Free Data Migration Software: Easily Migrate OS or App in Windows

Looking for a data migration software? Then AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can satisfy your needs best. This freeware allows you to transfer system, data, or programs from one hard drive to another easily.

Emily

By Emily / Updated on September 13, 2023

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What is data migration software?

As its name suggests, data migration software is a kind of program that can transfer data from one storage location to another, from one computer storage system to another. It provides a great way to make a data backup.

Why do we need a professional data migration tool? Why not use the “copy & paste” feature? That’s because the “copy & paste” can only migrate personal files, such as pictures, documents, music, etc. For moving a small amount of data from one location to another, this traditional method can be a nice choice.

What if you plan to migrate applications, programs, and even the operating system to another location? Copying them in the original drive and pasting them into the destination one might lead to startup failure. Namely, you might be unable to start up the OS or launch the apps/programs from the destination disk. Therefore, a professional data migration tool is quite necessary.

How about Intel/Samsung data migration software?

For data migration between different hard disks, some manufacturers develop a specialized tool to help their users migrate data among their disks. For example, Intel has released the Intel Data Migration Software for users who have bought Intel hard drives. But it can only work on SSD drives, and the SSD must be initialized as GUID Partition Table (GPT) and partitioned as New Technology File System (NTFS).

Intel Data Migration Software

Similarly, the Samsung Data Migration Software is designed to help users migrate all of their data (operating system, application software, and personal data) from their existing storage device (e.g. HDD) to their new Samsung SSD. But most users often meet kinds of error messages during the data migration process such as Samsung Data Migration access violation, Samsung Data Migration Software cloning failed 00001, and more.

Start Clone

Moreover, Intel Data Migration Software and Samsung Data Migration can only work on their own hard drives. If you have multiple hard drives, you might need to download several data migration programs for each one. In this case, getting a versatile data migration utility that is compatible with many brand hard drives is a wise choice.

Best free data migration tool for Windows PC

To successfully do data migration among different branded HDD or SSD, you can try the free AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. No matter whether you want to transfer everything from Samsung, Intel, Crucial, Corsair, and more to another different disk, this versatile freeware can satisfy you well in Windows 10/8/8.1/7/XP/Vista.

Besides migrating data from one disk to another, it is also able to transfer data from just one partition to another partition via the “Clone Partition” function. Compared with Intel or Samsung Data Migration software, it is far more a data migration utility. You can also use it to:

Wipe external hard drive to protect private information from leakage;
Convert data disk from MBR to GPT or GPT to MBR without deleting volumes or losing important data;
Convert FAT32 to NTFS without losing data and vice versa;
Merge two adjacent partitions or merge unallocated space into an existing partition;
Delete hidden partitions on the USB drive or recovery partition.

How to finish data migration from one disk to another step by step?

If you have a new disk and want to move all data on the older disk to the new one, this "Disk Clone" feature is suitable for you. Free download it and follow the steps.

Download Freeware Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Note: When copying disk 1 to disk 2, all the data on disk 2 will be deleted and erased, so make a backup in advance if necessary.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Click the disk (here we choose disk 1, the system disk) you want to copy and select "Clone Disk".

Disk Copy

Step 2. In the pop-up window, choose a copy method according to your requirements. Then, click "Next".

Copy Disk Quickly

>>Clone Disk Quickly: Only copy the used space to another disk, so you can copy a larger disk to a smaller disk.
>>Sector-by-Sector Clone: copy all sectors of the disk to a target disk no matter whether it is used or not. This method could copy the deleted or lost files.

Step 3. Select a destination disk. If you are copying the old disk to an SSD, you should tick the Optimize the performance of SSD, which can improve the performance of your SSD. Click "Next".

Select Destination Disk

Step 4. You can edit your destination disk in this window. Resize the partition as you want by clicking the options.

Edit Disk

>> Clone without resizing partition: keeping the size of source partitions.
>> Fit partitions to entire disk: The program automatically adjusts the size of the partition to fit the entire disk.
>> Edit partitions on this disk: resizing partition size on the disk as you prefer.

Step 5. Back to the main interface of AOMEI Partition Assistant, click "Apply" to execute the operation.

Apply

When it is finished, you have migrated everything from HDD to SSD successfully. The above steps also apply to migrate data from SSD to HDD as well. If you want to boot a computer from the destination disk, you can enter the BIOS environment, and change the boot order to set the cloned hard drive as the first boot device.

Extra info: Migrate one app or multiple apps between drives

The free AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard allows you to migrate OS or files by cloning an entire partition or hard disk. What if you just want to migrate some App or program from one location to another one instead of migrating all content? In such a case, you can upgrade to the Professional edition. It offers the "App Mover" feature, allowing you to move apps from one partition to another partition. These moved Apps can load up and run successfully after migration. 

Step 1. Download, install, and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Click “Free up” on in the top toolbar, and choose “App Mover”.

App Mover

Step 2. Select the partition from which you want to move the app to another location and click on "Next".

Select Partition

Step 3. Choose the applications you want to move and select the destination path. Then click on "Move".

Tick Apps

Summary

As the best data migration software for all branded hard drives, AOMEI Partition Assistant makes it quite easy to migrate data between partitions and disks. If you want to migrate data from the MBR system disk to GPT, GPT to MBR, or GPT to GPT, please upgrade to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. If you are looking for a data migration utility for Windows Server, AOMEI Partition Assistant Server can meet your demands.

Emily
Emily · Staff Editor
Emily is an English editor of AOMEI Technology; she has a great passion for providing easy solutions for people to tackle with all disk or partition management problems. In addition to writing articles about disk/partition management, she also edits great tutorials on how to back up and restore disk for data security. In her spare time, she loves to learn computer skill to improve herself or stay with her family to enjoy a good day.