Guide: Clone Windows 10 to UEFI SSD and Boot from It Successfully

Why clone Windows to UEFI SSD drive?

To figure out why many users are seeking for a way to clone Windows 10 to SSD and utilize the UEFI boot mode, we can start by understanding the difference betwen UEFI and BIOS Legacy boot mode. They are two different firmware interfaces of computer, help building a connection between computer firmware and the operating system. When you start up a computer, they will initialize the hardware components and start the OS stored on the hard drive.

>>BIOS Legacy stands for Basic Input-Output System and uses the system disk with MBR partition style. However, the MBR partition style does not enable you to use disk space beyond 2TB. Besides, you can only create 4 primary partitions at most, or 3 primary partiton and 1 extended partitions. Apart from the partition style of boot disk, BIOS boot process is a little slower than UEFI boot mode.

>>UEFI is short for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and uses GPT-based system hard drives. The GPT partition style allows you to use disk with more than 2TB space and create up to 128 primary partitions. By contrast, UEFI can directly boot OS after initialization and skip the BIOS self-test process, finally leading to a faster boot.

Above are main reasons for which  many users prefer to clone Windows OS from MBR disk to a GPT SSD drive, then adopt UEFI boot mode.

Best software to clone Windows 10 to SSD (UEFI GPT)

To clone Windows operating system to GPT SSD drive, we recommend applying AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit of Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP. With it, you can clone an entire MBR system disk to GPT or GPT system disk to MBR disk, and boot from the cloned disk as long as you change into right boot mode. Besides that, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional also offer the following functions:

☀Enable you to migrate only OS drive to SSD of GUID Partition Table, which can also help you realize UEFI boot mode on SSD drive.
☀Allow you to align partitions on the destination SSD drive during the cloning process, which can help optimize the reading and writing performance of SSD.
☀Support sector-by-sector clone and cloning only used space no matter when you choose to clone a Windows 10 disk or only Windows 10 partition to SSD UEFI.

Preparation for cloning Windows to SSD

Prior to copying Windows 11/10/8/7 disk to SSD drive and adopt UEFI boot mode, please make the following preparations to make the subsequent clone operation proceed smoothly.
▶Check out the storage space of the SSD drive: ensure that the SSD space is at least equal at or bigger than the source drive’s so as to hold all the cloned data and extra space for future files.

▶ Back up all data on the SSD drive: all data on the SSD drive will be erased during the cloning process, so please ensure you have made a complete backup ahead of time. 

▶ Clean up the original drive: remove applications, temporary files, or redundant records on the source disk in order to make it slim for the SSD drive. 

▶ A method to connect the SSD: if the SSD drive isn't installed on the PC, an adaptor or an external dock is required to attach the SSD to the computer before cloning. 

▶ A constant power supply: because cloning a hard disk will take a while, especially when there is a lot of data, it is necessary to ensure a reliable power source. That can help avoid possible data loss from sudden power failure.

Steps to clone Windows 10 to UEFI (GPT) SSD 

Now, you can download the AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional Demo version and give it a try. Below are the detailed steps on how to copy Windows 10 to SSD UEFI.

First, please connect the UEFI SSD drive to your Windows 10 computer and make sure it is detected successfully. 

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, click "Clone" in the main interface, and select "Clone Disk".

Step 2. Choose the hard disk that you need to clone as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 3. Select another drive as the destination disk, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to "Sector to Sector clone", and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.

Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk or tick "4k alignment" to improve the reading and writing speed of the SSD. 

Step 6. You can preview the disk cloning operation by viewing the "Pending Operations". To commit the "Pending Operations", please click "Apply" and "Proceed".

To boot from the clone UEFI SSD drive: restart your system, launch your motherboard firmware settings screen and change it from Legacy BIOS to UEFI. The steps to change from Legacy BIOS to UEFI might differ in different motherboard manufacturers, so consult the manual for the exact steps.

Conclusion

With this powerful disk cloning software, you can easily clone Windows 10 to SSD UEFI drive. Besides cloning function, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional also does well in erasing SSD drive without damaging it, recovering SSD partitions, converting boot disk between MBR and GPT without losing data. If you want to perform such operations on Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008/2003, try its Server edition.