Carbon Copy Cloner. Platform: Mac OS X Price: Free $40 Download Page Features. Create an exact clone of any disk; Create a bootable backup of your Mac OS X boot drive; Easily migrate files from. Dec 17, 2020 In a word, for frequent backup issue, imaging software is better; for hard drive upgrading issue, free hard drive cloning software should be given the priority. Summary In this post, I mainly tell why you need to clone hard drive, which tool is best for hard drive clone, how to use it to clone hard drive, the differences between cloning.

• Free Hard Drive Cloning Software
• Buy Mac Hard Drive
• Clone Mac Disk

Cloning a hard drive is easier than you might expect. Follow to see how to easily clone a hard drive and transfer everything to a new hard drive or SSD with ease.

Case: Can I Clone My Hard Drive Including Operating System?

'Does cloning a hard drive copy the OS? My computer hard disk is nearly full and one of my friends told me that I can upgrade the old disk to a new drive by using reliable hard disk cloning software.

I plan to buy a new hard drive so as to clone the old disk to the new drive. But can I clone my hard drive including the operating system?'

According to most normal Windows and Mac users, they don't know that they can upgrade their computer hard drive when it grows old or out of disk space to a bigger one. Some of you may have heard of this but don't know how to execute the disk cloning operation on your own without losing data and OS, right?

In the following, we'll show you the whole process of how to clone a hard drive to a new or a bigger hard drive/SSD with step by step guide. Check out and learn how to upgrade your computer disk on Windows and Mac with ease now.

Overview of Cloning a Hard Drive

In this part, you will learn:

• 1. What does cloning a hard drive mean?
• 2. When do you need to clone a hard drive?

Cloning a hard drive is a process that allows you to copy all the content on a disk, including original data, operating system, and all boot files that the OS needs to boot up and run, to another equal-sized or bigger hard drive or SSD. Unlike backing up files, cloning a drive is to create an exact copy of your entire disk with the OS included.

When Do You Need to Clone a Hard Drive

So when do you consider to or when should you clone a hard drive to a new one? You may need to clone hard drive in many situations as listed below:

• The old disk is out of space - Upgrade hard drive to larger hard disk
• The computer is getting old and slow - Upgrade hard drive to a newer disk
• To transfer the whole contents of your hard drive
• Can't migrate OS by copying and pasting Windows files to a new hard drive
• To protect data from virus or malware infection - Create a full backup of disk data

So how to clone or upgrade hard drive safely and successfully? Follow the introductions as shown below, you'll get reliable disk clone software and a complete guide to clone one hard drive to another disk on your own.

Preparations for Cloning Hard Drive

Before you start cloning hard disk, here are some preparation jobs that need to be done in advance:

#1. Make Hard Drive Ready

• Get a second drive with sufficient capacity. To get a smooth disk cloning process, the second drive needs to be equal to or even share a bigger capacity than your current hard drive.
• Connect the new drive to PC. If your computer has only one disk slot, connect it correctly to your PC via a SATA-to-USB connection cable. If your computer has a second slot, install the new drive to your PC.
• Initialize the new hdd/ssd. If you need to clone and upgrade the hard drive in Windows PC, initialize the new drive in Disk Management.

#2. Download Reliable Hard Drive Cloning Software

As the tools for disk cloning on Windows and Mac computers are different, you should also download and install the right disk cloning software based on your operating system.

- Best Windows Disk Cloning software, free download

As Windows doesn't have a built-in disk cloning tool, downloading a third-party disk clone software is necessary. Here, EaseUS Windows backup software with a powerful disk clone feature is recommended.

Free Hard Drive Cloning Software

It supports to clone and copy your entire hard drive to another disk in two levels: file-by-file copy & sector-by-sector copy.

- Best Mac Disk Copy Software Recommend

Unlike Windows, macOS contains a built-in tool - Disk Utility that works to 'clone' mac disk to a new hard drive for free. Besides, you can also try the Mac version of EaseUS backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup for Mac with its clone feature to help you upgrade a Mac disk with ease.

How to Clone a Hard Drive on Windows

Applies to: Clone hard drive to HDD/SSD in Windows 10/8/7/XP, and even Windows Server machines.

So how to clone your current computer hard drive to another disk using EaseUS Todo backup? It offers safe hard drive disk copy/clone solution to transfer your data on the old disk to a new one.

With it, you can back up the system such as clone system disk Windows 10 or image hard drive in case of computer crash or system failure. The whole process goes through two phrases:

Phrase 1 - Clone a Hard Drive

Video Tutorial: How to Clone and Upgrade Hard Drive on Windows 10/8/7

Detailed Steps to Clone a Hard Drive

If you prefer a step-by-step guide, refer to the steps below and learn how to clone hard drive with this hard drive clone software:

Step 1. Connect the new HDD to your computer. If the new hard drive is not an empty one, please make sure you have moved all data to a safe place because all data will be wiped while cloning.

