No one would know when the hard drive fails and they lose their data. To avoid this situation, you must create a backup of the hard drive. That’s when cloning the hard drive comes into the picture. By using a hard drive cloning software and making an exact duplicate of the disk, you can create a complete copy of the drive.
A cloning software keeps all your system or any software data in place, to avoid re-installing any of that all over again. So, if you end up losing any premium game keys, licenses, or software, a cloning software can be specifically helpful. However, if a paid software is out of your budget, there are plenty of free disk cloning software that is equally powerful.
Here we have listed some of the best free hard drive cloning software that works with Windows 10 and earlier versions.
Quick Overivew
Hard Disk Manager 16
A Paragon Software Group product, Hard Disk Manager 16, is a versatile software that maintains and manages your data while keeping it safe. It comes loaded with approx 30 really cool data management technologies that include:
- Partition Manager
- Disk copying
- Flexible recovery options
- Boot correction
and more.
Features:
- It comes with a responsive user interface.
- Offers complete backup plans that help you save time and effort.
- It allows you to recover previous versions of data file copies from archives.
- Quick and safe relocation of the single partitions of Windows OS or the complete disks to new storage devices.
- Repairs the majority of the boot related problems in a matter of minutes.
- Permanently removes data from any type of storage media.
- It allows you to denote backup jobs based on a scenario.
- Redesigned Express view for advance access to wizards.
- The option of direct command on partitioning.
- It allows you to backup complete data on PC in just a couple of clicks.
- Recovers many objects at a time.
Interesting Fact:
It comes with a redesigned wizard for more scenarios to be covered like backup and recovery, partition management, disk wiping, and drive copying.
Get it here: https://www.paragon-software.com/hard-disk-manager-version-16/
Price: Free version available; upgraded version priced at $79.95
Clonezilla
Clonezilla is another great hard drive cloning free software that offers backup and recovery. It’s available in three different variants:
- Clonezilla live
- Clonezilla lite server
- Clonezilla SE (server edition)
The program saves and recovers only those blocks in the hard disk that are used thereby, increasing the clone efficacy.
Features:
- Supports many different file systems in the categories of ext, FAT, NTFS, HFS+, UFS, Minix, and VMWare ESX.
- Provides support for LVM2, and also supports MBR and GPT partition formats.
- It offers the option to reinstall the Boot loader that includes grub and sys linux.
- Supports unattended mode where all the steps can be performed using commands and options.
- Supports the restoration of one image to different local devices.
- Option to encrypt images using encrypts.
- Provides support for massive cloning using the features Multicast.
- Lite server version supports Bittorrent that helps with mass cloning.
Interesting Fact:
Offers the option to automatically change the hostname, group, and SID of the cloned computer using another free software hosted by Clonezilla, drbl-winroll.
Get it here: http://www.clonezilla.org/
Price: Freeware
EaseUS Todo Backup
This popular backup and recovery solution is also known for its seamless cloning feature. It effortlessly clones a smaller HDD to a larger one while you are upgrading disk. It can also clone the HDD to SSD for improved performance.
Features:
- Easy to use and offers complete system backup.
- It covers all your requirements while offering a trusted way for disk upgrade, hard drive backup, and data transfer.
- Allows you to clone HDD to SSD, MBR to GPT disk and GPT disk to MBR.
- Option to clone from a previous hard disk to a new one.
- Lets you clone from a compact-sized disk to a large-sized disk.
- It allows you to clone single partition or multiple partitions as against the entire disk to help save time and loss of data.
Interesting Fact:
It helps you to perform a sector by sector cloning making sure that the destination hard disk or partition is identical to the source hard disk or partition.
Get it here: https://www.easeus.com/backup-utility/free-disk-cloning-software.html
Price: Free version available; pro version starts from $29.95
You may use free disk defragmenter software to keep the hard-drive in a healthy condition.
Minitool Partition Wizard Free
Minitool Partition Wizard is a complete partition manager available for free. From measuring the drive performance or analyzing the disk space consumption to cloning the hard disk, it offers all-round performance for the users. It allows you to clone a drive that could be from the computer and the data disk to a smaller SSD.
Features:
- Clones HDD to smaller SSD using the ShadowMaker.
- Offers Clone Disk that allows you to transfer the complete data disk to the HDD or SSD.
- Clones larger-sized HDD to smaller SSD using partition wizard.
- It can also work as a chunk of hard drive cloning software.
Interesting Fact:
Apart from the basic features like Copy Disk and ShadowMaker, this tool also offers an added feature that helps you to shift the Operating System required partition from HDD to SSD.
Get it here: https://www.partitionwizard.com/clone-disk/
Price: Free version available; pro version priced at $99
Drive Image XML
Another one from the best free hard drive cloning software, Drive Image XML enables you to create a clone of your hard drive and even backs up the drives and partitions of the system, efficiently.
