Clone Dell Hard Drive to SSD in Few Clicks [without Reinstallation]

Cloning Dell hard drive to SSD in Windows 11/10/8/7 is an easy and convenient way to replace Dell hard drive with SSD without reinstalling operating system and applications.

Bryce

By Bryce / Updated on May 12, 2023

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Want to keep all data while replacing hard drive in Dell computer

“I have a dell computer and it comes with a 500GB hard drive that contains Windows 10. Now I want to replace the hard drive with a newly bought SSD but retain all data on the old hard drive. I don’t want to make a fresh install for Windows and all other applications. But how can I transfer all content including OS and to new SSD?”

Dell

You can clone hard drive to SSD on Dell computer

If you transfer files from the old hard drive to SSD via copy and paste, you’ll find that it is troublesome and time-consuming. What’s worse, the system won’t boot normally after being pasted. Therefore, it is not a workable way to move all data to SSD via copying and paste.

Don’t worry, you can choose to clone Dell hard drive to SSD. By cloning, you can upgrade Dell hard drive to SSD without reinstalling Windows and all applications. Well, how to copy a hard drive to SSD on a Dell laptop or desktop?

Comprehensive and professional cloning software

Sometimes, your recently purchased SSD is along with data migration software, such as Intel Data Migration software, Samsung Data Migration software, and so on. In such a condition, you can perform disk copy via a built-in cloning tool. If the new SSD has no such tool or the tool is not working, a reliable and powerful third-party hard drive cloning software for Windows 11/10/8/7, XP, and Vista – AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is recommended:

It can clone all partitions (recovery partition included) on the current system hard drive to SSD with a secure boot in Dell computer.
It offers two copy methods: Sector-by-Sector Clone and Clone Disk Quickly, satisfying different cloning demands. The first way should be chosen when you need to clone a hard drive to a smaller SSD, and the second way shall be picked if you want to clone a hard drive with BitLocker encrypted or bad sector.
What’s more, it allows you to align SSD partitions during cloning, which is helpful in improving SSD’s performance.

How to perform Dell hard drive to SSD copy?

To clone Dell hard drive to SSD with secure boot, in the first place, you should connect the SSD to your Dell computer and make sure that it can be detected by the OS. For a Dell laptop, a USB-to-SATA cable might be necessary. Then, have a look at how it works:

Download Pro DemoWin 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Click Clone and Clone Disk.

Clone System Disk

Step 2. In the pop-up window, choose a method to clone hard drive to SSD. Clone Disk Quickly is recommended.

Clone System Disk Quickly

Step 3. Select your system hard drive as source disk.

Select Source Disk Clone System Disk Full

Step 4. Choose the new SSD as your destination disk. Check Optimize the performance of SSD... to align SSD partitions.

Select Target Disk Clone System Disk Quick

Step 5. Here you can adjust the partition size on the target SSD or leave it alone.

Clone System Disk Without Resizing

Step 6. In the main interface, you can review result of cloning hard drive to SSD. If you are satisfied, click Apply and Proceed to execute the operation.

Apply Proceed Clone System Disk Quick

Notes:
 A reboot is needed as this operation will be performed under the PreOS environment.
 It is also available to clone OS partition only to SSD via AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.
 All data on the target disk will be erased. If you want to keep the files on the destination one, you can back up it using AOMEI Backupper before cloning.

Follow-up work of cloning

After cloning Dell hard drive to SSD, you can keep your original hard drive as a storage disk and SSD for OS, if the Dell computer is with more than one drive bay. To do so, you need to enter BIOS to set SSD as the priority in the boot order. If you clone GPT to MBR disk or MBR to disk, you need to change boot mode as well. After you boot the system from SSD successfully, you can format the old hard drive to free up space. If the computer owns only one drive bay, locate the old HDD and replace it with cloned SSD.

Bryce
Bryce · Staff Editor
Bryce is an editor of AOMEI Technology, he covers backup & restore, hard disk & partitions management, cloud files transfer, website & database backup and so on for AOMEI. He enjoys helping people find solutions to their problems. He loves traveling, Sleeping, reserching and so on. He enjoys helping people find solutions to their problems. He loves traveling, Sleeping, reserching and so on. He would like to spend all time on reaserching computer problems. He is a very cute boy.