I would like to know: Which materials and/or software do I need to clone a hard drive that contains Win10 as OS and some installed programs?
Thank you!
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If you got your Windows 10 licence by upgrading your old Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 to Windows 10, your Windows 10 licence is bound to the hardware of your specific computer on which you performed the upgrade. Cloning your Windows 10 onto another hard drive and put it into another computer probably will not work.– daniel.heydebreckDec 15, 2015 at 22:47
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Asking for programs is off limits on Superuser and may get this question closed. However I won't vote to close because that's not the basis of the answer.– XavierjazzDec 16, 2015 at 3:33
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3 Answers
You cannot clone a harddrive to another harddrive if the second one is not in the same computer.
That gives you two options.
1. Move the harddrive
You'll have to open the second computer, take out the harddrive, install it in the first, and clone the drive. (this is the preferred method to use)
2. Backup/restore to/from an image.
Backup the hardrive to an image, then transport that image or make it otherwise available to the other computer (for example through a network or external harddrive) and then restore that image to the harddrive on the other computer.
The reason why method 1 is preferred, is because it is faster to do (backup and restore are 2 actions, cloning is one so just that takes twice the time, and transporting the image can also take some time depending on how you make the backup.
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In many cases your cloned system will not work on the other PC because there are differences in the hardware/drivers.– whsDec 15, 2015 at 22:44
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@whs it really depends on what OS you use. Windows 7 and up will work fine. They'll find the new hardware and install it. At my previous job, we did it a lot and it works very well.– LPChipDec 15, 2015 at 23:16
You will need a bootable disk with an OS, and (for easier copies anyway) to ensure both disks are installed and can be identified and appropriate cloning software.
You get a lot of linux disyros ehich can do this - As linux comes with A “dd” program which can make bit copies. If your old drolive is failing or you need a progress indicator get a rescue distro which includes ddrescue.
If you can get a Windows system to boot off a different drive/usb, Somehing like Norton Ghost would do it.
You can easily clone with a HDD duplicator that doesn't even need a PC. Something cheap like this will work if you're not in a hurry and only need to do it once: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1DS3CG5700&cm_re=hdd_duplicator--9SIA1DS3CG5700--Product
If you need to do it often like I do, then you'll want something more like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817707370&cm_re=hdd_duplicator--17-707-370--Product
It's a lot faster and has more features.
