How To Clone HDD To SSD In Linux

Cloning a hard drive to an SSD is a great way to upgrade or replace an existing drive without having to reinstall the operating system. Cloning is a process where an exact copy of the source drive is made on the target drive, making it easy to upgrade or replace an existing drive without having to reinstall the operating system. In this tutorial, we will explain how to clone an HDD to an SSD in Linux.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need the following:

• A working Linux system
• A source hard drive
• A target SSD
• A USB drive with at least the same capacity as the source drive

Step 1 – Connect the Hard Drives

The first step is to connect the source drive and the target SSD to your system. If you are using a laptop, you can use the internal drives. If you are using a desktop, you can use the internal or external drives. Make sure to connect the source drive to the primary SATA port and the target SSD to the secondary SATA port.

Step 2 – Create a Bootable USB Drive

Once the drives are connected, you need to create a bootable USB drive with a Linux live CD. There are several Linux distributions that you can use, such as Ubuntu or Fedora. Download the ISO image of the Linux distribution and use a tool like Rufus to create a bootable USB drive.

Step 3 – Boot from the USB Drive

Once the USB drive is created, you need to boot from it. To do this, insert the USB drive into your system and restart it. When the system starts, press the boot device selection key, which is usually F8, F10, or F12. Select the USB drive from the list of boot devices and press Enter.

Step 4 – Install GParted

Once you have booted into the Linux system, you need to install GParted, which is a partition manager. To install GParted, open the terminal and run the following command:

sudo apt-get install gparted

Step 5 – Resize the Partition

Once GParted is installed, you need to resize the partition on the source drive. To do this, open GParted and select the source drive from the drop-down menu. Then, click and drag the partition to resize it. Make sure to leave enough space for the target SSD.

Step 6 – Clone the Hard Drive

Once the partition is resized, you can clone the source drive to the target SSD. To do this, you need to use a tool like Clonezilla. Clonezilla is a free and open-source disk cloning and backup tool. To clone the source drive to the target SSD, open the terminal and run the following command:

sudo clonezilla -s /dev/sda -t /dev/sdb

This command will clone the source drive to the target drive. Once the cloning process is complete, you can remove the source drive and boot from the target SSD.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have explained how to clone an HDD to an SSD in Linux. We have also shown how to create a bootable USB drive, install GParted, resize the partition, and clone the source drive to the target SSD. It is an easy and straightforward process that can save you time and effort when upgrading or replacing an existing drive.