Clone External Hard Drive to Another External Hard Drive in an Easy Way

To clone an external hard drive to another on Windows 10 quickly, use the built-in tool "Windows Disk Image Backup" or third-party software like Acronis True Image, Qiling Backup, or Macrium Reflect. These tools can create a bit-for-bit copy of the source drive, including all files, folders, and operating system.

Your friend can use a cloning software like Acronis True Image or Qiling Backup, which can clone the entire 500 GB external hard drive to the 1 TB external hard drive in a much shorter time, likely under 30 minutes, depending on the computer's processing power and the drives' speeds. This method is much faster and more efficient than copying files individually using Ctrl C + Ctrl V.

What's the Fastest Way to Clone External Hard Drive

It's a good way to duplicate external hard drive for data transfer from one external hard drive to another, but it may take a lot of time if the files and installed programs on the external hard drive are too large.

The fastest way to clone an external hard drive to another external hard drive (HDD or SSD) is to use Qiling Disk Copy, a super-fast SSD/HDD raw copy tool that enables you to clone external hard drives on Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP with just a few clicks, regardless of whether you're cloning HDD to HDD, HDD to SSD, or SSD to SSD.

This cloning software enables you to clone a hard drive with bad sectors, clone a failing hard drive to a new HDD/SSD, and more.

How to Clone External Hard Drive to Another with Qiling Disk Copy

To start the process of cloning a drive, you'll first need to ensure that both drives are correctly connected to your computer and are recognized by the system. Once this is confirmed, you can begin the cloning process.

Preparations:

Connect the two external hard drives to your computer in advance. This will ensure they are recognized by the system and ready for use during the cloning process.
Download and install Qiling Disk Copy.

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Step 1. Download, install and run Qiling Disk Copy on your PC.

On Qiling Disk Copy, click "Disk/Partition clone" to start cloning.

Step 2. Select the external hard drive as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 3. Choose the other external hard drive as the destination.

To copy or clone a hard disk, the destination disk should be at least the same size or larger than the source disk.

Step 4. Edit the disk layout and then click "Proceed" to continue external hard drive cloning.

A message now appears, warning you that data will be lost. Please confirm this message by clicking "OK".

Conclusion

Qiling Disk Copy allows you to easily clone an external hard drive to another external hard drive, clone an internal boot hard drive to a new hard drive, or clone a hard drive in the WinPE environment. It also features a simple-to-use and powerful hard drive cloning software.

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Clone External Hard Drive FAQs

The following three questions are highly relevant to how to clone external hard drive, check the answers.

How to backup external hard drive to another external hard drive?

Detailed steps to clone external hard drive

1. In the main interface, you'll see two copy methods, and to clone a disk or partition, simply click on "Disk/Partition clone".

2. Connect your external hard drive to your computer and choose it as the source disk. Click on the Next icon.

3. Select your target external hard drive and click Next.

4. Edit the disk layout and then click Proceed to continue to clone external hard drive. After that, just wait for the process to finish.

Is it possible to clone a hard drive?

You can use a professional disk cloning software, such as Qiling Disk Copy, to clone a hard drive in a simple way, including cloning a failing hard drive in WinPE mode, in Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, XP, and Vista.

Also see how to clone HDD to SSD for Linux

How do I clone my entire hard drive?

Detailed steps to clone hard drive:

1. Launch Qiling disk cloning software and click "Clone". Select the source hard disk you want to clone.

2. Select the destination disk.

3. After cloning, you can preview the disk layout to ensure the cloned drive is identical to the original one. Once satisfied, you can click "Proceed" to complete the cloning process with just one click.

How do I mirror my hard drive to an external drive?

1. Right-click This PC/My Computer, click "Manage" and select "Disk Management".

2. Right-click the primary drive with data on it, and select "Add Mirror".

3. Choose the drive that will act as a duplicate.

4. Click Add Mirror.