How to clone a Windows 10 hard drive to a new SSD using Macrium Reflect

Macrium Reflect is a robust backup solution for home and business users that also includes an option to perform drive cloning similar to Clonezilla. (If you’re unfamiliar, drive cloning is the process of copying all the bits on a source drive to another equal or larger destination drive.)

Although Macrium Reflect is a paid software, it also offers a free edition, which you can use when you’re replacing the hard drive (HDD) on your computer to a new Solid-State Drive (SSD), and you need to migrate your current installation with all your settings, apps, and files without the need of reinstallation and reconfiguration.

In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to use Macrium Reflect to clone a hard drive with a Windows 10 installation to another drive.

How to clone an HDD to SSD using Macrium Reflect

Use these steps to clone a hard drive to an SSD (or any other kind of drive) using Macrium Reflect.

Connecting clone drive

Before you begin, connect the new drive to your computer’s motherboard. The process to connect a traditional HDD, SSD, and M.2 drives will be different per manufacturer and even computer model, as such make sure to check your computer manufacturer support website for more specific details.

You can connect a drive using a USB adapter, but you shouldn’t use an external drive as you can’t use it as a boot drive. However, you can use a USB external drive if you’re intending to create a backup, which you’ll restore to the same or different drive.

Installing Macrium Reflect

Use these steps to download and install Macrium Reflect on your device:

1. Open Macrium Reflect download page.

2. Click the Home Use button.

   

3. Click the Continue button.

4. Double-click the Macrium Reflect Download Agent.

5. Click the Download button.

   

6. Click the Next button.

7. Click the Next button again.

8. Accept the license to continue.

9. Click the Next button.

10. Select the Home option.

    

11. Click the Next button.

12. Clear the Register this installation of Macrium Reflect option.

    

13. Click the Next button.

14. Click the Install button.

Once you complete the installation, you can proceed to use the application to perform the cloning process.

Cloning drive with Macrium Reflect

Use these steps to clone two drives using Macrium Reflect on Windows 10:

1. Open Macrium Reflect.

2. Click on the Backup tab in the left pane.

3. Click on the Create a backup tab in the right side.

4. Click the Clone this disk option.

   

5. Under the “Destination” section, click the Select a disk to clone to option.

   

6. Select the destination (new) drive.

   Quick tip: If the new drive has any partitions, it’s recommended to select each one and select the Delete Existing partition option.

7. Click the Next button.

8. Click the Next button again to skip the schedule option.

   

9. Click the Finish button.

   

10. Click the OK button.

    

11. Click the Continue button.

    

12. Click the Close button.

After you complete the steps, Macrium Reflect will proceed to clone the data (bit-by-bit) from the source to the destination drive.

Once the process is complete, either replace the old with the new drive on your computer, or disconnect the cloned drive and put it in a safe location, if this is a backup.

Expanding cloned drive

If the clone drive is larger than original drive that you replaced, then you’ll need to use the Disk Management experience to expand the volume to make the available additional space usable.

1. Open Start.

2. Search for Disk Management and click the top result to open the experience.

3. Right-click the volume (C:) and select the Extend Volume option.

   

4. Click the Next button.

5. Select the disk with space that you want to allocate (usually the default settings).

6. Click the Next button.

   

7. Click the Finish button.

Once you complete the steps, the main volume on the drive should expand using the unallocated space making the size of the storage bigger.

We’re focusing this guide on moving an existing installation of Windows 10 with apps, settings, and your personal files to a new drive to replace a hard drive or for backup purposes, but you can clone any drive with any data.