How to Clone a Hard Drive Using Miray HDClone

A very quick way to backup your hard drive is to clone it on another hard drive. This is very different from copying a hard drive onto another. Cloning will allow you to duplicate your system on another drive. That drive will be bootable, meaning that if your old hard drive becomes unusable, you can just swap it with the cloned hard drive. Your computer will be back in the same state as when you did the cloning. Copying your hard drive won’t make your hard drive bootable. Here’s how to clone a hard drive using Miray Software, HDClone.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer with a second hard drive (internal or external)
• Internet access
• Miray Software AG’s HDClone

1. Make sure you have a second physical hard drive in your computer or external to your computer. In Windows Explorer or My Computer in Windows, a single hard drive can be divided into two or more partitions, making it look like you have multiple hard drives with their own drive letters.

2. If you only have one physical hard drive, the easiest way to add a second one is to buy an USB external hard drive. The hard drive capacity (or size in Megabytes, Gigabytes, or Terabytes) must be equal or greater than your old one.

3. Download HDClone. The resource is below. In the home page, choose the HDClone link. There is a free version that is adequate for home users. If you are an advanced user, feel free to buy the other versions.

4. HDClone will come in a zip file. Extract the contents to another folder. Remember the location of this folder. The software does not install itself. The program small enough to be just a stand alone software. All one needs to do is to double click on the HDClone program to run it.

5. 
    

   Double click on the red HDClone program with an “m” on it to run the program. You will see startup options. Click on the Start HDClone button.

6. You will see an information screen. Click on the yellow close button to cancel.

7. 
    

   The default “copy” mode is "drive to drive". Do not make other changes and click Next. It will take less than a minute to find all the hard drives.

8. 
    
   In this example the source drive is way bigger than the target drive. This won't work.

   In the Source window, select the drive you want to clone. Click on Next.

9. 
    
   The target drive is much bigger than the source drive. This will work.

   In the Target window, select the drive you want to put the clone copy into. Click on Next.

10. 
     

    In the Options window, click on next. In the free version, you can not perform advanced functions.

11. 
     

    In the Copy Data window, click on Start.

12. 
     

    You will see a yellow window asking to adjust partitions. Click on the Continue Without Adjustments button. We are performing a straightforward clone function so there is no need to make any kind of adjustments.

13. You will see another yellow window warning you that the copying process is about to begin. If you have any data in the second hard drive that you don’t want to delete, this is your last chance to exit out of HDClone and save the data. We will assume that there is nothing that needs saving on the second hard drive.

14. The cloning process will start. The time to complete depends on how much data there is to copy. One hundred gigabytes of data could take three hours. This is not bad compared to reinstalling Windows, all your drivers, application software, personal data, and personal settings.

15. When complete, label or note the hard drive that has the clone drive so you’ll remember the contents. Also note the date. If you add more data or software in your computer’s old hard drive after that date, then all you need to do is add them after you’ve installed the cloned hard drive.

Resources

• Miray Software Home Page