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I then used MiniTool Partition Wizard (Free) to expand the partition on the clone drive to make use of the full capacity of the new larger SSD. I also renamed the old Kingston drive to 'MainOld'. So far, so good. Now here's where I think I got into trouble. I wanted to change the drive letter on larger SSD to C: Main and set it as my primary drive. Clone Disk Resources. This category shows you the best solutions to migrate Windows 10, move files from SSD to HDD, clone HDD to smaller SSD, build your own laptop, clone NVME M.2 drive, upgrade to a larger drive without data loss, safeguard your system and data, etc. Using the Migrate OS to SSD/HD Wizard and Copy Disk features of MiniTool Partition Wizard, you are able to resolve such issues with. Here, we suggest cloning Windows OS with MiniTool Partition Wizard, and it just copies files about Windows. How to Migrate Windows with MiniTool Partition Wizard First of all, launch the program to get its starting interface and click “ Launch Application ” module to get the following window. Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard to get its main interface. Click on Migrate OS to SSD/HD in the toolbar. Choose a right method to migrate system disk and click Next. To Replace the System Disk. Firstly, please select the target disk to migrate system disk to and click Next. Then, choose a copy option. With MiniTool Partition Wizard, you not only can clone WD disk to another disk or SSD, but also can clone another disk to WD internal and external disks with ease. Besides, this professional cloning software offers wizard like interfaces as well as operating prompts to help you easily and quickly cloning WD disk without any difficulty.

Summary :

Decide to clone your hard drive to another disk for backup, disk upgrade or good performance in Windows 10/8/7? Take it easy now! This post shows you one of the best free PC cloning software - MiniTool ShadowMaker, so just read on and have a trial.

When Need to Clone Hard Drive

Disk cloning means the process of copying all the contents of one hard disk to another disk. Unlike simple copying & pasting, hard drive cloning contains some hidden and in-use files.

What’s more, cloning not only ensures files are all the same but also guarantees the physical locations of files are the same as the source disk.

In many cases, you probably need to clone a hard drive:

• Replace a hard drive: Usually, if your disk is too small and has encountered low disk space warning due to its insufficient disk space, to clone disk to a larger one for data storage is a good choice.
• Use SSD for better performance: As is well known, SSD is widely used due to its advantages, especially its high read-write speed. Therefore, you want to use SSD as a system disk to improve your computer performance.
• Make a backup: Usually, disk issues, for instance, Windows detected a hard disk problem, system corruption, and virus attack always happen. To avoid data loss, we highly recommend you to use professional disk cloning software to clone the entire disk for data backup.

Then, you may ask: Is there a piece of PC cloning software to do disk cloning? Read the following content to find the answer.

The Best PC Cloning Software Windows 10/8/7

As a matter of fact, to clone a hard disk in Windows 10/8/7 is not an easy job. Someone may want to ask Windows built-in Disk Management for help. Nevertheless, when opening it and right-clicking your disk, you will find this free tool doesn’t have such a feature for this work.

Thus, a third-party program should be used. Among so many programs, MiniTool hard drive cloning software is worthy of being recommended.

Here are two pieces of free disk cloning software for Windows 10/8/7, and they are MiniTool ShadowMaker and MiniTool Partition Wizard, enabling you to clone a hard drive with ease.

Next, let's see some details about them.

MiniTool ShadowMaker

MiniTool ShadowMaker, known as free backup software, helps you to back up files, Windows OS, partition and the entire disk with simple steps.

In addition, it can be viewed as PC cloning software since it has a feature called Clone Disk, making disk copy easy in Windows 10/8/7.

To clone your disk to SSD or another big disk, you can free get MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition for 30-days trial or directly get its Pro Edition to enjoy all features all the time.

Now, let's see how to use the best cloning software to implement disk cloning.

Step 1: Launch the Trial Edition of MiniTool ShadowMaker.

Step 2: Then click the Clone Disk feature under the Tools page.

Step 3: In the pop-up window, choose the source disk and destination disk for cloning.

Step 4: Next, this PC cloning software is performing the cloning operation. Just wait patiently.

After finishing the operation, a warning will pop up telling you to disconnect one hard drive since Windows will mark one offline.

If you need to replace the original disk with the target disk, please shut down your PC, remove the source disk and put the target disk into the original place.

If you clone a disk only for backup, just shut down the PC and remove the target disk.

Want to use this hard drive cloning software to clone your disk? Jungle book 2 mowgli. Now, free download and install it on your PC to have a try.

