Although Macrium Reflect is a paid software, it also offers a free edition, which you can use when you’re replacing the hard drive (HDD) on your computer to a new Solid-State Drive (SSD), and you need to migrate your current installation with all your settings, apps, and files without the need of reinstallation and reconfiguration. In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to use Macrium Reflect to clone a hard drive with a Windows 10 installation to another drive.
How to clone an HDD to SSD using Macrium Reflect
Use these steps to clone a hard drive to an SSD (or any other kind of drive) using Macrium Reflect.
Connecting clone drive
Before you begin, connect the new drive to your computer’s motherboard. The process to connect a traditional HDD, SSD, and M.2 drives will be different per manufacturer and even computer model, as such make sure to check your computer manufacturer support website for more specific details. You can connect a drive using a USB adapter, but you shouldn’t use an external drive as you can’t use it as a boot drive. However, you can use a USB external drive if you’re intending to create a backup, which you’ll restore to the same or different drive.
Installing Macrium Reflect
Use these steps to download and install Macrium Reflect on your device: Once you complete the installation, you can proceed to use the application to perform the cloning process. Macrium Reflect home edition download Macrium Reflect download agent Install Macrium home edition Macrium Reflect registration
Cloning drive with Macrium Reflect
Use these steps to clone two drives using Macrium Reflect on Windows 10: After you complete the steps, Macrium Reflect will proceed to clone the data (bit-by-bit) from the source to the destination drive. Macrium Reflect clone drive option Macrium clone destination drive Macrium Reflect clone schedule settings Macrium Reflect clone settings summary Run Macrium cloning process Erase destination drive for cloning Once the process is complete, either replace the old with the new drive on your computer, or disconnect the cloned drive and put it in a safe location, if this is a backup.
Expanding cloned drive
If the clone drive is larger than original drive that you replaced, then you’ll need to use the Disk Management experience to expand the volume to make the available additional space usable. Once you complete the steps, the main volume on the drive should expand using the unallocated space making the size of the storage bigger. Windows 10 extend volume settings Extend volume wizard on Windows 10 We’re focusing this guide on moving an existing installation of Windows 10 with apps, settings, and your personal files to a new drive to replace a hard drive or for backup purposes, but you can clone any drive with any data. All content on this site is provided with no warranties, express or implied. Use any information at your own risk. Always backup of your device and files before making any changes. Privacy policy info.
