Data transfer happens frequently in our daily life. To release space on C drive, you may transfer files from C drive to D drive or other drives. To upgrade desktop or laptop hard disk, you may transfer data from the old disk to the new disk. Data transfer is also performed between different devices.

The most common way used by us to transfer data is “copy” and “paste”. The operation is simple but it has some limitations. For example, it would be a heavy work if you have a large number of files to be transferred, especially when the files are stored in different locations. Besides, it does no help if you want to transfer OS and applications.

Fortunately, there is another way which can help you transfer the operating system, applications as well as personal files. That is “clone”. As “clone” is a missing feature in Windows, a third-party program is needed. The best free disk clone software - AOMEI Backupper can give you a hand.

Overview of AOMEI Backupper

AOMEI Backupper, embedded with the latest clone technology, makes it easy to transfer all data from one place to another place. Here is a list of its main features:

• Disk Clone: you are allowed to copy the entire disk to another disk, such as clone HDD to SSD or clone SSD to larger SSD.
• Partition Clone: you are able to copy a particular partition on a disk to another partition on the same disk or a different disk.
• SSD Alignment: it will help to optimize SSD performance if you are cloning to an SSD.
• Sector by sector clone: it will clone every sector on the source disk/partition to the destination disk/partition no matter whether the sector is used or not.

How to clone a hard drive to an SSD?

If you are planning to replace your PC hard drive with an SSD to speed up your PC, you can follow the steps below to transfer OS, applications and all your files from the current hard disk to the new SSD. In this way, you can save a lot of time and efforts because you don’t need to reinstall the operating system and all your frequently-used applications.

Step 1. Connect the target SSD to your computer and ensure it is detected. Download, install, and run the free cloning software on your computer.

Step 2. Select “Clone” from the left side and click on “Disk Clone”.

Step 3. Choose the original hard drive as the source disk and click “Next” to continue.

Step 4. Choose the SSD you just connected to your computer as the destination disk, and then click “Next”.

Step 5. Tick the checkbox before “SSD Alignment” to increase the read-write speed of the destination SSD. At last, click on the “Start Clone” button to begin the cloning process.

Step 6. After the cloning process is complete, you can change boot order in BIOS or replace the old hard drive with the cloned SSD to boot from it.

Conclusion

The copy & paste method is useful for transferring files like documents, photos, and videos. However, it turns out to be useless when it comes to transferring OS and applications. The free cloning software - AOMEI Backupper can make up the shortfall. It works perfect in transferring all data from one location to another location.

What’s more, it adopts the VSS (volume shadow copy) service, so you can continue using your computer when the cloning operation is in progress. If you are in need of upgrading a smaller drive to a larger drive or replacing an HDD with an SSD, then give AOMEI Backupper a try.