# Best Cloning software for PC?



## jononotbono (Jun 25, 2020)

So I'm just trying to resurrect an old PC and I'm booting from a backup drive with Win 10 and eventually I got this working. I want to clone this backup drive and then have the cloned drive in this PC. What is the best software to do this? On OS X I just use Carbon Copy Cloner and it instantly works. I've been trying out Acronis and whenever I try and clone the drive in Windows, it asks me to restart Windows and then my screen goes black.

I have formatted my Hard drive (even went out and bought a new HDD matching the size of the backup drive) to NTFS and GPT. But I can't seem to clone it. 

Any advice is much appreciated

Thanks

Jono


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## JohnG (Jun 25, 2020)

I don't like Acronis at all. Moreover, there are complaints that it's very hard to get rid of completely once you install it. 

I don't know if it's the best, Jono, but have been using AOMEI successfully. Had to recover a few files here and there and it works.

PCs -- ugh. A necessary evil.

There is a free version of AOMEI that I'm using. I really use it more for backup than an actual clone, and can't remember if you have to use the purchased version for the latter.


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## wst3 (Jun 25, 2020)

I use DriveImageXML - it ain't pretty, but it is free, and it works really well



DriveImage XML Backup Software - Data Recovery Product


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## sostenuto (Jun 25, 2020)

Had recent cloning issues with SSD ( I know, you are HDD ), but reviewed with Samsung Support. 
Acronis is high on their list, and Macrium came up as well. There is an easy 'Free' version you could try ??






Reflect Free Edition


Macrium Reflect Free allows you to back up your entire computer and schedule backups. For a free program, you get incredibly powerful software that allows you to create effective backups.




www.macrium.com





Good luck !


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## easyrider (Jun 25, 2020)

Stop faffing and use what the pros use






Reflect Free Edition


Macrium Reflect Free allows you to back up your entire computer and schedule backups. For a free program, you get incredibly powerful software that allows you to create effective backups.




www.macrium.com


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## RonV (Jun 25, 2020)

I've used Macrium Reflect many times over the past few years.


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## whinecellar (Jun 25, 2020)

I could have written the OP almost verbatim. I’m a die-hard Mac guy and only have 1 PC among 5 Macs, and I couldn’t believe how hard it was to find something along the lines of CCC or SuperDuper on the PC side that simply and easily lets you make a bootable clone. I landed on Casper - it’s as close as I could find and works great.


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## jononotbono (Jun 25, 2020)

Thanks for all the advice. I’ve finally got to this...






I tried one last time with Acronis. Man, I hate it. It’s taken 2 days to clone a drive and I just went and bought a 2tb HDD (this is a machine that’s gonna be used for beta testing stuff so I’m not bothering with SSDs in this thing) so that the size of drives would match because unlike Carbon Copy Cloner, it copies all the free space as well as used data despite Acronis saying it will resize.

What an unbelievable journey to do something that with CarbonCopy Cloner I can do with 3 clicks.


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## easyrider (Jun 25, 2020)

Acronis is is Sh1t3 Why are you using it?


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## jononotbono (Jun 25, 2020)

whinecellar said:


> I could have written the OP almost verbatim. I’m a die-hard Mac guy and only have 1 PC among 5 Macs, and I couldn’t believe how hard it was to find something along the lines of CCC or SuperDuper on the PC side that simply and easily lets you make a bootable clone. I landed on Casper - it’s as close as I could find and works great.



Good to know man. I will definitely try it out.

I’ve been thinking a lot about building a serious PC for Cubase and this kind of thing is reminding me why I moved to Mac in the first place. I guess once a PC is set up properly and maintained (and kept off the internet with exception to Updates and licensing) then they are great, but man, the amount of time I’ve just wasted doing something that is usually so simple, is quite frankly shocking.


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## easyrider (Jun 25, 2020)

jononotbono said:


> Good to know man. I will definitely try it out.
> 
> I’ve been thinking a lot about building a serious PC for Cubase and this kind of thing is reminding me why I moved to Mac in the first place. I guess once a PC is set up properly and maintained (and kept off the internet with exception to Updates and licensing) then they are great, but man, the amount of time I’ve just wasted doing something that is usually so simple, is quite frankly shocking.



Dude...I cloned my SSD to a new larger one couple of weeks back...took me 15 mins...

Windows 10 Pro.

This is not difficult....


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## jononotbono (Jun 25, 2020)

easyrider said:


> Dude...I cloned my SSD to a new larger one couple of weeks back...took me 15 mins...
> 
> Windows 10 Pro.
> 
> This is not difficult....



Well you should have flown to NY and done it for me. I’ve never cloned a drive before. 😂


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## whinecellar (Jun 25, 2020)

jononotbono said:


> ...man, the amount of time I’ve just wasted doing something that is usually so simple, is quite frankly shocking.



Yyyyyyyyyup.


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## URL (Jun 26, 2020)

There is two Casper one not free an one that is free, which version do you use?


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## jononotbono (Jun 26, 2020)

So I left the PC to clone and do it’s thing just to find that the cloned HDD constantly cycles around “Needing repairing”. So I’m trying it one more time and then I’m going to try some of this other software.


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## URL (Jun 26, 2020)

Anyone tryed to use Partition magic to put the clone into extra partition space and have a second boot on the same ssd?


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## dzilizzi (Jun 26, 2020)

Most of the time? I make a system image using windows, load a basic boot of Windows on the new drive using a USB loader and then reinstall the image using the repair function. 

I want to say Partition Wizard worked well also. https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

The ones that clone inside Windows do not work well in my experience. You really want one that works outside of Windows, if that makes sense.


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## whinecellar (Jun 26, 2020)

URL said:


> There is two Casper one not free an one that is free, which version do you use?



I went with the paid version. I can't remember why, but I know there was a reason!


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