How to Clone SATA Hard Drives
Few experiences could possibly be more unpleasant for a computer owner than a hard drive crash. Computer users tend to store their entire lives on their machines, such as their pictures, favorite music, and communication with friends and family. All of these things can be gone in an instant if there is no plan in place for a backup. Use XXCLONE to make exact copies of your SATA hard drives, ensuring that you always have a replacement available if the SATA drive in your computer malfunctions.
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Instructions
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Browse to the XXCLONE website using the link in the Resources section of this article. Click the "download" link, then click on the "xxclone.zip" link.
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Extract the ZIP file to the location of your choice, and double click the EXE file that is extracted from the archive.
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Click "Start." Read the license agreement, then click "I agree" and "Next" to begin installing XXCLONE. Launch XXCLONE after the installation is complete.
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Use the "Source Volume" and "Target Volume" drop-down menus to select the SATA hard drive to be copied, and the drive to be copied to.
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Click the radio button labeled "Back up the entire volume by copying all the files from scratch." The "incremental" buttons may be used for future backups.
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Click the "Cool Tools" tab, then click the "Make Bootable," "Duplicate Vol. ID" and "Add Test Boot" buttons if the drive being copied contains your Windows installation. This enables Windows to be booted from the hard drive clone if the primary drive fails. If you are cloning a data drive, skip this step.
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Click "Start" to clone the hard drive.
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Tips & Warnings
XXCLONE is able to clone all hard drives, not only SATA ones. This program may be used to clone your ATA hard drives, as well. Many drive cloning utilities are available, and other programs may have options or features differing from those described here. XXCLONE is free for personal use.
Make absolutely sure that the correct destination drive is selected before beginning the backup operation. This operation will write data to the drive, and choosing the incorrect drive could result in files being erased.
