How to Perform Partition or Volume Clone Easily?
AOMEI Cloner provides the ability to clone a single partition rather than the whole disk. For example, the (C:) partition could be cloned to (D:) on the same drive, or the (E:) partition could be cloned to another disk.
This feature is useful if you would like to just clone one partition instead of the whole disk to another path.
Partition cloning has various practical applications in different scenarios. Here are some common use cases for partition cloning:
Hard Drive Upgrade: When you want to upgrade an old hard drive to a larger capacity or faster drive, partition cloning is a convenient method. You can clone all the data and partition structure from the old drive to the new one, eliminating the need for reinstalling the operating system and applications.
Data Migration: Partition cloning is a fast and efficient way to transfer data from one hard drive or partition to another. This is useful for computer replacement, data backup, or transferring data between different systems.
Experimentation and Testing: In software development and system administration, partition cloning can be used to create identical test environments. You can set up a baseline system, clone it into multiple test environments, and perform various experiments, testing, and debugging.
Create Partition Clone Step by Step
Prerequisites for Partition Clone
- Install AOMEI Cloner on the Windows system you want to clone.
- Connect the source and destination drives (HDD/SSD) to your current Windows computer. Please make sure the destination drive is large enough to contain the system partitions. If it’s a laptop, you still need an external disk enclosure or USB-to-SATA cable.
Note: Partition Clone is a paid feature, so you need to first upgrade to AOMEI Cloner Professional.
Step 1: Initiate Partition Clone
Launch AOMEI Cloner. Click the "Partition Clone" tab.
Step 2: Select Source Partition
Click "Select Source Partition" to select the source partition you want to clone.
Step 3: Select Destination Partition
Click "Select Destination Partition" to select an appropriate unallocated space or an existing partition on the desired disk as the destination partition, and click Next.
Step 4: Preview Clone and Edit Partition (Optional)
Preview the information detailing your source and destination selections.
On the wizard page, you can also set desired advanced settings as follows:
- Edit Partition: Assign a drive letter and set the partition type as either primary or logical. The graphical Partition Bar can be dragged and moved to change the size or location of the partition.
- Sector by sector clone: Copy all sectors of the source partition to the destination partition, whether in use or not. The destination drive/partition size must be equal to or larger than the source partition.
- SSD Alignment: If the destination disk is an SSD, then it is recommended that this option be selected to optimize SSD performance.
Step 5: Start Clone
Finally, click Start Clone, and then you will get a notice. The destination partition or volume will be deleted, and all existing data will be overwritten! Backup important files beforehand.
Click"Start Clone" to confirm and start the cloning process. Wait for the process to complete and then click "Finish". A partition clone can take several hours depending on the size of the source partition.
Notes:
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A partition clone might take several hours depending on the size of the source partitions.
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The source partition cannot be selected as a destination partition.
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Any important data contained on the destination partition must be backed up first before the cloning operation begins, or the data will be lost.
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If the destination partition is locked by other programs and/or applications, AOMEI Cloner will request the computer to restart to execute the partition clone operation in "Restart Mode".
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For encrypted partitions or non-NTFS/FAT32 partitions, AOMEI Cloner will use sector-by-sector clone mode by default.
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Partition Clone can only clone a dynamic volume from a dynamic disk to a basic disk.
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Besides Partition Clone, you can also use it to clone a hard drive to a larger drive, migrate Windows 10 to an M.2 SSD, clone a hard drive to an SSD, clone HDD to SSD via USB cable, clone Windows 10 to NVMe SSD, etc.
Conclusion
Partition cloning holds significant importance in data management, system maintenance, and emergency recovery. It provides a convenient, fast, and reliable method for data backup, system migration, and experimentation, enhancing our capabilities for data protection and system management.
FAQs
Q: Why does the cloned drive become "RAW" after a disk clone?
A: Please verify if your source drive is BitLocker encrypted. In this case, you can just try the disk clone again and check if the destination drive becomes normal. Or, you can decrypt BitLocker encryption and then retry the disk clone.
If the problem still persists, please contact our AOMEI Support Team and attach the log folder under the installation directory of the software so that we can further analyze the problem and help you find solutions.