Best Clonezilla Alternative for Windows 11/10/8/7 Computer

What is Clonezilla?

Clonezilla is a robust and freely available software known for its exceptional disk imaging and cloning capabilities. It supports HDD and SSD clones on Microsoft Windows OS and GNU/Linux. This tool simplifies the process of cloning entire systems and offers reliable bare-metal backup and recovery options.

It can handle various file systems. And with extensive compatibility, it enables users to clone various operating systems, including Windows 10, 8, and 7.

How does Clonezilla clone disk?

Clonezilla provides two command line-based cloning modes: "Device to image" and "Device to device." It is a robust and reliable free, open-source disk imaging and cloning software that can effectively replicate hard drives or partitions for most users' needs at no cost.

Step 1. Download Clonezilla Live and prepare boot media as required.

Step 2. Connect your second hard drive to your PC, and boot your computer from the Clonezilla Live USB or DVD you've created. When Clonezilla loads for the first time, accept the default settings by hitting Enter.

Step 3. To start the clone wizard, you'll go through a string of settings. There, choose your language, choose the default option "don't touch keymap" while asking, and choose "Start Clonezilla" when asked to choose "Start Clonezilla" or " Enter Shell".

Step 4. Choose a cloning mode between "device-image" and "device-device".

Step 5. Take one more step to get into the wizard here. Clonezilla will ask you to choose either a "Beginner" mode or an "Expert" mode to start. As it is a command-line program, advanced options are only available in the "Expert" mode. To make this guide simple to follow, we'll only display the Beginner's mode wizard in the next moves.

Step 6. Choose an option for how you want to clone your disk. Option one is for you to create an exact copy of everything on your hard drive, while Option two is for you to copy only one partition to an external hard drive.

Step 7. Choose the source drive to clone. The disk name is the device name in GNV/Linux. The first disk in the system is "hda" or "sda", the 2nd disk is "hdb" or "sdb"... It's hard to identify your drive in this way, but it's quite important to choose the right one.

Step 8. Choose the target drive according to the device name as well. The data on the source drive will be totally copied into this drive.

Step 9. In the final, set an option to reboot your computer or later after cloning and start the clone wizard after all settings.

Why do you need a Clonezilla alternative?

Although you can use this tool to clone your disk, this tool may not be your best choice.

1. The absence of a graphical user interface makes Clonezilla unfriendly to beginners.
Upon first glance at Clonezilla's disk cloning process screenshots, it becomes evident that it primarily relies on text and command lines. This can be quite cumbersome, especially when trying to illustrate procedures in a guide. Furthermore, individuals lacking a strong IT background may easily make mistakes, such as cloning the wrong hard drive or encountering mid-process failures, which could lead to catastrophic consequences for both their system and data.

2. Another inconvenience arises from the need to select different download versions for Legacy BIOS and UEFI-based machines.
This step can be perplexing, as all versions of Clonezilla live support machines with legacy BIOS. However, if your machine employs UEFI secure boot, you must opt for the AMD64 (X86-64) version (either Debian-based or Ubuntu-based) of Clonezilla live. For the average user, determining their BIOS mode can be a challenging task.

3. It's essential to note that Clonezilla is a free and open-source software devoid of any customer support.
Users are left to search for answers and solutions on forums when encountering problems related to Clonezilla. Consequently, unless you feel confident in your ability to handle potential issues, it's advisable not to rely solely on Clonezilla for imaging or cloning your hard drive data, as there are no guarantees of success.

Best Clonezilla alternative for easy clone

It would be ideal to have a Clonezilla substitute utility that could compensate for all of its drawbacks. AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a trustworthy disk cloning application for Windows users. You may think of it as a full Clonezilla disk cloning alternative solution that streamlines the entire cloning operation in a few clicks. In fact, aside from ease of use, it outperforms Clonezilla in many other ways:

1. No bootable media requires.
2. No commands need.
3. Supports Windows 11 OS and all disks and drives of all brands.
4. Supports cloning large disk to a smaller disk.

Step 1.Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, click the "Clone" main tab and select "Clone Disk". (You can also right-click the Disk you want to clone and select the "Clone Disk" tool to run disk clone.)

Step 2. Choose the hard disk that you need to clone as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 3. Select the destination disk to put the data of the source disk on, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you will enter the Confirm interface where you can check the source and destination disk. After all is set, you can click the "Confirm" button to continue.

In lower left corner of the window, you can click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk. There are three options for you:

• Clone without resizing partitions: all partitions will be cloned to the target disk as the original partition size. It is available when the target disk is larger than the source disk. If it is smaller, this option will be grayed out.
• Fit partitions to entire disk: all partitions will be cloned to the target disk and take up its full capacity according to the original partition size proportion.
• Edit partitions on this disk: you can change every partition size on the target disk as you need.

After finishing the adjustment, please click "Save".

Notes:

• You can tick "4k alignment" to improve the reading and writing speed of SSD if the selected destination disk is an SSD storage.
• All data on this selected destination disk will be wiped out after you save the operation to physical disk. If there is important data on the destination drive, please make a backup in advance.
• If you clone to a smaller SSD, the first option is grayed out. If you select Sector-by-Sector Clone, it is unable to adjust the size on the destination disk.

Step 5. You can preview the disk cloning operating by viewing the "Pending Operations". To commit the "Pending Operations", please click "Apply" and "Proceed".

Step 6. The cloning process will start and you can check the cloning process.

Ending

As a better Clonezilla alternative, AOMEI Partition Assistant excels with its multifunctionality, user-friendly interface, and straightforward operation, making it a superior choice for cloning HDD or SSD within the Windows OS environment.

In terms of versatility, the Wizards pane offers a wide array of capabilities. For instance, you can seamlessly transfer your operating system to a new hard drive using the "Migrate OS" feature, create a bootable USB drive using the "Make Bootable Media" wizard, and effortlessly convert between MBR and GPT using the "MBR to GPT Converter", and there are PC cleaner, App mover, Duplicate file finder, and so on.