Programs to clone hard drives They are basically the easiest way in this universe to make an exact copy of your hard drive/ SSD creating a 100% identical and uncompressed replica.
However, don't confuse cloning software with disk imaging software. Cloning software keeps all your installed system data/software intact, so you won't have to reinstall all of that when you do the reinstallation.
This feature is especially useful if you have lost software keys, game keys, or licenses. As far as backup software goes, disk cloning is quite similar to disk imaging, as both will copy the contents of your hard drive to a disk image. hardware, but they do it in a different way.
The 7 Best Programs to Clone Hard Drives.
When it comes to ease of use, you need to consider the “noob factor” – the simpler the “cloning procedure” the better, especially if you are not very tech-savvy.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the best cloning software currently available in no particular order.
1. Clonezilla.
Clonezilla It is the best cloning software, and the best thing ever invented in the backup software niche, due to the fact that it is absolutely free, which makes it very popular.
This free and open source cloning software also allows disk imaging and is incredibly light on resources. There are two versions of the software available:
Clonezilla Live, which is aimed at home users and works very well on a single computer, and the SE version business-oriented, which can clone software on more than forty machines simultaneously.
Speaking of great speed, there are users reporting restore rates of 8GB/min, which is quite impressive. Clonezilla supports multiple file systems, GPT/MBR partition formats and can clone multiple hard drives. OS, including Minix, NetBSD, and Chromium.
If you are already familiar with Debian / Linux, you will love this venerable cloning software.
Download it from their WebSite
2. Acronis Disk Director.
Acronis Disk Director is a high-quality piece of software, but it comes with a big caveat - it's a one-time-only kind of deal. WindowsIf you can live with that, Acronis becomes an impressive disk cloning suite.
You can do, among other interesting things, forma tear, create or label partitions, resize, split and merge volumes, including disk recovery.
It can format your disks in basically any format known to man, including FAT32 / two, NTFS, Ext3, Exts, Linux, Reiser3 or SWAP.
All versions of Windows from the "current era" are supported, starting from Windows XP and ending with the malware currently known as Windows 10.
Unfortunately, there is no support for the Linux or Apple ecosystems. Unlike Clonezilla, Acronis will cost you almost fifty dollars for a single PC license, or $80 for 3 machines.
For corporate environments, there is the workstation license with a retail price of $80, which includes free updates and 1 year of technical support.
Download it from their WebSite
3. Paragon Drive Copy.
If you are looking for good cloning software, one of the best is Paragon Drive CopyIt is an excellent cloning tool that is actually a small part of Paragon's full suite of disk management utilities, namely Hard Disk Manager.
However, if you only want to clone your drive, you'll end up saving money in the process by purchasing Drive Copy alone instead of the entire suite. Using Drive Copy allows you to clone the entire drive or just a partition if you're inclined, which is a very nice feature.
It also gives you the ability to create a virtual clone of your operating system, which can run independently on a different PC.
There is also a recovery media generator included in the cloning software package that allows you to create a recovery operating system that can be used to boot an unbootable machine, for example.
The bad news is that a single PC license will cost you almost $40, so we consider it expensive for home users.
Download it from their WebSite
4. Minitool Partition Wizard.
CyberLink Wizard This is yet another example of a free market solution offering free cloning software to home users, proving once again that not everything good needs to be paid for.
There is also a paid version, Minitool Partition Wizard Pro respectively, which comes with many more features, but the free version does its job very well.
Obviously, since we are talking about disk cloning software, you can clone an entire disk, but on top of that, you get some additional extras.
To begin with, Minitool Partition Wizard Free is a powerful partition manager, which helps you manage partition/disk, align SSD partition, check file system, convert MBR to GPT, and first of all, migrate your OS to another HDD or SSD and/or clone a whole disk.
If you are a Windows home user, Minitool Partition Wizard Free is a great choice as the software supports Windows 10, Windows 8.1/8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP, as well as HDD, SSD, SSHD, external HDD, flash drive. USB, SD card, hardware RAID and dynamic disk.
Download it from their WebSite
5. Macrium Reflect.
Macrium Reflect is a very popular cloning solution for both personal (especially the free version) and commercial/enterprise use.
In addition to cloning, Macrium Reflect It also offers free disk imaging and backup in the free edition for home users, as well as thirty-day trial editions that let you try out all the cool features available in the commercial version.
Essentially speaking, Macrium Reflect is a high-quality and very easy-to-use direct disk cloning software, and the free license also covers commercial use, which is awesome for small businesses.
You can completely restore systems without Boot with the free version, as well as schedule backups or create live images of your operating system.
Additionally, you can add security features like backup encryption and ransomware protection, but that would cost you extra. And if you're wondering about file systems, Macrium Reflect supports FAT 16/12/32, exFAT, NTFS, HFS+, and ReFS.
Download it from their WebSite
6. Daemon Tools.
Daemon Tools Lite is a very popular disk emulation software, whose main purpose is to help you create virtual drives on your PC.
Regarding our topic, daemon Tools It's not exactly a cloning software, but it can work just as well, as it allows you to emulate up to 4 DT+SCSI+HDD devices, and also allows you to mount virtually all types of images.
Since we are talking about cloning software here, arguably the best feature of Daemon Tools Lite is the virtual hard disk, which creates a VHD (virtual hard disk) backup of a physical hard disk partition, helping you keep your files safe.
Additionally, you can create a bootable image of your operating system and load it onto a bootable USB drive, which can be password protected. On top of that, you get an iSCSI initiator feature, which gives you access to remote images (virtual and physical drives, including VHDs).
Download it from their WebSite
7. EaseUs Todo Backup.
EaseUs All Backup It is designed to be primarily a backup software solution, however the free version also comes with a drive cloning option, which is nice to have in a free software package.
And the best part is that, despite the fact that it's free, disk cloning comes with no strings attached. In addition to being free, Todo Backup comes with full Windows OS support, from the venerable XP version all the way to Windows 10, as well as hardware RAID, UEFI boot, and basically all kinds of SSDs and HDDs.
The only drawback is that the free version doesn't allow you to clone a larger disk to a smaller one, but if you really need to, you can always get EaseUs Partition Master Pro.
Resuming, EaseUs Todo Backup It really delivers in the cloning software department, as the free version offers all the cool features (more than most actually), disk cloning, system cloning, and partition cloning.
Download it from their WebSite
What is the Best Program for Cloning Hard Drives?
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Without a doubt, the best hard drive cloning software is Clonezilla. The others reviewed here are very good and offer great competition, and you will even get some better features and functions from them, but overall, Clonezilla is the gold standard.
My name is Javier Chirinos and I am passionate about technology. Ever since I can remember, I have been interested in computers and video games, and that passion has turned into a job.
I have been publishing about technology and gadgets on the Internet for over 15 years, especially in mundobytes.com
I am also an expert in online marketing and communication and have knowledge in WordPress development.