To connect an external hard drive to your computer, follow these steps:
- Open the Settings menu.
- Select Update & Security.
- Choose Backup.
- Select Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
- In the left panel, select Create a system image.
- Then, select the option Specify the location to save the backup and choose On a hard disk.
There are three main methods for backing up your data:
- Using an external hard disk as the primary option.
- Utilizing cloud storage services as a secondary option.
- Employing a more sophisticated backup system, such as CrashPlan or Carbonite.
To copy the Windows 10 operating system, follow these steps:
- Press Win+x to access the control panel.
- Choose File History.
- Save a backup of the system images and create a system image.
- Indicate that the USB external disk is the location for the image and confirm.
To transfer Windows 10 to an SSD, follow these steps:
- Prepare an SSD as the target disk and connect it to the computer.
- Access the graphical interface of the cloning program.
- Locate the option "Migrate OS to SSD/HD" in the Wizard menu.
To clone an HDD to a Kingston SSD using AOMEI Backupper Standard, follow these steps:
- Install and launch AOMEI Backupper Standard.
- Click on Clone and select Disk Clone.
- Choose the HDD as the source disk.
- Select the Kingston SSD as the destination disk.
- Check the option "Optimize partition alignment for SSD" and click Clone.
The following are eight recommended programs for disk cloning:
- Shadow Copy
- EaseUS Todo Backup
- Partition Assistant
- Macrium Reflect (for Windows)
- AOMEI Backupper (for Windows)
- Clonezilla
- Acronis True Image (for Windows and macOS)
- Carbon Copy Cloner (for Mac)
To clone a disk using a GPT partition, follow these steps:
- Install your computer on the smaller SSD.
- Configure and launch AOMEI Backupper Professional.
- Select Clone on the main screen and choose Disk Clone.
- After selecting your GPT disk as the source disk to clone, click Next.
To copy an HDD to a Samsung SSD, follow these steps:
- Connect the Samsung SSD to your Windows PC.
- In the main interface, select All Tools and choose Disk Clone Wizard.
- In this case, choose Quick Disk Clone and click Next to clone the disk to a smaller one.
To simply clone the operating system, follow these steps:
- In the left part of the AOMEI Backupper main interface, click on Clone.
- Then, choose System Clone to clone the operating system partition.
- After selecting the destination partition for cloning the operating system to an SSD, click Next to proceed.
When an old HDD is replaced with a new one, only the readable data will be automatically transferred to the new disk, while any unreadable data will be lost.