How to Clone Windows 10 to New Hard Drive with Secure Boot?

Will Copy and Paste transfer Windows 10 to new drive without boot failure?

“Now, I plan to replace my hard disk with a newly purchased SATA SSD. I wonder how to transfer Windows 10 to new SSD directly rather than install OS on the new drive from scratch? Copy and Paste Windows files or something else? Is there anyone who can offer advice?”

Why not clone Windows 10 to new hard drive?

Copy and Paste is a common way to transfer data between different hard drives. However, this method is not working for transferring OS or moving installed programs. The system and programs won’t boot successfully after you simply paste the boot files. That's because lots of hidden data, files, even partitions that are essential for booting a system are still in the original disk, you can't see them in Explorer or Disk Management. They can only be detected by professional software like cloning tools, check applications...

Thus, if you want to migrate Windows 10 to another new hard drive instead of reinstallation, it’s a wise decision to copy Windows 10 to a new drive via reliable & professional cloning software.

A great drive cloning software for Windows 10

To clone Windows 10 from the current hard disk to a new SSD or HDD with secure boot, here introduce you to a safe & free GUI disk copy tool for Windows 10, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. It is very easy to handle and has powerful functions.

☛ Its Disk Clone Wizard allows you to duplicate your current disk; After cloning, all data & apps, including OS saved on the original disk will be moved to the new drive. And you can boot from the new hard drive without any obstacles.
☛ It offers two copying methods: Clone Disk Quickly and Sector-by-Sector Clone, satisfying different demands, such as cloning Windows 10 to smaller SSD.
☛ And it also allows you to clone only Windows 10 OS-related partitions (data partition not included) to another hard drive via Migrate OS to SSD Wizard.

Clone Windows 10 to new hard drive step-by-step

Now, get to know the detailed process of cloning Windows 10 disk to new hard drive via AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.

✌ You can download its demo version at first!

▶ What you should do before cloning:
• Connect the new hard drive to your computer and ensure that it can be recognized and shows up in Windows 10.
• Confirm that your motherboard supports EFI/UEFI boot mode if you need to clone Windows 10 MBR disk to GPT disk.
• Delete unwanted files and uninstall unnecessary programs on Windows 10 hard drive (omissible)

Step 1. Install and run the cloning software for Windows 10. In the main interface, go to Clone and Clone Disk.

Step 2. In the pop-up window, choose a way based to copy Windows 10 disk to new hard drive. Here I choose Clone Disk Quickly.

Step 3. Choose the disk with Windows 10 installed as your source disk.

Step 4. Select the new hard drive as your destination disk. If you clone to SSD, check Optimize the performance of SSD to make 4k alignment.

Step 5. Here you can change partition size on the destination disk or leave it alone.

PS: If you clone to a smaller SSD or HDD, the “Clone without resizing partitions” option will be greyed out.

Step 6. Here you can preview the result of the Windows 10 disk copy. Click Apply and Proceed to commit the operation.

✍ Notes:
✐ A reboot is necessary as this operation involves system partition and needs to be performed under the PreOS environment.
✐ It is far more than a copy tool for Windows. It can help you convert MBR to GPT without data loss, create Windows bootable media, and so on.
✐ AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is for Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7, XP, and Vista. To clone disk to disk in Windows Server 2022/2019 /2016/2012/2008/2003, please use AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.

How to: boot Windows 10 from new hard drive after cloning

★ If you don’t know how to boot a computer from the new hard drive after cloning Windows 10, you can refer to the following content.

★ If you plan to keep the old hard drive and new hard drive, you can reboot your computer, enter BIOS (press F2/DEL or other specific keys) to set the new drive as the first boot device, and boot from it. After managing to boot from the new disk, you can wipe the old hard drive to reclaim the disk and take it as data storage.

★ If your PC doesn’t support you to hold two hard drives at the same time, you can power off your PC, locate the old hard drive and replace it with the new one. Then, you can run the PC from the new drive.