Some people are looking for a quick and easy way to clone SD card to PC and they may resort to some third-party SD card clone software. If you are struggling with this issue, don’t worry, this article on MiniTool Website will teach you how to clone SD card to PC or a larger card.
Why Should You Clone an SD Card?
SD card is a memory device of a new generation based on semiconductor flash memory. It boasts many excellent characteristics, such as small size and fast data transmission speed, and is widely used in portable devices, such as digital cameras, tablet computers, and multimedia players.
Nowadays, more and more people would like to choose SD cards as one storage device. But during this process, how to replace the new SD card with your old memory device, at the same time, with your data being safely transmitted and protected?
You can use SD card clone software to copy SD card to PC. Apart from that, there are some other situations you may prefer to clone SD card rather than manually copy and paste data.
1. Data backup and recovery of SD card for data protection. For this use, cloning an SD card to PC would be a good option as a one-time operation for file backup. Of course, you can also use the Backup feature to copy what’s more important in the SD card.
For detailed steps, you can refer to this article: 3 Ways to Back up SD Card to Computer for Data Protection.
2. Upgrading to a larger SD card. If you are prepared to change to another larger SD card while keeping all the data stored, you can clone an SD card on a PC so that no files will get lost.
3. Creating a bootable drive. Some people may want to create another bootable drive for their computers. If your SD card is where your system-included partitions exist, you can clone the SD card to other hard drives so that you can prepare another bootable drive.
Some people may struggle between SD card cloning and backup, so which one is better? If you want to upgrade the SD card without reinstalling OS, a cloning is a better choice. If you just want to back up the data in an SD card to an image file, data backup can easily realize the demand.
Then if you have one of the above demands, you can start the process by using useful SD card clone software as we introduced later. But before that, you may check for the preparatory work in the following contents.
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Before You Clone an SD Card
Before you clone an SD card, you may need to do the following work:
1. Prepare your target drive where your data in the SD card will be stored. Remember to choose the one that has enough storage space to save the data from the source and connect it to your computer. It should be larger than, or at least, equal to the used space of your original SD card.
2. Prepare an SD card reader. An SD card reader is used to access the files on the SD card and read or write the data correspondingly. You need to make sure the SD card is properly plugged into a card reader and the card reader is well connected to the computer.
3. Download and install SD card cloning software. Cloning an SD card is a fussy and complicated task requiring a long time to complete. In this way, some useful software is born to shorten the time and simplify the procedures. The following software we recommend next can be your priority to choose for cloning.
How to Clone an SD Card to a PC?
Tool 1: MiniTool ShadowMaker
As free backup software, MiniTool ShadowMaker has developed many excellent additional functions and features for a better user experience. Here, MiniTool provides some options as your backup sources, including systems, files & folders, and partitions & disks.
You are allowed to change backup schemes and perform an automatic backup. If you want to clone disks, there is also a dedicated option – Clone Disk – making everything easier to run. This free disk clone solution can help upgrade the hard drive without OS reinstallation.
To clone SD card to PC, you need to download and install MiniTool ShadowMaker first by pressing the following button and you will get a 30-day free trial version. This tool supports Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11, Windows Server, and Workstation.
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Please make sure your SD card and the target drive have been both connected to your computer and then you can start the process with simple steps.
Step 1: When the installation succeeds, launch the program to click Keep Trial in the bottom right corner.
Step 2: After you enter the main interface, go to the Tools tab where you can choose the Clone Disk feature.
Step 3: Then you will go to another page to choose your source disk. Here, all your connected drives will be displayed and you need to choose the SD card that you prepare to clone.
When the source has been settled, click Next to choose where to store your cloned data. After that, click Start to initiate the cloning process.
Then you will see a warning message that tells you data on the target disk will be destroyed and you need to click OK to confirm that you want to continue the task.
Then you can see an operation progress that will show you the remaining time and elapsed time.
Wait for a while until the task ends and you will receive a message that means both the source disk and the target disk have the same signature, thus one disk is marked as offline by Windows. Under the circumstance, you need to remove the one that you don’t need.
If you don’t want to wait for that, you can check the box next to Shut down the computer when the operation is completed. With that, your computer will shut down automatically and you can take either the source disk or the target disk out of the computer after the cloning.
Tool 2: MiniTool Partition Wizard
Another MiniTool software that can help clone SD card to PC is MiniTool Partition Wizard. It is a professional partition manager, applied for many uses. For example, it can manage disk partitions, perform data recovery, copy disks, or migrate OS to SSD or HD.
To clone SD card to PC, you can use the Copy Disk Wizard feature to clone all the partitions and data in an SD card to another target drive. With simple steps, you can easily get things done. Here is the way.
First of all, download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard by clicking this button.
MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 1: Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard and get into the main interface where you can choose Copy Disk Wizard from the toolbar.
Step 2: Click Next when the Copy Disk Wizard window pops up. Then you can select a disk to copy and click Next to go on with the moves.
Step 3: Select the destination drive where the copy data will be stored and click Next. After that, a small warning box will appear to confirm your selection and you need to click Yes for affirmation,
Step 4: For the next operation, you will be asked to choose copy options and change selected partitions. There are some explanations for individual options:
- Fit partitions to entire disk – With different sizes of these two disks, this option can fit partitions to occupy all the disk space on the target disk.
- Copy partitions without resizing – The original partition size will remain unchanged and the disk layout on the target disk will be the same as the SD card.
- Align partitions to 1MB – If you are using SSDs, it is highly recommended to choose the Align partitions to 1MB option, which can improve disk performance.
- Use GUID Partition Table for the target disk – This feature can convert your target disk drive to GPT. But only the Professional Edition or an advanced one is available.
When all of these finish, a Please NOTE window will jump up to tell you how to boot your PC from the destination disk and you can click Finish to go back to the main interface where you need to click the Apply button to execute all the operations you have made.
Bottom Line:
The above introduced tools can help clone SD card to PC and no matter which tool you decide to choose; we believe they can do the utmost effort for your use. These two clone software have some additional functions for enhancements, bringing better services than you expected.
If you have encountered any issues when using MiniTool software, you can leave a message in the following comment zone and we will reply as soon as possible. If you need any help when using MiniTool software, you may contact us via [email protected].