Best Guide: WD SSD Clone on Windows 10

User case: how do I clone my Windows 10 to a WD SSD?

Due to the excellent performance of Western Digital SSD, a lot of users may choose to boot from WD SSD to gain a comprehensive better performance. If you are one of them, then you have come to the right place!

In this article, we will explore the distinguished features of Western Digital SSD, and offer a full guide on how to clone your Windows 10/11 system to WD SSD.

About Western Digital SSD

Western Digital (WD) is a major global hard drive manufacturer. Their internal and external disks are commonly found in popular computer brands like HP and Acer, used in both laptops and PCs.

Certain Western Digital hard drives are highly favored by users. For instance, the WD Blue 4TB drives are renowned for their excellent capacity, while the WD Black 6TB drives are recognized for their superior speed. Additionally, if you're seeking a budget-friendly option, the WD Blue 1TB drives could be your ideal pick.

As a result, certain trending issues like " WD SSD clone Windows 10" are frequently talked about by diverse user groups. Then many users engage in discussions about how to migrate Windows 10 to Western Digital SSD. Usually, you need WD clone software for you.

Does Western Digital have cloning software?

Unfortunately, Windows 10 computers don’t provide a built-in disk cloning tool. Additionally, Western Digital SSDs do not include native cloning software, but its official recommends a tool on their official website: Acronis True Image for Western Digital. This software offers backup and cloning functions. However, it's important to be aware of certain limitations when using this tool.

▉ Initially, it's crucial to note that the WD cloning software has a specific requirement: it necessitates a WD hard drive. If this requirement is not met, the process will fail, displaying an error message such as "Acronis True Image WD Edition installation restricted - This product edition requires at least one Western Digital or SanDisk drive to be installed in your system."

▉ Furthermore, even if you have a connected WD hard drive or SSD in your system, there's a possibility that Acronis True Image might not clone from the selected disk as per your requirements.

Hence, you can look at another WD cloning software Windows 10, like AOMEI Backupper Professional. This software is full-featured and comprehensive disk cloning software. It provides powerful features as below:

✍3 cloning solutions: This software supports System Clone, Disk Clone and Partition Clone to satisfy your different needs.
✍Intelligent clone: Under the default situation, it will only clone the used sectors. So it allows you to clone a larger HDD to a smaller SSD easily.
✍Live clone: This software enables the cloning task to operate in the background, ensuring that the cloning process won't disrupt running programs on Windows Server. You can continue working normally while the cloning process is ongoing.
✍SSD alignment: This feature will accelerate the reading and writing speed of SSD.
✍Secure boot: After cloning, you can directly boot from the cloned SSD.
✍Multiple SSD types and brands: It supports various SSD types such as SATA, M.2, PCI-E, etc, and many SSD brands like Samsung, Crucial, Intel, WD, etc.
✍Different operating systems: It supports all Windows Servers and all Windows PCs. For server users, please choose AOMEI Backupper Server.

How do I clone my Windows 10 to a WD SSD?

Here is the stepwise guide to clone Windows 10 with this WD disk cloning software----AOMEI Backupper Professional.

Preparation for System Clone:
▶Ensure the target WD SSD is properly installed on the computer and detected. If you're working with a laptop and there's no available space inside to add more disks, you might require a SATA to USB adapter to connect the drive externally.
▶Please download this software and install it on your computer.

Step 1. Open this software and activate it with your license code.

Step 2. Go to Clone at the left side menu, and choose System Clone.

Step 3. By default, the system-related partitions will be selected, you just need to find the connected Western Digital SSD as the destination path.

Step 4. In the Operation Summary window, review the selected operations and confirm them. Click Start Clone to initiate the system cloning process.

✍Tip: If necessary, you can tick the SSD Alignment option to enhance the reading and writing speed of the WD SSD.

Step 5. Once the system clone progress reaches 100%, click Finish to exit the interface and complete the cloning process successfully.

Further reading: how to boot from the WD SSD

If you are not sure the exact steps to boot from your WD SSD, then you can refer to the below tutorial.

1. Turn off your computer completely.

2. Reboot your computer and press the designated key (commonly F2, Del, ESC, F10, etc.) to access the BIOS.

3. Navigate to the Boot option in the BIOS and choose the NVMe SSD as the primary boot device. Save the changes you made and proceed to boot from it.

✍Bonus tip: if you want to reuse your original hard drive, you can reformat it for reuse. AOMEI Backupper can help you erase everything on it completely and unrecoverably.

Conclusion

This article shared how to perform a WD SSD clone Windows 10 in a detailed way. Since Windows doesn’t offer built-in cloning software and born-with-limitations of Acronis Image backup, you need to find another cloning software like AOMEI Bakcupper.

This software is not only reliable cloning software but also powerful backup and restore software, you can make a scheduled backup for your system automatically for security.