Step 2. Run EaseUS Todo Backup and select Clone at the left tool panel

Step 3. Choose the source disk and target disk.

Step 4. Click Proceed to start cloning all data, including os, applications and files to the new hard drive.

Phrase 2- Make Cloned Hard Drive Bootable

When you finish the disk cloning process, remember to install your new hard drive to your computer. Then set computer to boot up from the new disk.

Here are the steps to make your cloned HDD/SSD bootable:

Step 1. Restart PC and press F2/F12/Del to enter BIOS.

Step 2. Go to the Boot menu, set the new disk as the first boot drive at the Boot Priority section.

Step 3. Save all the changes and restart PC.

Your computer will automatically boot up from the newly cloned disk.

How to Clone a Hard Drive on Mac

Applies to: Clone and upgrade Mac hard drive without bootable issue.

As we recommended above, you have two options to clone a Mac hard drive: 1. Using macOS Builit-in Tool - Disk Utility; 2. Turn to Mac Disk Cloning Software - EaseUS Todo Backup for Mac help.

Let's see how to clone your Mac hard drive to another hard drive or SSD now.

#1. Clean Mac Disk Before Cloning

To avoid cloning unnecessary gigabytes of junk files, duplicate data, broken items, useless programs to the new Mac drive, it's necessary that you clean the Mac disk in advance.

You can either manually delete files and uninstall useless applications on your Mac or turn to reliable Mac cleaning tools for help. You may refer to How to clean up Mac hard drive for a detailed guide.

#2. Clone and Upgrade Mac Hard Drive to SSD/HDD

Using Mac Disk Utility to Clone a Hard Drive:

Step 1. Connect your new hard drive or SSD to your computer as an external disk.

Step 2. Go to Applications > Utilities > Select 'Disk Utilities'.

Step 3. Click 'View' on Disk Utility and select 'Show All Devices' from the menu bar.

Step 4. On the left pane, select your target drive (the HDD displaying as 'external' currently) and click 'Restore'.

Note that Disk Utility refers to cloning as a 'restoring' action over a hard drive, which is actually the same thing.

Step 5. Click 'Restore' to confirm the cloning operation.

Step 6. Wait for the cloning process to complete and click 'Done' to finish the operation.

Using EaseUS Todo Backup for Mac to Clone Mac Hard Drive

Step 1. Connect the new hard drives to Mac and launch EaseUS Mac cloning software.

Step 2. In the From drop-down list, select the source disk you want to clone.

Step 3. In the To drop-down list, select the other hard drive as the destination disk.

Step 4. Set up the disk cloning properties. Here, you are allowed to exclude files or folders if necessary.

Step 5. Finally, click the Start button to execute the cloning operation.

Wait for the cloning process to finish.

#3. Make Cloned Hard Drive Boot on Mac

When you finish cloning the Mac hard drive, you are now at the last step which is to set Mac to boot from the new hard drive.

Step 1. Move the old hard drive out of your Mac computer.

Step 2. Put the newly cloned hard drive or SSD to your Mac and install it correctly.

Step 3. Reboot Mac by holding the Option key, go to System Preference.

Step 4. In the Startup Disk section, set the new disk as the boot volume.

After this, you can restart Mac and the computer will successfully boot up from the new disk by then.

To Sum Up

This page explained what is a disk cloning process and tells when you should consider cloning a hard drive. Besides, we also offered a comprehensive solution to help you successfully clone a hard drive in Windows and Mac with reliable disk cloning hard drives.

In order to guarantee a smooth disk cloning and upgrading process, it's also important for you to make the new hard drive or SSD ready in advance. Also, a reliable disk cloning tool like EaseUS Todo Backup also plays a vital role.

If you still have some questions on this issue, check answers in the FAQs section as listed below.

FAQs About Cloning Hard Drive

1. How Long Does It Take to Clone a Hard Drive

The time of cloning a hard drive highly depends on the used space of your original disk. Let's take a 500GB hard drive as an example.

Buy Mac Hard Drive

Normally, it would take one and half an hour to complete with a steady cloning speed at 100Mb/s. And if the speed is 50Mb/s. it would take about 3-4 hours.

If you turn to EaseUS Todo Backup for the disk cloning and upgrading operation, it would complete the operation within 1 hour.

2. Any Risks While Cloning a Hard Drive

Usually, cloning a hard drive doesn't contain many risks. It's highly secure and safe for both data and OS on your computer hard drive.

The only risk that you should be aware of is to let the cloning process complete. In a word, don't disturb the cloning once you start it.

Also, you should guarantee stable power supply to your computer and the hard drive.

3. How to Deal with the Old Disk after Cloning a Hard Drive

If you don't know how to deal with your old hard drive after replacing it with the new disk, here are some tips that you can follow:

1. Clean and wipe the hard drive, sell it.
2. Delete all partitions and repartition the hard drive as a secondary data drive.

