 10 hard drive?
The time it takes to clone a Windows 10 hard drive depends on the size of the drive and the speed of the source and destination drives. On average, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours.
As you see, AOMEI Backupper Standard is the best free Windows 10 clone software which offers the System Backup & Restore features to help you migrate OS to a new hard drive. For an easy way to transfer OS, try the Disk Clone feature in AOMEI Backupper Professional. Various disk types are supported by AOMEI Backupper. You can use it to clone NVMe to NVMe, clone SATA disk to SSD, etc. Why not give it a shot?