Clone drive using Macrium Reflect on Windows 10

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

Are upgrading your drive to a new and faster SSD or looking to perform a bit-by-bit backup? The Macrium Reflect app can help, and here's how.

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.

    Macrium Reflect home edition download
    Macrium Reflect home edition download
  3. Click the Continue button.

  4. Double-click the Macrium Reflect Download Agent.

  5. Click the Download button.

    Macrium Reflect download agent
    Macrium Reflect download agent
  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.

    Install Macrium home edition
    Install Macrium home edition
  11. Click the Next button.

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

    Macrium Reflect registration
    Macrium Reflect registration
  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:

Quick note: You can perform a drive cloning while Windows 10 is fully loaded and operational, but it’s recommended to close any running applications before proceeding.
  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.

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

    Macrium clone destination drive
    Macrium clone destination drive
  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.

    Macrium Reflect clone schedule settings
    Macrium Reflect clone schedule settings
  9. Click the Finish button.

    Macrium Reflect clone settings summary
    Macrium Reflect clone settings summary
  10. Click the OK button.

    Run Macrium cloning process
    Run Macrium cloning process
  11. Click the Continue button.

    Erase destination drive for cloning
    Erase destination drive for cloning
  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.

    Windows 10 extend volume settings
    Windows 10 extend volume settings
  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.

    Extend volume wizard on Windows 10
    Extend volume wizard on Windows 10
  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.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].