Best programs to clone hard drive. An exhaustive guide on the most popular software to clone hard drives.
There are several reasons why you might want to clone a hard drive, but the main one is probably for creating a backup.
Cloning a hard drive allows you to make a complete and faithful copy of it, so that in case the original hard drive fails, you can replace it with the clone. This avoids the need to completely reinstall system software and copy all data, allowing you to continue working much faster.
A backup drive can be configured and cloned within the existing PC chassis or you can configure it as an external drive to allow you to archive it as needed.
It can also be useful when you are simply looking to upgrade your hard drive, such as one with a larger capacity, or to a completely different type such as from a mechanical hard drive to a solid state drive (SSD).
However, regular backups require an application that is reliable and likely to maintain data integrity without leaving gaps.
Index
Best programs to clone hard drive
So here is the best you can find on the market for hard drive cloning software.
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Acronis Disk Director
Una suite per clonare hard disk Windows.
For
- Range of supported services
- Multiple disc formats
Cons
- Limited demo
Acronis Disk Director is a software that offers not only disk cloning functions, but also a complete suite for disk management, including partition creation, formatting and labeling, splitting, resizing and merging volumes, as well as volume recovery. Disks can also be formatted in virtually any format, including FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, exts, Ext3, Reiser3, Linux e SWAP. It supports all versions of Windows from Windows XP up to the latest version of Windows 10, but does not support the operating system Apple e Linux.
A demo is available, but it is limited as it only works with a disk volume size of less than 100MB which is really small to do anything serious. The full version is available at a one-time cost of $ 39,99 for a single PC license, or the best deal is $ 63,99 to cover three PCs.
Clonezilla
The free disk imaging and cloning software.
Cons
- Freeware
- Clone image or partition
- It can be launched from USB or CD
Cons
- Non-intuitive interface
Clonezilla is a historical freeware program that provides reliable service at very low cost.
By showing its Debian Linux roots, Clonezilla can be run from a Clonezilla Live CD and in addition to disk cloning, it offers additional features, including disk imaging and disk partitioning functions.
If you can get past the cumbersome interface you will be able to enjoy quite a lot of functionality at no cost.
EaseUS Todo Backup
An HD cloning program that offers more features than the others.
For
- Interface
- Range of cloning options
- The free tier has a lot of features
- Free trials for paid plans
Cons
- No continuous backups
EaseUS Todo Backup is a disk cloning program, which offers a wide range of services even at a free level. It offers a wide range of cloning tasks, including system cloning, hard drive cloning, and partition cloning. It also has a number of backup modes, including full, scheduled and incremental backups.
There is also a level Home which adds email notifications, off-site copies and file exclusions. This level can also backup and restore Outlook. The Home tier is available for a single user license at a cost of $ 29,95 for one year.
For business users, there is the main option of the Workstation level. This adds to all of the above features, command line backup, central management via the Backup Center, and a license that covers enterprise usage. The Business tier costs $ 39 for a single user license.
Macrium Reflect
The free cloning software for home and office.
For
- The free license covers business use
- Encryption option
Cons
- The paid product is not cheap
Macrium Reflect supports the essential task of direct disk cloning. The free tier grants support for restoring non-bootable systems, backup scheduling with flexible templates, and creating live images of a running Windows operating system. Notably, unlike most other free licenses, the free edition is licensed for home and business use.
The Home tier adds the option to encrypt backups, create incremental backups, and ransomware protection for $ 69,95. There is also a Workstation tier which has the additional functionality of event logging in Windows and central management through Macrium Site Manager priced at $ 75 per PC, with volume discounts available.
Paragon Drive Copy Professional
The professional-grade cloning software with advanced features.
For
- Resize partitions
- Clone practically on a USB drive
Cons
- Expensive
Paragon Drive Copy Professional covers the full range of disk functions, including disk cloning of the entire drive, and advanced tasks such as partition cloning. It is able to resize partition while copying or copy one hard drive to another with a different sector size.
It also has some additional and interesting features, such as the ability to create a virtual clone of the PC on a USB drive, which can then be carried out portably from another PC or the creation of recovery media to be able to boot a non-PC. bootable with the included Recovery Media Builder 3.0.
The program can be downloaded for a PC at a cost of € 62,95.
Perfect for cloning large disk.
For
- Free to use
- Clone on SSD
- Copy boot records
Cons
- -
AOMEI Backupper is a utility capable of cloning HDD which can be downloaded and used for free. A key feature of the software is the ability to clone a large disk to a smaller SSD.
Sectors and partitions are copied along with key files such as boot.ini, NTLDR, BCD, winload.exe and MBR. There is also an intelligent cloning option, which copies only to the used space on the hard drive.
The whole process ends with a complete hard drive copy and does not require Windows to be reinstalled when copying the clone to a new hard drive.
Although the software is Freeware, there is no adware bundled with the software. Instead, there's a paid version available from $ 49,95 for a 2-PC license.
