Easiest Way to Clone a Hard Drive with Multiple Partitions

Can You Clone a Partitioned Hard Drive?

Typically, a hard drive is divided into multiple partitions to help separate operating system files, applications, and personal data, or to install multiple operating systems on the same drive. However, when replacing hard drive with new SSD or HDD, you may be curious about the question: is it possible to clone a hard drive with multiple partitions?

Definitely yes, you can clone hard drive with more than one partition to another drive, only if with the help of professional and powerful disk cloning software like AOMEI Cloner.

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Selecting the right cloning software is crucial for multiple partition disk clone that ensures a successful and smooth process. AOMEI Cloner stands out as a top choice for Windows users. It supports disk cloning, partition cloning, and system cloning, making it an ideal choice for both beginners and professionals.

Why choose AOMEI Cloner for disk clone? Here are some highlighted features of it:
💯Disk Clone - Clones an entire hard drive with all partitions (OS, recovery, boot, data, etc.) to a new disk, ensuring a bootable clone.
💯Partition Clone - Clones a specific partition to another drive if you don't need the entire disk.
💯System Clone - Copies only the system partition(s) and boot-related data to make sure bootability.
💯Intelligent Clone - Only clones used space, allowing cloning from larger to smaller SSD as well as clone hard drive with bad sectors.
💯Sector-by-Sector Clone - Creates an exact replica of your hard drive, including unused space, hidden files, and deleted files.

Get AOMEI Cloner software downloaded to have a try now! It is widely supported on all Windows PCs and Servers.

How to Clone a Hard Drive with Multiple Partitions

To clone all partitions to new SSD from your current drive, without worry about system boot errors, please follow these steps to get it done using AOMEI Cloner easily.

Note:✎...

If you get a new SSD without being initialized, don't worry, AOMEI Cloner will initialize it to an MBR disk by default during the cloning process. If your computer is in UEFI boot mode and requires GPT disks, initialize it using Disk Management in advance.

Step 1. Make sure the SSD is attached to your computer correctly. Open AOMEI Cloner, and then select Clone > Disk Clone in turn.

Step 2. Select the hard drive with multiple partitions as the source disk and click Next. Then, choose the connected SSD as the target disk.

Step 3. Check SSD Alignment to optimize the performance of the SSD. Then click Start Clone to clone hard drive all partitions to new drive.

💥Important Tips:

Don't tick the Sector by sector clone option if you are cloning to a disk with a smaller size, as it will copy all sectors of the source drive.

With the Edit Partitions function, you are able to adjust the partition size of destination disk to avoid the cloned drive not showing full capacity. Also, you can use it to convert disk type if the destination disk’s partition style is different from the source disk's.

FAQs about Cloning Hard Drive with Multiple Partitions

#1. How do I combine multiple partitions into one?

To merge multiple partitions into one, you'll typically need to delete the partitions you want to merge, create unallocated space, and then extend the target partition to encompass that space using Disk Management.

• Back up all important data from the partitions you intend to merge if needed.
• Open Disk Management (right-click Start > Disk Management).
• Right-click a partition and select Delete Volume (data will be lost).
• Extend the remaining partition into unallocated space.

#2. Do you need to partition a drive before cloning?

No, it is not necessary to partition a drive before cloning. Cloning software like AOMEI Cloner will replicate the existing partitions from the source drive to the destination drive, maintaining the original structure. However, if the target drive has partitions, they will be overwritten.

#3. Is it good to have multiple partitions on a hard disk?

Yes, multiple partitions can:

• Organize data better (OS, games, work files, etc.).
• Improve performance (keeping OS separate from personal files).
• Make backups and recovery easier.

#4. What is the difference between disk clone and partition clone?

• Disk Clone → Clone hard drive with all partitions for a 1:1 copy.
• Partition Clone → Copies only a selected partition.

If you are upgrading to a new SSD, Disk Clone is a better option.

#5. Can I clone just one partition?

Yes! Use AOMEI Cloner’s Partition Clone feature if you only need to copy one partition instead of the entire disk.

#6. What happens to partitions when you clone a disk with multiple partitions?

• Same-size destination drive → The cloned drive will have identical partition sizes.
• Larger destination drive → You can adjust partition sizes to utilize extra space.
• Smaller destination drive → Requires intelligent cloning to fit essential data.

The Epilogue

To clone a hard drive with multiple partitions and make the cloned drive bootable, it is of vital importance tochoose a reliable cloning tool. AOMEI Cloner is simple to use and offers Disk Clone, as well as System Clone and Partition Clone for different needs. Besides, it allows you to resize partitions to clone HDD to SSD with different sizes.