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6 February 2024  John Weaver  Senior Program Developer
 

Summary
Discover the best tools to clone IDE hard drives to SATA hard drives in this recommended article for users seeking to upgrade their hardware.



Table of contents

table iconI. What are IDE hard disk and SATA hard disk, and what is the difference between them?
table iconII. What software supports cloning IDE hard drives to SATA hard drives?
clone ide hard drive

I. What are IDE hard disk and SATA hard disk, and what is the difference between them?

IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics, which is the transmission interface of the hard disk. Also known as ATA and PATA interface, ATA is the initial standard for hard disk interface and has widespread usage. Despite its low data transfer rate, IDE hard drives are suitable for basic computer operations like file reading and writing, and they are cost-effective. Consequently, certain manufacturers continue to utilize IDE hard drives as computer storage devices.
SATA is a new hard disk interface specification proposed by Intel, IBM, Maxtor, and Seagate. Advantages of SATA hard drives include hot swapping support, fast transmission speed, and high execution efficiency. SATA interface drives, also known as serial hard disks, have replaced IDE hard disks, which are traditional parallel hard disks.
The main difference between SATA and IDE hard disks is the interface standard. SATA conforms to the SATA interface standard, while IDE conforms to the PATA interface standard. Additionally, SATA hard disks have a higher transmission speed compared to IDE hard disks. SATA has undergone several updates, including SATA1.0, SATA2.0, and SATA3.0. The transfer rate for SATA 1.0 is 150MB/s, SATA 2.0 is 300MB/s, and SATA 3.0 is 600MB/s. In contrast, IDE or PATA interface offers a maximum speed of 133 MB/s.
To clone an IDE hard disk to a SATA hard disk, I suggest using specific software.

II. What software supports cloning IDE hard drives to SATA hard drives?

1. Renee Becca

Renee Becca is a specialized tool for system/hard disk data backup and restoration. It efficiently backs up and restores important computer data, including programs, system configuration, emails, photos, videos, documents, and bookmarks. Additionally, it offers disk and system cloning with three methods: hard disk cloning, partition cloning, and system migration. Choose the appropriate cloning method based on your specific requirements.
Renee Becca - Reliable Data Backup & Restore Software

Quick Backup files at up to 3,000MB/min.

Fullfill different backup needs Supports system backup, disk / partition backup, file backup and disk clone.

Intelligent Automatically analyze the differences between source and backup data.

Convenient Support VSS, allowing to freely view webpages when backing up system.

Highly compatible Supports various files and storage devices.

Quick Backup files at up to 3,000MB/min.

Fullfill different backup needs Backup for disk, partition and system. Save disk space by backing up incremental /differential data.

Highly compatible Supports various files and storage devices.

Free TrialFree Trial 2000 users have downloaded and enjoy Renee Becca!
How to use Renee Becca to clone hard drives?
Preparations: Check whether the computer motherboard supports SATA
● If your computer motherboard supports SATA, use a SATA cable and power cord to connect the SATA hard disk to your PC.
● If your computer motherboard does not support SATA, purchase an IDE-to-SATA adapter to connect the SATA hard disk to your PC.
After the preparations are complete, proceed as follows:
Step 1: Download, install, and run Renee Becca. Select the option (Hard Disk Clone/Clone System Disk) in the main interface.
Description of Renee Becca clone function:
Hard Disk Clone/Clone System Disk: Creates an exact copy of the selected disk. It supports moving the partition boundary with the mouse to adjust the partition size, and cloning the system disk so that the cloned hard disk can be started.
Partition Clone: Creates an exact copy of the selected partition.
System Redeploy: Support to migrate the system to another hard disk.
renee becca disk clone
Step 2: Select the IDE hard disk and pre-replaced SATA hard disk in the “Hard Disk Clone” pop-up window. Adjust partition size or create a new partition as needed. For system partition cloning, check "Make the target disk bootable" and click "Clone" to execute the command. Backup important data on the SATA hard disk before cloning.
advantage:
  • The software interface is simple and clear, easy to understand and operate.
  • A variety of backup and restore functions are available for free choice.
  • The system can be directly migrated to a new hard drive, retaining the original system data.
  • Daily/weekly/monthly automatic backup plans can be made.
  • Support multiple backup modes such as differential backup and incremental backup.
  • Supports hard disk/partition cloning.

shortcoming:Only Windows system is supported.

2. Paragon Drive Copy

Paragon Drive Copy is a useful disk cloning tool that supports cloning the operating system, drivers, settings, applications, and documents to other disks or computers. It utilizes the permission Hot Copy technology to improve data cloning speed and save time.
Paragon Drive Copy
advantage:The software is simple to use.

shortcoming:The interface is not beautiful.

3. EaseUS Todo Backup

EaseUS Todo Backup is a powerful tool for hard disk cloning, data backup, and restoration. It offers three modes for cloning (hard disk, partition, and system) and various backup options (full, scheduled, and incremental). With this software, you can easily back up important data like systems, documents, applications, and emails. It also provides customization options for compression, priority, backup segmentation, encryption, offline copy, and file filtering to meet your specific backup needs.
EaseUS Todo Backup
advantage:
  • The software function is very comprehensive and powerful.
  • Allows to customize and resize partitions.
  • Cloning is faster

shortcoming:The operation is more complicated.