Top 3 Best Cloning Software for HDD and SSD
Overview of Disk Cloning
Disk cloning software enables you to fully copy all the contents of one hard drive, including uneditable or unviewable system files to another disk. You may need to clone a hard drive for various purposes, for example:
- To recover lost/damaged data
- To upgrade a hard drive
- To save a failing drive
- To transfer system, applications, or a large amount of data onto a new computer, hard drive, or SSD
When you encounter any of these mentioned situations, you may want to find and download the best disk cloning software so that you can manage the job with the least time and effort. Here, in this article, we'll introduce you to the top three best cloning software in 2021 for HDD or SDD clone.
Top 1. Qiling Backup
Qiling Windows backup software is powerful in backup and recovery, copy and clone for laptops, PCs & workstation. With this tool, you can easily realize complete data protection by system/disk/file backup, disk/partition clone, and image recovery. This powerful and best disk cloning software has outstanding disk clone functions. It is very safe and easy, so there is no need to hesitate.
Key features:
- Copy HDD to SSD or clone SSD to larger SSD
- migrate OS to SSD, like clone Windows 10 OS to new SSD
- Make cloned OS, HDD/SSD bootable after cloning
- Support Cloning OS to a Portable External USB
- Automatically backup data as long as you set a backup schedule.
- Support PC/laptop, internal/external hard drive, USB drive, Micro card, Camcorder, and more
Price: $39
Supported OS: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP; Windows Server 2016/2012/2008/2003
Supported file system: FAT 12/16/32, exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, ext2/ext3, HFS+, ReFS
Step 1. Launch Qiling Backup and select the "Clone" feature from the list on the tool page.
Step 2. The current system partition and boot partition will be automatically selected and click "Next".
Step 3. Choose a destination disk, which can be another HDD/SSD or an external USB hard disk. Just be sure that the destination disk is larger than the source disk.
Step 4. Preview the disk layout, Tick the option "Optimize for SSD" under "Advanced options" when the destination disk is an SSD for improved results, and click "Proceed".
Top 2. Macrium Reflect
Macrium Reflect is a Windows backup utility developed by Paramount Software UK Ltd. It can create a backup image of partitions, disks, or individual files and folders. And you can use the backup image to restore the disk, partitions, or individual files and folders. It is mainly designed for business clients or enterprises with huge data to protect. As for its cloning features, it has the following features.
Key features:
- Clone an entire hard drive or specific partitions on a hard drive
- Boot the target disk on the same system after cloning
- Clone HDD or SSD to another HDD or SSD
- Rapid Delta Cloning increases cloning speed by copying file system deltas
Price: $69.95
Supported OS: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP
Supported file system: FAT 12/16/32, exFAT, NTFS, HFS+, ReFS
Top 3. Clonezilla
Clonezilla is a disk cloning, disk imaging, data recovery program. Three types of Clonezilla are available, Clonezilla live, Clonezilla lite server, and Clonezilla SE (server edition). Clonezilla live is suitable for a single device, while Clonezilla lite server or SE is for multiple device deployment, backup, and recovery.
Key features:
- It enables you to clone disk/partition to a separate hard drive
- The cloned data can be saved as an image file or as a duplicated copy of the data
- The clone file can then be used to restore the original
- Online imaging/cloning is not implemented yet
- The partition to be imaged or cloned has to be unmounted
Price: Free
Supported OS: Windows, Linux
Supported file system: FAT 12/16/32, ext2/3/4, NTFS, HFS+, UFS
Final Comparison
Qiling Backup VS Macrium Reflect
Both provide similar backup and cloning capabilities. However, Qiling Backup is compatible with nearly all the Windows PC, Windows Server, and macOS versions, while Macrium Reflect only supports Windows OS.
Qiling Backup VS Clonezilla
Qiling Backup is better in terms of clone functions and operational convenience. It's quite user-friendly with its graphical interface, but Clonezilla's developer screen is not suitable for ordinary users.
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