Features:
- It allows you to create a backup of images and even restore to the same or different drives.
- Option to schedule automatic backups to ensure that all your existing data is backed up.
- Easy to use and trusted software that helps you to create backup and clones for drives and partitions, fast.
- It uses VSS (Volume Shadow Services) by Microsoft to create clones that help you to make, safe hot images even the drive which is still in use.
- Stores the cloned copies in XML files to be processed with 3rd party tools.
Interesting Fact:
Available in two editions, private and commercial, the latter is being used companies where they can install the software on a customer’s system.
Get it here: https://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
Price: Free download available
Macrium Reflect
Whether you need to clone your hard drive for personal reasons or for business use, Macrium Reflect is undoubtedly a great choice. It’s also known for its capabilities in disk imaging and backup which is available in the free version, and also in the trial editions.
Features:
- The free and the trial versions allow you to test the features available in the upgraded version.
- Protects data, upgrades hard disk and allows you to try new operating systems securely.
- Saves the data safely in a conveniently restored backup file.
- Provides support for local backup, and backup to USB and network drives.
- Instantly virtualizes the backup images.
- It offers a fresh rescue media builder that comes with Windows RE along with WiFi support.
Interesting Fact:
It allows you to include security features like backup-encryption and protection from ransomware.
Get it here: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Price: Free edition available; upgrade starts from $69.95
Runtime Live CD
It’s a Linux based bootable live system that comes equipped with automatic hardware detection. It comes ready-to-use with all the required data recovery tools already installed.
Features:
- Enhances the majority of the desktops into a complete Linux based environment with access to lots of tools to help clone hard drives and backup data.
- It supports several network adapters, graphics cards, USB devices, hard disk controllers, and more.
Interesting Fact:
The Runtime Live CD needs to be burnt into a bootable USB drive and boot the computer from which you want to clone. To achieve this, there must be a driver available that would work as the target, and which must be mapped from inside the Live CD.
Get it here: https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-live-cd.htm
Price: Free version available; pro version starts from $49
PING
If you are looking for a reliable tool to take care of cloning hard drive along with backup and restoration of entire partitions, then PING is definitely a good choice. It’s an LFS (Linux From Scratch) based live Linux ISO that can be burnt on a CD and booted. It can also be unified into a PXE or TFTP environment.
Features:
- It helps save the system with its super Linux toolbox.
- It allows you to backup and recover partitions or files locally, or to the network.
- Lets you backup BIOS data also.
- Option to clean the local admin’s password.
- Facility to create custom restoration bootable DVD.
Interesting Fact:
It allows you to format and create partitions on a disk before installing Windows.
Get it here: https://ping.windowsdream.com/
Price: Free
It is always recommended to keep free backup software so that you won’t lose your precious data in case of a hard-drive crash.
AOMEI Backupper
AOMEI Backupper is known to provide support for the system, partition/volume, disk as well as file/folder backup and restore. In addition, it’s also known for cloning disks, system, and partitions.
Features:
- Clones HDD to SSD, SSD to SSD, and HDD to HDD when upgrading disk or shifting data.
- Protects data and saves the system from disaster recovery.
- Offers four different types of backups such as Automatic, incremental, full backup and differential backup making the entire backup process effortless.
- Ability to create a WinPE or Linux based bootable drive for computers that are unbootable.
Interesting Fact:
While it syncs files and folders from source to target in real-time, it can also delete backup images automatically from previous dates that help save back data space.
Get it here: https://www.ubackup.com/help/disk-clone.html
Price: Free version available; pro version starts from $49.95
Rene.E Laboratory
Rene.E Laboratory is a data management software that offers a plethora of services such as, hard drive cloning, data recovery, data encryption, video edit, PDF converts, and much more. This free disk cloning software helps you restore and clone partitions, effortlessly.
Features:
- It offers high-speed cloning at 5GB per minute.
- Provides support for Microsoft’s new Volume Shadow Copy technology that carries out the cloning process even in your absence.
- Supports cloning of Windows computer to a smaller-sized SSD.
- Clones even larger hard disks that include MBR, GPT, and also 2TB+ hard disk.
- The entire cloning process is completed in just three clicks.
- Facilitates automatic activation and migration.
Interesting Fact:
It also provides support for adding new partition using the free space during the cloning of HDD. It also allows you to migrate the entire system to SSD in just three steps. Moreover, it protects your data from getting lost due to any unforeseen system break down.
Get it here: https://www.reneelab.com/
Price: Free version available
Conclusion
Whether you want to set up a backup drive or you simply want to upgrade your hard drive, a hard drive cloning software can be of great help.
