How to Clone External Hard Drive to Another External Hard Drive

EaseUS Disk Copy lets you clone external hard drive to another external hard drive in an easy way. You can use it to copy external hard drive to another without losing any data!

Cloning an external hard drive ensures all data, settings, and even the operating system are transferred, allowing for a quick and easy recovery in case of drive failure or for moving your entire system to a new drive. This article will tell you how to clone external hard drive to another external drive with the tools, tips, and a step-by-step guide.

What's the Fastest Way to Transfer Files Between 2 External Drives

It's a good way to duplicate an external drive for data transfer from one external drive to another. But if the files and installed programs on the external hard drives you want to transfer are too large, it will take you quite a bit of time, as described in the following Reddit post.

Fastest Way to Transfer Files Between Two External Hard Drives? Need Help!
byu/Sea-Eagle5554 indatastorage

Manually copying and pasting a file from one external HDD to another can be an easy way, but the transfer speed is rather slow, and you cannot transfer your installed programs to another disk.

Then, what's the fastest way to copy files from external hard drive to another external drive (HDD or SSD)? Simply put, disk cloning. Cloning can help you create an exact copy of your source drive on the target disk without losing data, and your target disk will have the same disk layout as the source one.

To clone an external hard drive, use cloning software like EaseUS Disk Copy, Clonezilla, or Rescuezilla to copy the source external drive to the target external drive. Ensure the target drive has equal or greater capacity and connect both to your computer, then run the software, select the source and target drives, and start the cloning process.

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Best Hard Drive Cloning Software Free Download for Windows

Cloning can help you easily and quickly transfer everything from one disk to another, but Windows does not have a cloning utility to help you clone a disk, so you need to use a professional cloning tool.

EaseUS cloning software enables you to clone an external hard drive to another external hard disk on Windows 11/10/8/7 with a few clicks, no matter whether it is about cloning HDD to HDD, HDD to SSD, or SSD to SSD. You can also use it to help you fix bad sectors on an HDD and transfer files/data from one PC to another.

With this cloning software, you will not encounter issues like the cloning process taking too long, getting stuck, or failing due to bad sectors, as it uses advanced algorithms to help you clone a hard drive easily and quickly.

EaseUS disk clone software is an easy-to-use program to clone or copy one external hard drive to another. Free download it on your PC to easily and quickly clone external hard drive or copy from one external hard drive to another.

How to Clone an External Hard Drive to Another

Here is what you need to do before cloning an external hard drive to another.

After ensuring that both external hard drives are correctly connected to the computer and recognized by it, you can proceed.

Step-by-step guide on how to use EaseUS Disk Copy to clone an external hard drive to another

Prior Notice:

• The "Sector by sector copy" asks the size of your destination disk to be at least equal to or larger than that of the source disk. Leave this feature unchecked if you wish to clone a larger hard disk to a smaller hard disk.
• All data on the destination disk will be completely erased, so take care.

Step 1. To start copying/cloning an entire disk to another, choose this disk as the source disk under "Disk Mode" and click "Next".

Step 2. Choose the other disk as the destination disk.

Step 3. Check the disk layout of the two disks. You can manage the disk layout of the destination disk by selecting "Autofit the disk", "Copy as the source" or "Edit disk layout". 

• "Autofit the disk" makes some changes by default on the destination disk layout so that it can work at its best status.
• "Copy as the source"does not change anything on destination disk and the layout is the same as source disk.
• "Edit disk layout" allows you to manually resize/move partition layout on this destination disk.

Tick the "Check the option if the target is SSD" option to put your SSD in its best performance.

A message now appears, warning you that data will be lost. Please confirm this message by clicking "OK" and then click "Next".

Step 4. Click "Proceed" to officially execute the task.

Once the process is complete, eject both drives and test the cloned drive on a computer to ensure all data has been copied correctly.

This video demonstrates how to clone a hard drive using EaseUS Disk Copy:

It is so easy to clone external hard drives, right? Download EaseUS Disk Copy now to make this process easy!

Why Do You Clone an External Hard Drive to Another

Many users choose to clone an external hard drive to another for backup purposes, which can help add an extra layer of protection to the external drive. You still have a duplicate copy if your external disk is damaged or lost. However, cloning an external drive and backing up an external disk are not exactly the same.

Backing up an external drive means copying files from one external hard drive to another. You will get a compressed image file; the system files can not be copied to another drive. Cloning a hard drive means your target disk will have the same data and disk layout as your source drive. You may want to clone a hard disk for a variety of reasons.

• Migrating the operating system. If you want to transfer an OS to a new hard drive, you can clone the old drive. Cloning can help you transfer everything from one hard drive to another.
• Creating a backup. Disk cloning can help create a fresh copy of your hard drive, which can be used as a backup in the event of hard disk failure or data loss.
• Transferring data from the old drive to a new computer. You can clone the old drive to the new one when using a new PC. Therefore, you can have your data and settings the same as the old drive.
• Upgrading a hard drive. When you want to upgrade to a larger or faster drive, cloning helps transfer everything without the need to reinstall Windows, apps, or reconfigure settings.

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Conclusion

EaseUS Disk Copy allows you to easily clone an external hard drive to another external hard drive, or clone an internal boot hard drive to a new hard drive. Furthermore, you can also use simple-to-use and powerful hard drive cloning software to clone operating system partitions to SSD, transfer files/data from one hard drive to another, etc. Free download it on your PC to explore its fascinating features!

FAQs on Cloning External HDD to Another HDD

The following three questions are highly relevant to how to clone an external hard drive. Check the answers.

1. How to copy an entire external hard drive to another external hard drive on Mac?

You can use Disk Utility to clone an external hard drive to another on a Mac. Here is how:

Step 1. Open Disk Utility

• Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder. Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.

Step 2. Select Source Drive

• In the left sidebar, select the external source drive.
• Click the Restore tab in the top toolbar.

Step 3. Set Destination Drive

• Drag the destination drive from the sidebar into the "Restore to" field.
• Ignore the "Restore from" field if the source is already selected.

Step 4. Start Cloning

• Click the Restore button → Confirm by clicking Erase.
• Wait for completion (time depends on drive size/speed).

2. Why can't I copy to an external hard drive?

There are several potential reasons why you might be unable to copy files to an external hard drive, including issues with the drive itself, connection issues, incorrect permissions, a corrupted target external drive, or insufficient storage on the target drive.

3. Can I clone a larger HDD to a smaller external SSD?

Yes, you can clone a larger HDD to a smaller external SSD, but the used space on the HDD must be less than the SSD's capacity. The process involves connecting both drives to your computer, selecting the source and destination drives within the cloning software, and initiating the cloning process.

4. Can you transfer between two external hard drives?

Yes, data can be transferred between 2 external hard drives. The most straightforward method is to connect both drives to the same computer and then copy and paste or drag and drop files from one drive to the other.

The time it takes to transfer the files will depend on the size of the data and the speed of the hard drives and USB connections. If you're transferring a large amount of data, consider using dedicated disk cloning software to transfer data between 2 drives.