How to copy a hard disk in Windows 10 ?

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  1. Copy a hard disk
    1. We explain how to copy the contents of your old hard drive to a new one.
  2. Can you clone a hard drive under Windows 10?
  3. Using a docking station to duplicate a hard disk
  4. Clone a hard disk with software
    1. Tips for cloning your hard drive
  5. You may be interested:

Copy a hard disk

We explain how to copy the contents of your old hard drive to a new one.

If your PC is aging or subject to frequent breakdowns, we recommend that you copy your hard drive and make a full backup of your data and operating system.

hard disk in Windows 10

Photo Patrick Lindenberg at Unsplash

This way, if a major failure occurs, you will be protected against any loss.

If you want to replace your traditional hard disk drive (HDD) with a solid state drive (SSD) to enhance your PC and/or increase your storage space, then cloning a hard disk drive is a must.

In this tutorial, we explain the different techniques available to you, some of them are free, others are not.

Can you clone a hard drive under Windows 10?

Microsoft has never integrated tools to make an exact copy of a hard disk that includes the Windows operating system.

To copy an original hard disk, which includes Windows and hidden items such as the partition table, you need tools or software specific to the task.

Using a docking station to duplicate a hard disk

The simplest (but most expensive) option is to buy a docking station that copies

the hard drives. Simply insert your two disks (the original and the new one) and duplicate all your data.

At Amazon, you can find, for example, StarTech's SATDOCK2REU3 station (USB 3.0) for 80.60 euros. It accepts standard hard disks in 3.5 or 2.5 inch format with a SATA interface.

If you have an old IDE disk, you can get an adapter, such as StarTech's SAT2IDEADP, for 28.99 euros at RueduCommerce or 20.99 euros at Amazon France.

Note, however, that most of these stations only work if your new disk is the same (or greater) capacity as your old one.

This can be a problem if you want to upgrade to an SSD and increase your storage space.

Clone a hard disk with software

To clone the content of a hard disk without spending a lot of money, use software. There are free programs available, but you will quickly realize that they are limited, and that they will not do what you need, and you will end up paying for their full version.

Please note that you can also use the SSD upgrade kits. They come with a USB to SATA cable and a cloning program, which allows you to copy the hard disk of your notebook to the SSD.

If you are looking for a free cloning software, then the best one is Macrium Reflect7.

Alternatively, among the paid programs with more features, we suggest Acronis Disk Director 12 (the upgrade costs 29,95 euros and the purchase is 39,95 euros) or Paragon's Drive Copy 15 Professional (29,95 euros).

It takes care of the duplication of your data, the migration of your operating system, it also supports the copy to virtual machines, such as MS Hyper-V, so you can work with older software, incompatible with Windows 10.

Tips for cloning your hard drive

Each program we offer is supported by a wizard, which among other things allows you to select the source and destination drives, and clone the entire disk or just the partitions.

Some programs give you the option to include or not include files and folders in the cloning process. If you want your new hard drive to work like the old one, we strongly recommend that you copy all its contents.

Finally, if the software offers to check if the procedure has gone well, then we advise you to do so.

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