MiniTool Partition Wizard

As a professional partition manager, it provides many powerful features, for instance, extend/resize partition and more basic disk & partition management, some advanced features including copy disk/partition, migrate OS to SSD/HD, and more.

Among those features, the Copy Disk, Copy Partition and Migrate OS to SSD/HD functions can be used to perform PC cloning for disk replacement, system upgrade or data backup.

Before you do, please do a free hard drive cloning software download and install it on Windows 10/8/7. If you need to copy OS disk or migrate OS disk, Free Edition doesn’t support and you need to use its Professional Edition. To know more edition comparison, click here.

Now let’s begin to do disk partition cloning or OS migration.

① Clone the Entire Disk

In order to make a backup, upgrade hard drive or replace an old or wrong disk, we advise you to clone the entire hard drive to another disk which can be an SSD or HD. As dedicated disk cloning software for Windows 10/7/8, MiniTool Partition Wizard Copy Disk is suitable. How can you clone a hard drive to SSD/HDD?

Attentions:

1. Please prepare a hard disk as the target disk which must have enough disk space to hold all data of the source disk.
2. During the process of disk copy, all data on the target disk will be destroyed, thus, please make sure that no important data are saved on this hard drive.

This post will walk you through how to clone hard drive to smaller SSD with ease in Windows 10/8/7. Get the MiniTool Programs for a try now.

Step 1: After launching this best PC cloning software, then select the source disk which you want to clone, and click Copy Disk in the left pane.

Step 2: Then please select a target disk and click Next button to continue.

Step 3: In the following interface, you will see two copy options listed.

• Fit partitions to entire disk: this method allows you to copy partitions to occupy the entire disk space of the target disk based on the proportion of original partition size.
• Copy partitions without resizing: the original partition size won’t be changed. This option only works when the target hard disk size is equal to or larger than the source disk size.

Step 4: Next this disk cloning software will remind you to change BIOS setting if you want to boot from this new disk in Windows 10/8/7. Click Finish to go back to MiniTool Partition Wizard main interface.

Step 5: From this figure as follows, you can preview the target disk layout. Click the Apply button to make this disk copy operation effective.

② Migrate OS to SSD/HD

In addition to cloning the entire disk, some of you only want to migrate the operating system to SSD to improve your computer performance, upgrade to a bigger disk or make a system backup.

Fortunately, MiniTool Partition Wizard also provides a feature which is called “Migrate OS to SSD/HD” for this job. As the best cloning software for SSD, this tool is useful and effective to do OS migration in Windows 10/8/7. Now follow the guide below:

Step 1: Run MiniTool Partition Wizard to the main interface. Then click Migrate OS to SSD/HD Wizard from the toolbar.

Step 2: Then you need to choose the right method to migrate your system. There are two methods:

• To replace your system disk with another hard disk, please select A. This will copy all partitions of the system disk. Actually, this method is the same as the disk cloning.
• To only move the system to another disk, B is suitable. This best cloning software for SSD will only copy the system required partitions.

Here we take B as an example.

Step 3: Then please choose an SSD as the target disk.

Step 4: On this page, please choose a proper copy option. Please set to align partitions of your SSD for better performance.

Step 5: Then the best cloning software for SSD also tells you to modify BIOS setting before booting your PC from this new disk in Windows 10/8/7.

Step 6: Finally, hit Apply to start OS migration.

If you think this tool is useful to migrate OS or clone disk, please share it with your friends.

③ Copy Partition

In addition, you may choose to copy a certain partition to the unallocated space for data backup with MiniTool Partition Wizard Copy Partition feature. Click this help document to learn how to copy a partition.

④ Some Tips about This PC Cloning Software

In the above part, we introduce to you three cloning methods of the best disk cloning software Windows 10/8/7 -MiniTool Partition Wizard. Here we will show you some related knowledge about them.

Copy Partition: it can be used to make a partition backup.

Clone Disk: This feature is suitable for disk replacement or disk backup. All disk data of the source disk will be transferred to the target disk.

Migrate OS: This feature can be used for system backup to replace a hard drive or restore the system to its original status in event of system issues. During the process of migration, all system-related partitions will be moved.

Then you probably ask: I want to make a system backup, is Copy Partition suitable? The answer is negative. If you only copy system partition, some related system boot files are not copied and then your system won’t boot. But the other two methods ensure the data of the target disk are the same as the source disk, so they can guarantee your PC boots normally.

Cloned drive won't boot? This guide shows you how to make cloned drive bootable in Windows 10/8.1/7 using the best hard drive cloning software.

Bottom Line

In this post, we introduce you when need to clone disk, 2 best PC cloning software, as well as how to clone disk with these programs and some tips about disk cloning in Windows 10/8/7. Hope the information is really useful to help you to cope with hard drive cloning issues.

