Safely Clone HDD to Intel SSD in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 | 2 Ways

• The Case: Clone HDD to Intel SSD Problem

• Solutions to Intel Migration Software not Cloning

• Clone HDD to Intel SSD with Intel Data Migration Software

• Better Way to Clone Hard Drive to Intel SSD

• Boot from Cloned Intel SSD

• In the End

 

The Case: Clone HDD to Intel SSD Problem

How to fix clone HDD to Intel SSD issues easily? Let’s have a look.

Solutions to Intel Migration Software not Cloning

The Intel Data Migration Software will help you to migrate data from an old hard drive to an Intel SSD, including Intel SSD 600p, 660p, 665p, 760p, DC series, etc. At this moment, the Intel Data Migration Software is no longer available after March 24, 2020, and no updates supported.

To fix Intel Data Migration Software not working problem, you may try the following solutions:

• Make sure your Intel SSD connect with an SATA-to-USB cable correctly.

• The target Intel SSD should be initialized as GUID Partition Table (GPT) with NTFS file system formatted.

• Disable the full disk encryption before cloning.

• Remove all administrative profiles before migration.

Clone HDD to Intel SSD with Intel Data Migration Software

After process all the operation to fix, you could follow the steps to clone HDD to Intel SSD with Intel Data Migration Software:

1. Run Intel Data Migration Software, then click the Start Now button.

2. Choose the Automatic (Recommended) mode, and click Next.

3. Select the source HDD to migrate, hit Next.

4. Choose the Intel SSD as the destination to save data from HDD, and click Next.

5. Press Proceed to clone HDD to Intel SSD.

If the problem still exists, It’s highly recommended to use the best free Intel SSD cloning software - AOMEI Backupper Standard to clone.

Better Way to Clone Hard Drive to Intel SSD

AOMEI Backupper Standard, as powerful yet free SSD cloning software, will clone everything from the HDD to Intel SSD without reinstalling, and it’s available in Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit). No matter what file system on your source disk and destination disk, it will clone successfully without any issue.

Before cloning hard drive to Intel SSD, do the following:

• Your Windows 7/8/10/11 computer contains the HDD that you would like to clone.

• Connect your Intel SSD via SATA cable and SATA Power cable (on your computer host) with your computer.

• SATA-to-USB cable to connect your Intel SSD with your laptop when there only one drive bay. If you don’t have a SATA-to-USB adapter, clone HDD to SSD without adapter.

• Please download it first on your computer and have it a go:

Here is how to clone HDD to Intel SSD in Windows 10 (for example) with Intel Data Migration alternative - AOMEI Backupper.

Step 1. Perform AOMEI Backupper Standard after installing, select Clone -> Disk Clone at the main console. 

✎ Note: The Standard edition only supports cloning a system disk from MBR to MBR. If you want to clone a system disk from MBR to GPT/GPT to MBR/GPT to GPT, try AOMEI Backupper Professional. It offers the System Clone feature to help you clone Windows 10 OS to SSD only.

Step 2. Choose the Windows 10 HDD as the source disk, and then click Next >>.

Step 3. Select the Intel SSD as the destination disk, and click Next >> button to go on.

★Tip: The Intel SSD will be overwritten or deleted after the cloning process, if there are important files that value to you, please backup files in advance.

Step 4. Check the SSD Alignment option to optimize for Intel SSD performance.

Step 5. Press Start Clone >> button to clone HDD to Intel SSD safely in Windows 10.

★Useful tips:
▶Sector by sector clone: If the Intel SSD is larger than your source HDD, you could check this option to clone all the sectors on the source disk even it’s blank or not.
▶Edit Partitions: upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional or other advanced editions to edit partitions to fully use the storage space on Intel SSD while cloning HDD to larger Intel SSD. You will generate an unallocated space on Intel SSD after cloning smaller HDD to larger Intel SSD if not using Edit Partitions option, to fully use the space, merge unallocated space to existing partition easily.

Moreover, AOMEI Backupper allows you to clone larger HDD to smaller SSD if the SSD could hold all the data from the source HDD. Apart from Intel SSD, you could upgrade HDD to other SSDs like Samsung, Toshiba, ADATA, HP, WD, Crucial, etc. and vice versa using the same cloning process.

Boot from Cloned Intel SSD

If you cloned a boot drive to Intel SSD, when the Intel SSD clone is done, do the following to boot from the cloned Intel SSD:

If your computer owns more than one hard drive bay:

• Shut down the computer (and install the cloned Intel SSD in your computer if it is connected as an external drive).

• Press F2, F10, F12, or DEL key to boot your computer into BIOS and set the cloned Intel SSD as the first boot device, and then reboot your computer.

If your computer has only one hard drive bay:

• You have to swap the old HDD with the larger Intel SSD.

• Restart to boot from Intel SSD.

If the cloned SSD won’t boot after using other data migration software, try solutions to Winload.efi missing after clone problem.

In the End

It’s quite easy to clone HDD to Intel SSD to move everything, including Windows operating system, programs, system settings, and others, time-saving and efficient. For those users running Windows 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019 (including R2), please try AOMEI Backupper Server to enjoy more advanced features, like real time file sync, command line tool, dynamic disk volume clone, backup and restore, etc.