
If you're having problems seeing your drive, make sure you check out our troubleshooting guide on how to fix an external hard drive that won't show up. You can find out how to install and connect your drive using the manufacturer's instructions. The first step is to ensure you have your new disk or drive installed in or connected to your computer. Read on for detailed instructions regarding each step.ġ. This article describes a feature in Macrium Reflect to log files. This can cause Incremental or Differential images to be substantially larger than expected. Ensure the new drive is installed in or connected to your computer Macrium Software - the creators of Macrium Reflect backup, imaging and cloning software.īut if you're only cloning a single drive one time, it's probably better to go with the free option, right? How to clone a hard drive on Windows This app offers all the basic functionality you'll need if your goal is to simply clone one hard drive to another, though there are a number of paid apps with more advanced features such as quicker cloning speeds, including O&O DiskImage (opens in new tab) and Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office (opens in new tab). Plus, DiskImage now offers a recovery partition so you can quickly get back up and running in the event of a Windows crash without needing a USB stick at all.The software we would recommend using when cloning drives is Macrium Reflect Free (opens in new tab), which, as its name suggests, doesn't cost a cent. This also comes in useful in rebooting the system if you have the misfortune of a disk crash. The DiskImage To Go feature will automatically create a boot image on a specified external drive whenever you connect it to your PC. And, as you would expect, it supports Windows 10, SSDs and UEFI systems. When it comes to cloning, DiskImage isn’t difficult to use: you pick the source and destination drives (carefully) and then click the Start Cloning button. If you wanted to upgrade to Windows 11 with the security of going back to Windows 10 whenever you like, it’s a definite bonus.

One of the new features is the ability to convert DiskImage files to Microsoft’s Virtual Hard Disc files. It also offers lots of backup tools – from a single file to an entire hard drive – and is designed as much for those wanting to keep an up-to-date backup of their hard drive as those who want to clone an old drive to a new one as a one-off. It’s reasonably priced, despite the fact that cloning isn’t all it can do.
