How to Clone Hard Drive for Free in Windows 10/11.

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If you want to clone your hard drive for free and migrate your Windows 10/11 installation to a new drive without losing anything, then this guide is for you.

Hard drive cloning is the process of creating an identical and fully functional copy of all the contents (including the operating system, files, applications and settings) of one hard disk to another. Disk cloning is very useful in many situations, such as upgrading to a larger hard drive, swap to a fastest drive (eg. from HDD to SSD), moving to a new computer, or for backup purposes.

In this guide we will show you free ways to clone your Windows 10/11 disc to a new disc.*

* Note: In the past there were many companies that offered free disk cloning tools, such as the ones listed below. But as recently checked (November 2023), none of these companies offer these tools for free and without a subscription anymore. If you want to pay a subscription, you can use the following reliable tools to clone your hard drive:

• Acronis True Image.
• AOMEI Backupper Standard
• EaseUs ToDo BackUp Home
• Macrium Reflect
• MiniTool Partition Wizard

How to Clone/Migrate Windows 10/11 to a new Disk for FREE.

Method 1. Clone Drive with Free Cloning Software from Disk’s Manufacturer.

Some disk manufacturers, such as Crucial, Kingston, Seagate and Western Digital, offer free disk cloning software if at least one of the 2 disks you will use during cloning is of their own manufacture. (the source or target disk or both).

Therefore, if you own and want to clone from (or to) a disc from one of these disks manufacturers, perform the following steps.*

* Note: If you don’t own a hard disk from these manufacturers, or you want to clone an NVME disk see the instructions on Method-2.

Step 1. Download Acronis True Image according your Disk Brand.

1. Download and install the corresponding “Acronis True Image” software for your disk manufacturer. *

• Crucial: Acronis True Image for Crucial Disks.
• Kingston: Acronis True Image for Kingston products that includes an Acronis license within the packaging.
• Seagate: DiscWizard – Acronis True Image for Seagate Disks.
• Western Digital: Acronis True Image for Western Digital disks.

* Note: If you own a Samsung SSD, use the Data Migration Software for Samsung SSD

Step 2. Backup your data to an external USB drive.
Important: As a precaution, back up your data to an external storage device before starting the cloning process.

Step 3. Check Source Disk for errors.
To avoid problems, during the cloning/copying process check and repair errors in source disk, using the CHKDSK command. To do that:

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator and give the following command:

• chkdsk /f

2. When asked, if you want to schedule the disk check at next boot press “Y” (YES)

3. Close the command prompt windows and quit all programs.

4. Restart your computer and let Windows to check and repair disk errors (if found).

5. After entering in Windows, proceed to next step.

Step 4. Connect the new disk on the PC.
If you have a desktop computer, shut it down and plug the new hard drive into it. If you have a laptop, connect the new hard drive to a SATA to USB adapter (or bay) and attach it to your laptop.

Step 5. Clone Disk with Acronis True Image.
1. Open Acronis True Image for your disk product (e.g. Acronis True Image for Crucial” in this example) and click Start Cloning Wizard (If you don’t see the below screen go to Tools > Clone Disk).

2. At next screen choose Manual and click Next.

3. At next window, select the Source disk (the disk you want to clone/copy to another disk) and click Next.

4. Now select the Destination disk (the disk to which you want to copy the data from the “Source” disk) and click Next.

5. In the next screen and depending on the reason you want to clone the disk, select the appropriate option and click Next. (For example, if you want to replace the disc on your machine select “To replace a disk on this machine“).

6. At the next screen, leave Proportional selected and click Next.

7. On the last screen, review the changes that will be made to the destination disk and if you agree press Proceed.

8. After a while, the cloning process will begin. Wait until it is complete without interrupting it.

9. When you informed that the disk was successfully cloned, click OK. Then turn off the computer and install the cloned drive in place of the source drive. When done, turn on your computer and boot from the new drive.

Method 2. Migrate Windows 10/11 to a New Disk using Windows Backup & Restore.

The second method to migrate your Windows 10/11 installation to a new drive is to use the built-in “Backup & Restore” tool to create a system image on an external USB drive and then to restore that image to the new disc.

* Note: This method is slower than using a cloning tool, but in my opinion it is the most reliable.

Requirements

1. An external USB drive with enough storage space to store the System Image of your PC (Step-1).

2. A USB Windows Installation Media to boot the computer from it (after replacing the disk) and to restore the System Image (Step-3). If you don’t own a USB Windows installation media, then you can create one by using the instructions in these tutorials:

• How to create a Windows 10 USB installation media.
• How to create a Windows 11 USB installation media.

Step 1. Create a System Image of your Windows Installation to an External USB Drive.

1. Attach the external USB drive where you want to save the System Image.
2. Press Windows + R keys to open the Run command box.
3. Type the below command and press OK (or Enter) to open the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) tool in Control Panel.

• control /name Microsoft.BackupAndRestore

4. In ‘Backup and Restore’ screen, click Create a system image.

5. In the next screen select to save the System Image on the USB disk and click Next.

6. Now click Start backup to start the backup process.

7. Wait until Windows saves the backup. When this done, you’ll be asked if you want to create a system repair disk. Ask No and close all windows.

8. Unplug the USB drive an proceed to next step.

Step 2. Connect the new disk on the PC.
1. Turn off your PC.
2. Remove the old hard drive and then connect the new one.

Step 3. Restore the System Image to the New disk.

1. Plug on the PC, the USB Windows Installation Media and the USB drive where you stored the System Image.
2. Turn on the PC and boot from the USB Windows Installation Media.
3. Press Next at Language options screen and then click Repair your computer.

4. Then choose Troubleshoot -> System Image Recovery

5. At the next screen you’ll see that the system image you created is automatically selected. Click Next to continue.

6. Click Next again at “Advanced options” window, and click Finish to start the restore process.

7. Now wait the restore process to completed and do not interrupt it.
8. When the process is complete, your system will automatically reboot into Windows after a few seconds.

That’s all folks! Did it work for you? If so, by what method?
Please leave a comment in the comment section below or even better: like and share this blog post in the social networks to help spread the word about this problem.

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Konstantinos Tsoukalas

Konstantinos is the founder and administrator of Repairwin.com. Since 1995 he works and provides IT support as a computer and network expert to individuals and large companies. He is specialized in solving problems related to Windows or other Microsoft products (Windows Server, Office, Microsoft 365, etc.).

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