Moreover, should you have any questions when using MiniTool Partition Wizard, please contact [email protected] or leave a comment in the following comment zone. Any suggestions are appreciated here.

PC Cloning Software FAQ

1. Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker.
2. Click Clone Disk.
3. Choose the source disk and target disk.
4. Start the cloning.

Summary :

What is the best WD clone software? MiniTool Partition Wizard offers most flexible way to clone western digital hard drive as well as clone operating system from WD hard drive. Get the partition magic now!

I just wanted to know what the best software for cloning an hdd is. Either free or not I'm willing to get any. I tried to search the net but there are too many to choose from, so I want your suggestions if any of you guys are using cloning software.--from Tomsguide

Why Clone WD Hard Drive?

As we all know, WD hard drives enjoy a high reputation around the world. Numerous of users are using WD hard drives as their storage devices, and many users want to upgrade their hard drives to WD hard drives (navigate to About Western Digital to know more about WD hard drives). In fact, no matter you are working with WD hard drive or you want to upgrade to WD drive, you may need WD cloning software in the following cases:

1. Hard drive backup. Data safety is always the first concern when we use computer. And one of the most effective ways we can select is to clone WD hard drive as a full backup. This way is very useful when you need to use the backup copy immediately, avoiding the complex steps of restoring compared with disk image backup.
2. Hard drive upgrade. This can be divided into 3 aspects: the hard drive capacity is too small, the hard drive is outdated, and the hard drive is going to fail. To be specific, we tend to store all kinds of data on our hard drives; hence the hard drive is easy to run out of disk space if we are employing a small drive. With the rapid development of hard drive field, the new released hard drives offer incomparable performances. To enjoy the new technology, we need to upgrade our hard drive by cloning. And, if one of our hard drives is going to fail, we need to clone hard drive to prevent data loss in time.
3. Multiple installations. For computer systems administrators, installing and maintaining an organization's computers are important. Usually, computers in one organization have the same configurations, and cloning hard drive from a ready computer can save administrators a lot of time in installing OS and necessary applications repeatedly when they have got a lot of bare computers to deal with.

Knowing the reasons that lead us to clone WD hard drive, here we recommended 2 pieces of Western Digital cloning software to help us clone WD hard drive easily, quickly, and safely.

The Best Free WD Cloning Software

Although there is a lot of disk cloning software we can get online, the one that offers top performance at the lowest price is always the best choice. And the following 2 pieces of free Western Digital cloning software do meet this requirement.

Want to know the best part? Just keep reading.

1. MiniTool Partition Wizard

MiniTool Partition Wizard is an all-in-one disk partition manager that can keep your hard drive being used in the best condition. For instance, it can fix some issues like 'low disk space warning', 'virtual disk service error', 'Windows was unable to complete the format', convert FAT to NTFS, and more… After years of development, MiniTool Partition Wizard has been upgraded to V10.2, with more useful features and more stable performance.

As one of the best cloning software 2017, it offers the best feature to clone WD hard drive, which is called Copy Disk. Copy Disk employs sector-by-sector copy method; hence you don't need to worry about the boot issue after the cloning. How can we actually use it? First of all, download this freeware from the official site and install it on computer. Then, follow the detailed guidance below.

Before you do:
Prepare a hard drive that is ready for cloning WD hard drive and connect it to your PC normally. If there are important files on the drive, transfer them to another location beforehand. Then launch MiniTool Partition Wizard to its main interface.

Step 1. Select the source disk and choose Copy Disk feature.

Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard to its main interface. On the main interface, click the disk icon of the source disk, and then choose Copy Disk from the action panel on the left side.

Step 2. Select target disk.

In the pop-up window, select the disk you have just connected as the target disk. Then click Next to continue. Please note that the target disk should be a basic disk and all data on it will be destroyed.

Step 3. Review changes.

Here you can have a preview of what is going to happen on your target disk. However, you can also change some copy options according to your own needs before you click Next.

• Fit partitions to entire disk: fulfill all disk space on the target disk according to partition size ratio.
• Copy partitions without resize: keep the original partition sizes. Only available when the target disk is not smaller than the source disk.
• Align partitions to 1MB: improve the performance of the target disk if it is an SSD or advanced format disk (*appears only when you are cloning an MBR disk).
• Use GUID Partition Table: turn the target disk into GPT disk which is helpful when the target disk is larger than 2TB (*appears only when you are cloning an MBR disk and requires payment if you are cloning the system disk).

