Free Drive Cloning Applications

Free software to duplicate and backup SSDs and hard drives. Video demonstrates Samsung Data Migration (now part of the Samsung Magician app), DiskGenius, Clonezilla Live, and the Linux DD command.

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
Make sure that you download from the official publisher links below -- not from the first link that may appear in a Google search! :)

Samsung Data Migration:
Note that since the video was made, Samsung Data Migration has been integrated into the free Samsung Magician app, which is available here:

My recent video on M.2 Adapters & USB Enclosures is here:

If you are interested in the drive and related hardware I use, including adapters and enclosures for connecting drives for cloning, it can all be found in my two Amazon storefronts:

Please note that as an Amazon Associate I earn a commission from any qualifying purchases that you may make.

For additional ExplainingComputers videos and other content, you can learn about becoming a channel member here:

More videos on computing and related topics can be found at:

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
02:30 Samsung Data Migration
05:43 DiskGenius
10:36 Clonezilla Live
15:49 Linux DD command
17:14 Drive Backups

#Cloning #SSD #Drive #DriveClone #explainingcomputers

[lesliedeana]

It's amazing how many times you happen to produce videos of what i either currently need, or have just used! As always, excellent content, sir! ❤

[CharlesClout]

This is excellent for anyone who needs to clone their existing drives. Most (if not all) of the top results on search engines are horrid nagware that I wouldn't want anywhere near my computers. Another great video for a Sunday afternoon. 👍

[johnbaumert]

"It's good to be going into Windows.... Well generally it isn't" - Great humor Chris and great timing on these videos as I need to do an upgrade. Thanks!!

[thatsnotthepoint-__-]

Just wanted to stop by and say thank you for all the years of excellent content. You have remained incredibly consistent and your way of explaining things is done in a manner most can easily understand.

[blinkinglightsandsmokingcaps]

Back in the late 1990s I used to support an obscure and long forgotten PC operating system, and needed my test server to be running various different versions of that OS to match whatever the customer was running, as well as various versions of NT. I made tape backups of each installation using a Slackware installation floppy set and the 'dd' command, which allowed me to get my test server up and running with the relevant version of the OS at short notice - far quicker than reinstalling each server from scratch and applying the various patches.

[TheSemtexCow]

Can you believe it’s been so long since I’ve done this I needed to look it up.
Should have known you’d be near the top of the search list.
Thanks Chris.

[dvtion]

I like CloneZilla. When my HDD started making noises, I was able to migrate everything to a SSD with no fuss. Clonezilla is a bit more nerdy to use, but gives the freedom to migrate and resize rather than having to install anything on Windows. I'm also wary of cloning a running system disk.

[PaulG.x]

14:28 This is the beauty of Clonzilla: You can copy the command line displayed here and paste it next time you want to repeat the process without having to go through the menus all over again. Great for cloning a drive for back up purposes.

Two other Free and Open Source alternative are Redo Rescue and Rescuezilla . Both use a GUI rather than a text based interface.
Rescuezilla was forked from Redo Backup and Recovery in 2019 after a long period of inactivity since 2012. In 2020 the original project was resumed with the shorter name Redo Rescue icon Redo Rescue .
Both are derived from Clonezilla and are fully compatible with Clonezilla disc images.

[bradw]

I greatly appreciate videos like this. They save me a lot of time when I'm trying to tackle a problem, and this is EXACTLY one of the problems that vexed me recently. Thank you for such consistently informative content.

[robind]

I can't remember ever posting in the comment section for this channel before.
But I just love this channel. As you are trying to help and enlighten overs. Thank you.

[charlesuk]

Have to admire the simplicity of the Samsung migration software, given how small the difference in drive costs are now it seems worth it for a Novice/first timer like me.
Thank you for such a thorough and useful comparison vid/tutorial

[BWGPEI]

Another very fine production! And timely for me, as my Clonezilla USB Live key was dead when I wanted it yesterday. With Many Thanks to you, I can now try to rebuild it it using Linux Mint.

[lawrencedoliveiro]

16:00 Actually, if you look at the man page for dd, the synopsis says “convert and copy a file”. When it was being created, it couldn’t be called “cc”, because that name was already used for the C compiler. So the author used the next letter on, and called it “dd”.

This has also (semi-facetiously) been interpreted to stand for “data destroyer”, in recognition of what can happen if you get certain parameters wrong ...

[leskaighin]

Straight forward, clear and to the point. What more could one ask for. Brilliant as ever.

[WybooHarry]

Excellent video. Your references to additional partitions is especially important with certain computer brands such as Lenovo which have numerous system portions.

[ragingbombast]

Macrium Reflect Free going away is a tragedy. Great little piece of software.

[StridentWright]

Perfect!! I literally just decided to buy a new drive and clone my old one and “Hey presto!” the universe delivers unto me a video all about it from my favorite techno-teacher ♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪

[amritrai]

For past 2 months, I have been looking for cloning applications, but none were explained with much details as you did. Finally I hope I can do the cloning done this week itself. Thanks!!!

[edwardaudet]

I have used a few different types of cloning software and the one you mention that's going away I liked the best. Almost all the drive company's use to have software for cloning but you had to have their name brand drive. I have to admit some of the ones you have mentioned I did not know existed. Thanks for another informative Video, everytime I look at your videos there is always something new to learn. The best Ed

[warp]

Thanks for this video! I was having trouble getting Samsung's software to migrate the Windows C-drive to a new SSD, had tried and been totally disappointed by the free AOMEI program (where all it did was display ads for their paid products) - but found that DiskGenius worked perfectly! Thank you for pointing me to it! (My daughter thanks you too, it was her system I was upgrading)!