By
Lily
/ Last update
December 10, 2024
Can you clone a Windows 11 boot drive?
Many users ask if Windows 11 can be cloned? The answer is yes. You can use reliable cloning software to clone your Windows 11 installation drive to another HDD or SSD without having to reinstall it. What is the purpose of cloning a hard drive? Some common reasons are listed below:
👉Upgrading to a Larger or Faster Drive: Cloning allows you to transfer your system from an old or smaller drive to a larger or faster one (e.g., upgrading from an HDD to an SSD) without reinstalling OS, applications, or data.
👉Creating a Full Backup: Cloning a hard drive means creating a digital copy of the entire data on another hard drive. You can easily retrieve any lost data on the original disk through this backup.
👉Disaster Recovery: In case of system failure or a malware attack, having a cloned drive provides a quick recovery option. You can swap in the clone without the need to reinstall Windows or applications, saving time and reducing stress.
Before you clone hard drive in Windows 11
Before cloning Windows 11 to another drive, you need to do some preparations.
✔ Back up the data on the target drive (if any).
If your hard drive stores some files and useful programs, you'd better back up all the wanted data to a safe place because the clone function will erase all data on the target disk. If you have a brand new hard drive, you can skip this step.
✔ Check the hard drive capacity.
Make sure that the capacity of your hard drive is larger than the space used by the old disk. If your device has a lot of unwanted programs and files, try to optimize its space by deleting large useless files or unwanted programs.
✔ Download Windows 11 cloning software.
There is no software that can perform disk cloning on the computer's own system. You need to find a reliable cloning software that will help you transfer your data or operating system. AOMEI Backupper Professional is the most reliable Windows 11 cloning software. What can you do with this powerful software?
✪ Clone different storage devices: With its help, you can clone HDDs, SATA SSDs, NVMe M.2 SSDs, USB flash drives, and SD cards, etc.
✪ Three clone types: It enables you to perform Disk Clone, Partition Clone and System Clone according to different needs.
✪ Two clone methods: You can use the "Intelligent Clone" function to only clone the used part to another drive. It also allows you to use the "Sector-by-sector Clone" function to make a 1:1 copy of the hard drive.
✪ Supports different disk partition styles: It allows you to clone system disks from MBR to MBR, GPT to GPT, MBR to GPT or GPT to MBR.
Download AOMEI Backupper to have a try now!
Easiest hard drive clone software for Windows PC.
How to clone Windows 11 to SSD – beginners’ guide
Once the preparation is done, you can learn how to perform Windows 11 bootable clone by referring to the steps shown below.
Install and initialize new SSD
If the target SSD is a brand new disk, you need to initialize it and make sure that the target disk has the same partition style as the source disk. Learn how to install and initialize a new disk as follows:
1. Make sure your computer is fully powered off.
2. Unscrew and remove the side of the computer tower case to expose the internal hardware and wiring.
3. Connect a power cable to the SSD and attach a SATA connector.
4. Close your computer case and restart it.
5. After Windows 11 boots up, press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box, type diskmgmt.msc, and click OK to open Disk Management.
6. Right-click on the new SSD and select Initialize Disk. Choose the MBR or GPT partition style for SSD.
Note: In order to have better compatibility with Windows 11, it is recommended to choose GPT.
Way 1: Clone HDD to SSD in Windows 11
In this part, I will show you how to use the “Disk Clone” feature to clone HDD to SSD in Windows 11.
1. On the dark blue interface, click Clone -> Disk Clone.
2. Select the original hard drive containing Windows 11 as the source disk and click Next.
3. Select the target SSD you installed before as the destination disk and then click Next.
4. Preview all settings and check the SSD Alignment option to optimize the performance of this SSD. Then click Start Clone.
💜 Edit Partitions: You can adjust partition size of destination disk with this feature to fix the “cloned hard drive shows wrong size” issue. Also, you can use it to convert disk type if the destination disk’s partition style is different from the source disk’s.
Way 2: Move only Windows 11 to SSD
If you just want to migrate the OS to SSD, please use the “System Clone” function. System clone requires less disk space than disk clone.
1. Click Clone in the left panel of this program. Choose System Clone to clone only Windows 11 operating system to SSD.
2. It will automatically select the system drive and other boot-related drives. Select the target SSD as the destination disk and click Next to continue.
3. Confirm all your settings. Check SSD Alignment to improve the reading and writing speed of the target SSD. Then, click Start Clone to perform this operation.
After cloning Windows 11
After cloning your Windows 11 system, here are the steps to ensure everything works properly:
✅ Test Booting from the New Drive
1. Restart the computer and press F2/F10/Del key to enter BIOS.
2. Go to the Boot Menu, at the boot priority section, set the new SSD as the boot drive.
3. Press F10 to save all the changes and restart the computer.
Note: If your computer doesn’t boot as expected, please refer to this article: cloned SSD won't boot.
✅ Remove the Old Drive (Optional)
- Once you've confirmed that the new drive is working properly, you can either remove the old drive or keep it as a backup.
- If you're replacing the old drive entirely, ensure you securely wipe it if needed, especially if it contains sensitive information.
✅ Update Drivers and Software (If Needed)
Although cloning transfers everything, it’s a good idea to check for any driver updates or software patches that might be needed for the new hardware (e.g., the new drive or system configuration).
Summary
That’s all for performing a bootable clone on Windows 11 without losing any data. AOMEI Backupper offers you two ways to clone Windows 11. You can choose to clone the entire hard drive or only OS as per your need.
Actually, AOMEI Backupper is also the best Windows 11 backup software that can help you protect your system as well as the data. Therefore, you never have to worry about system crashes or any Windows 11 BSOD errors.
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