Step 4. Read notice.

Minitool Clone Ssd

Now you will receive a message telling how to boot from the target disk. If you are cloning system disk, keep this in mind and click Finish.

Step 5. Confirm the cloning.

At last, click Apply button at the top left corner to start cloning WD hard drive. If you are cloning the system disk, MiniTool Partition Wizard needs a reboot to finish his job.

More You Need to Know about MiniTool Partition Wizard

Now you know how to use MiniTool Partition Wizard as WD cloning software. If you think this is the only reason to choose MiniTool Partition Wizard, probably you are wrong. Here is more information you need to know about MiniTool Partition Wizard:

Copy Disk not only helps to copy basic disks (both system and non-system disk) but also helps to copy dynamic disks (non-system disk). In addition, you can choose to copy from MBR to MBR, from GPT to GPT, and from MBR to GPT.

How to clone MBR to GPT? If you need to clone MBR to GPT disk, MiniTool Partition Wizard is the best choice.

From the menu bar, you can find another feature called Migrate OS to SSD/HD, which offers two ways to migrate OS. The first way is to copy the system required partitions only, and the second way is to copy the whole system disk (same with Copy Disk). There is one point you need to pay attention to: Migrate OS to SSD/HD only works with the currently running OS. If you want to clone another system to WD hard drive, you should first of all boot computer from that system to do the cloning.

2. MiniTool ShadowMaker

MiniTool ShadowMaker is the second recommendation for WD cloning software, which is also free for users to use at present. In fact, MiniTool ShadowMaker can be regarded as WD backup software as well as WD cloning software. Why? Although it is a professional system backup software that is quite helpful in Windows backup, it offers Clone Disk feature under Tools to help users carry out hard disk clone. So you can download this free backup software as Western Digital cloning software.

Let's take a close look at how MiniTool ShadowMaker performs on hard drive clone.

Before you do: Connect a hard drive to your computer for hard drive clone. Make sure it can be formatted because the cloning process will format all parititons on it. Otherwise, transfer important files to a safe location in advance.

Step 1. Choose a computer to manage.

After installing and launching Minitool ShadowMaker, you will be asked to choose a computer to manage. Usually, we choose This Computer unless we are doing remote control.

Step 2. Find Clone Disk function under Tools.

When you see the main interface, navigate to Tools and select Clone Disk function.

Step 3. Select source disk and target disk.

Click the two disk icons to select the source disk and the target disk. Please note that data on the target disk will be destroyed, so it is also very important to have a backup of the data on the target drive. Then click Yes to confirm the clone.

Clone Hdd To Ssd Minitool

Step 4. Wait until the copy process is finished.

After your confirmation, MiniTool ShadowMaker will start the cloning process. Please wait patiently until it finishes.

When it has finished the cloning, it will give you the following message (image attached). This means that you get two exact same drives. So you had better disconnect one in case that any mistake can happen. If both hard drives are connected to your PC, one of them will be marked as Offline by Windows. Our suggestion is to shut down PC and disconnect the drive you don't need.

This post offers the best free Windows 10 image backup software to back up Windows 10 OS with ease to a USB drive, external drive, NAS, etc.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation is commonly referred to as Western Digital and is often abbreviated as WDC or WD. Western Digital is an American computer data storage company and one of the largest computer hard disk drive manufacturers in the world, along with Seagate Technology.

Hard Drives of WD

By now Western Digital has produced a series of hard drives, and these drive names are based on colors that signify the characteristics of the drive:

• Green drives (have been discontinued) were energy efficient, with slightly slower performance.
• Blue drives offer average performance and are most suitable for home use.
• Black drives are cost-effective and offer high performance.
• Red drives are designed for 7*24 NAS use, with great compatibility.
• Purple drives are designed for 7*24 surveillance data storage.
• Gold drives are designed for datacenter use.

Advantages of WD Hard Drives

Remember what we say at the beginning? 'Numerous of users are using WD hard drives as their storage devices, and many users want to upgrade their hard drives to WD hard drives.' Why do we say this? According to users' feedback, WD hard drives can keep years of good working, with lower temperature and lower noise. Besides, it is not so expensive compared with other manufactures'. In a word, WD hard drives bring high price-performance ratio to users. In this aspect, hard drive cloning software is useful for WD cloning.

Summary

Here comes to the end of this post. Reading here, I guess you know how to use the best free WD cloning software to clone hard drives when there is a necessity. Hope the two programs are helpful to you. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to use MiniTool software to clone WD hard drive, let us know by typing your questions in the comment section below. Or you can contact us via [email protected]. All ideas are welcome.