The Fastest Way to Transfer Files between Two External Hard Drives

What Is the fastest way to copy an external hard drive to another external hard drive?

Generally, copy and paste is only useful for some simple files. But if you need to transfer data between two hard drives, it's not work. If you are looking for the fastest way to transfer files between two external hard drives, clone hard drive may help you. Whether on Mac or Windows, it is always the fastest way to transfer data between 2 external hard drives. Here is a typical case for the slow data transfer speed:

"I have two external hard drives, one new and one old. I need to make a 120G backup. So I tried to use copy and paste, but that was too slow. I am looking for a way to transfer files from the old hard drive to the new one quickly. Is there any way to speed up the transfer? I will be very grateful.” - from Reddit

Compared to copy and paste, cloning can help you transfer files more efficiently and securely. It is not only fast, but also allows you to clone the entire disk layout to a new one, making the new disk's structure identical to the old one. Continue reading and this tutorial will show you the best hard drive cloning software and know how to use the fastest way to transfer data for free.

How to transfer data from one external hard drive to another with the fastest Way

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a professional disk cloner, which is compatible with Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP. With an intuitive interface, it is an easy-to-use tool that can complete disk clone with a few clicks, and it's also friendly to users with no computer experience.

There are two cloning methods: Clone Disk Quickly and Sector-by-Sector Cloning. 

• Clone Disk: this can only clone the used space on the hard drive
• Sector-by-Sector clone: This can clone all sectors on the hard disk.

This clone tool can also perform some advanced operations, such as cloning hard drive with OS on it. And it can optimize SSD for better performance during the cloning process. Let’s download it to see how it works, this may be the safest and fastest way to transfer files between two external hard drives on the market.

★Tips:

Standard Edition only supports cloning data disk. If you want to clone Windows system, please switch to Professional Version.

Connect the external drive to the PC and make sure it can be detected.

You should initialize external hard drives if it's new.

Step 1. Open the installed 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 like SSD and click "Next".

Step 3. Select the destination disk to store the data on the source 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 Optimize the performance of SSD if the target disk is an SSD drive. 

Tip: If you want to clone Windows to a smaller drive, the "Clone without resizing partitions"  button will be greyed out. Then, a Note about how to boot OS from the destination disk will pop up. Read and keep it in mind.

 Step 5. After returning to the main interface, check the pending operation and click "Apply" and "Proceed" to commit the operation.

Bonus tip: Move apps between two external hard drives

Now, you should have learned that what is the fastest way to transfer files between two external hard drives. If you need to move installed programs from one drive to another, try the advanced feature "App Mover" after upgrading to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.

Step 1. Install and launch PA Professional, click “App Mover” under "Free up".

Step 2. There are two options, click “App Mover”. Or, click “Move Folders” if you need to move folders from C drive to D drive.

Step 3. Select the C drive and click "Next".

Step 4. Choose the target apps you want to move and select the destination location, then click "Move".

Step 5. Read the prompts and click "OK" to begin the process.

Conclusion

After reading this page, I believe you have found the fastest way to transfer files between two external hard drives. Besides, the way how to move installed programs between two drives is also provided. If you want to run AOMEI Partition Assistant on Windows Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012/2008/2003, please turn to Server Edition.