How to Clone HDD to SSD with Alignment Easily

Question: Migrating OS from HDD to SSD, but SSD Boot Slower?

Because of the high performance of SSD, more and more users choose to migrate their operating systems from HDD to SSD. However, some users found that the SSD's boot speed became slower after migration. This is actually caused by misaligned partition in SSD.

You can check if SSD partition is misaligned by the steps below:

Step 1. Press Win + R to open the Run window and input msinfo32.

Step 2. Go to Components > Storage > Disks and find your SSD. Then dividing the figure in Partition Starting Offset by 4096.

Check if this number is evenly divisible by 4096. If it is, the partition is correctly aligned. If you get a fractional number, then SSD partition is misaligned. That’s the reason for slow SSD boot.

What Is SSD Alignment?

SSD Alignment refers to reallocating the physical sector offset of partitions. 512-byte sector is extensively used on standard hard drives. However, with the capacity of hard drive grows over years, 512-byte sector is no longer able to meet higher demand. The manufacturers produce disks with 4K (4096 byte) sector. And SSD adopts the smallest 4k sector to save data. If the 4k allocation units are not aligned in SSD, reading and writing data will need to across multiple sectors. Finally it will cause SSD's poor performance.

Why Clone HDD to SSD with Alignment?

It is common for SSD partitions to become unaligned after migrating a system from an HDD to an SSD. A typical HDD generally starts its first partition after 63 empty blocks, while an SSD starts its first partition after 64 empty blocks. If the disk is 4K misaligned, read data in one cluster will read two physical 4K sectors. The read and write speed slows down a lot. So it's very necessary to ensure SSD 4K alignment to get the best performance.

How to Clone HDD to SSD with Alignment

You can choose a professional cloning software to help you clone HDD to SSD with alignment, for example, AOMEI Backupper Standard is a good choice. It not only helps you clone HDD to SSD for free, but also provides the function of SSD alignment. After cloning, you can boot your computer directly from the cloned SSD and can optimize the performance of your computer. It also has the following advantages.

★Tips:

 Intelligent clone: By default, it will only copy the used sectors. Therefore, if you need, this software can easily help you clone a larger HDD to a smaller SSD. And if there are bad sectors on your HDD, it will automatically skip them, so you can clone the HDD normally even it has bad sector.

SSD alignment: This feature can easily fix the SSD misalignment problem. And it will accelerate the reading and writing speed of SSD.

Sector by sector clone: It will clone all sectors whether they are used or not, therefore you won’t miss any hidden sectors.

 Live clone: It allows the clone task to work in the background when you clone HDD to SSD with alignment, so you can use your computer normally.

 Different system: It supports Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista, etc.

Before you start cloning HDD to SSD with partition alignment, you need to do some preparations.

• Connect your SSD to your computer and make sure it can be detected.
• Backup important files in advance, because the cloning process will erase all the data on your SSD.
• Download the professional disk cloning software AOMEI Backupper Standard and install it.

Now, you can follow the graphic tutorial below to clone HDD to SSD with alignment.

Step 1. Open the AOMEI Backupper Standard, and click Clone > Disk Clone.

Note:

Disk clone only supports 2 types in the free version. One is MBR to MBR (system disks), the other is data disk clone. If you need to clone GPT to GPT, or clone disks between MBR and GPT, you can upgrade to the professional version or higher version.

Step 2. Choose the HDD as the source disk. Then, click Next.

Step 3. Choose the SSD as the destination disk. Then, click Next.

Step 4. Tick SSD Alignment option, it will ensure that your SSD’s partitions align and accelerate the reading and writing speed of ssd. Confirm your operations and click Start Clone.

Notes:

• Edit Partitions: This feature allows you to change the partition size automatically or manually (advanced version).
• Sector By Sector Clone: If your SSD has the same size or larger than your HDD, you can use this feature. It will clone all sectors, whether they are used or not.

Summary

If you are troubled by a slower SSD after migrating system from HDD to SSD, it is probably due to unaligned SSD. You can use the free and safe cloning software AOMEI Backupper Standard to help you.

It can not only easily clone your HDD to SSD with alignment for better performance, but also allows you to boot your computer directly from the SSD after cloning. Then you can use your system and installed software normally as well as access the data you want anytime.

Besides, if you are a Windows Server user, you can pick AOMEI Backupper Server. You can download the software to explore more useful functions.