Last Updated on June 24, 2026
There are many reasons one might want to clone their hard drive to another hard drive including upgrading to a larger or faster drive or moving your data to a new drive because your current hard drive is failing. Regardless of the reason, cloning your drive is a great way to copy your operating system (Windows), programs and personal files to a new drive so you do not have to reinstall your OS and all your applications and copy all your personal files over to your new drive.
There are several ways to clone a drive such as a disk clone or partition clone. But if you want to make a bootable copy of your Windows drive, you will need to do an OS or system clone. In this article, we will be showing you how to clone your Windows system drive using Macrium Reflect.
FYI you can still download and use the older Macrium Reflect for free to clone your drives. Check out our video on the process here.
Starting the Cloning Process
1. Launch Macrium Reflect
Once you have Macrium Reflect downloaded and installed, simply run the program from your desktop shortcut. Ensure you open the application with full administrator privileges. Click on the Create Backups tab located near the top left corner of the main interface.
2. Select the Source Drive
Then you will need to select the hard drive that currently has Windows installed on it. This primary system drive should be selected by default with a blue checkmark next to it. Verify the drive letter and total capacity to ensure accuracy.
3. Initiate the Clone Feature
Under the drive partitions will be a link that says Clone this disk that you will need to click on to start the process. One thing you may want to do first is run your normal file backup to an external drive. This guarantees you have a current copy of your data just in case something goes wrong with the cloning process.
Configuring the Destination Drive
1. Choose the Target Disk
A new window will appear on your screen. You will then need to click on the link that says Select a disk to clone to in order to choose the destination drive. This opens a menu showing all the other hard drives currently connected to your computer.
2. Copy the Partitions
Once you have your destination disk selected, you can click on Copy Partitions. You must then decide if you want your partition sizes from the source disk to be the exact same size on the destination disk.
3. Expand the Partition Size
If you are cloning to a larger hard drive, you can choose the Shrink or extend to fill the target disk option. This guarantees that all the available space on your new drive will be ready for use. If you do not choose this option, you will be left with leftover unallocated space on your destination disk.
4. Verify the New Layout
As you can see in the image below, the C drive on the source disk is 64GB while the matching partition on the destination disk is 100GB. The software successfully expanded the partition to fill the new drive. Once you are sure everything looks correct, you can click on the Finish button to move on to the next step.
Running the Clone and Swapping Drives
1. Skip the Backup Definition File
You will then be prompted to save your backup configuration in case you want to use it again later. This is probably not necessary since you will most likely only be performing the clone process one time. If you do not want to save your backup configuration, simply uncheck the box next to Save as a Backup Definition File. Click on the OK button to proceed.
2. Monitor the Cloning Progress
Now the cloning procedure will take place. You will see a status indicator telling you exactly how far along in the process you are. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours depending on the speed of your drives and the amount of data being transferred.
3. Verify the Cloned Disk
Once the cloning process is complete, you can open the Windows Disk Management tool. You will see your original and cloned drive listed in the interface. They should look completely identical except for the overall size of the main Windows partition.
4. Boot From the New Drive
The final step involves making the cloned disk the primary drive so your computer boots from this new drive rather than the older drive. You may need to go into your BIOS\UEFI settings and manually change the boot order. You can also simply remove the old drive entirely so the only bootable drive in your computer is the newly cloned drive.
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