Sep 08, 2021 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

Apple claims that its Mac OS is fully equipped to assist its users for day-to-day PC activities, and they seem to have proven the same over the years. Since Mac users save a lot of important data on it, it is necessary to keep all such information secure. Mac Disk Utility does exactly that with the help of its 'Restore' option. This function teaches you how to Clone a Mac's Drive with Disk Utility.

In this article, learn how to copy all the data and clone a Mac's Drive (internal/external) easily. Read and know more about Mac Disk Utility, its 'Restore' function, how to clone a Mac's Drive with Disk Utility, and a simple way torecover your Mac's Drive.

Part 1: Why You Need to Clone a Mac's Drive?

'What is the need to clone a Mac's Drive?' This thought must have crossed your mind atlas once while using Mac. To be precise, cloning of hard drives protects your important data which is under possible risk of physical destruction, loss, etc.

No matter how new or of what quality your hard drive is, you cannot say for sure that it will last forever and never crash or suffer from a system failure. Old hard drive or one suffering from mechanical, firmware, or electrical error can permanently destroy your data, such as photos, documents, videos, music, and other files. Also, if important personal documents and business files are misplaced in the process, retrieving them is next to impossible.

Therefore, to prevent these and many more situations that may arise due to data loss, we recommend that you always know how to Clone a Mac's Drive using Disk Utility. Mac Disk Utility and its 'Restore' functions can keep your data, important information, and files secure by literally copying it from your Mac Drive.

Difference Between Time Machine Backup and Cloning Hard Drive

If you're wondering whether to use Time Machine or Mac Disk Utility to clone a Mac's Drive, let us clear the confusion for you. Time Machine is a built-in application to back up and make an up-to-date copy of the data you save on the Mac. Its unique feature is that it makes real-time backups to recover files easily whenever needed. When set-up for the first time, Time Machine performs a full backup of the Mac and its contents. Time Machine keeps, hourly, daily and monthly backups all categorized separately.

If Time Machine can do so much, then why consider using Mac Disk Utility?

To start the discussion, Mac Disk Utility is free and also comes built-in with every Mac OS version. It has various new features that make it more suitable than the Time Machine. Say, for example, its 'Restore' option does something what is called block copy and make the entire cloning process swifter. It is also capable of making an almost cut to cut an exact copy of the contents of the Drive. No important files, documents, or data are left behind using Mac Disk Utility. It works in blocks and does not involve file to file transfer.

Some changes have been introduced in the Mac Disk Utility toolkit which makes more accurate cloning and copying data from the Drive.

Part 2: How to Clone Mac's Drive using Disk Utility?

Clone Mac Disk

Curious to know how to clone a Mac's Drive with Disk Utility? Follow these simple steps and you're good to go:

1. Open Mac Disk Utility on your Mac from Utilities or Applications.

1. Click 'Erase' from the top of the Disk Utility interface.
2. Now chose a media on the left panel to make it your backup drive.
3. At the drop-down list which has 'Format' options, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then hit 'Erase' again and wait for the drive to remount on Mac.
4. Then at the Mac Disk Utility interface, click 'Restore'.
5. Now comes the tricky bit. Select the target drive, drag it and drop it at the 'Source' field.
6. Now drag and drop the destination Disk/Drive and leave it at the 'Destination' field.
7. Hit 'Restore' once and for all. The contents of the drive will be copied and saved on the destination drive.

Part 3: How to Recover Mac's Drive Data?

What does one do if some data is lost during cloning the mac's Drive? Don't worry. The loss isn't permanent and the destroyed data can be recovered with the help ofRecoverit for Mac. It is a recovery tool for MacBook, iMac, Hard Drives, Flash Drives, Memory Cards, phones, cameras, and camcorders. It can instantly retrieve the lost contents from the Mac Drive and provide reliable data recovery solutions. It can recover documents, images, videos, audio files, emails and archives files.

The steps given below will help you use Recoverit for Mac to recover Mac's Drive:

1. Download, install and launch Recoverit hard drive recovery software. Now choose the target drive where the data gets lost, and click 'Start' to recover lost data.

1. And then the data recovery tool will set in motion an all-around scan to search the lost files.

1. Finally, you can preview the whole scanned results, select the ones which need to be restored, click 'Recover' as shown below, and save the recovered data in another drive/disk to keep it secure for future.

Conclusion

The bottom line, we have attempted to answer a commonly asked question on online forums, i.e., how to clone a Mac's Drive with Disk Utility. We hope you will find this red useful and now be able to clone your Mac's drive and keeps its contents safe.

Also, the Recoverit drive data recovery toolkit is a safe, effective, and trustworthy medium to retrieve your lost documents and file. So go ahead and follow the instructions in this guide to clone Mac's drive orrecover hard drive datadeleted accidentally during its process.

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