This tutorial is about how to copy disk using AOMEI Partition Assistant.
The disk copy feature allows users to copy the entire contents of a hard drive to another. However, the disk copy command does not recommend being used for any disk but a floppy diskette. Fortunately, AOMEI Partition Assistant has added this new feature and makes partition copy and disk copy easy and secure.
If you would like to clone a current system drive, it is a paid feature. If you would like to use this feature, please first upgrade to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, Server, or above versions. It is free to clone a data drive.
1. Launch Partition Assistant and right-click the disk you want to clone (here we select disk 1) and select "Clone Disk". (You could also click the "Clone" main tab> "Clone Disk" on the top Disk Operations list.
2. In the pop-up window, Partition Assistant offers two disk copy methods "Clone Disk Quickly" and "Sector-by-Sector Clone". Here we take the first method and click "Next".
Tips: If you choose "Clone Disk Quickly", the target disk could be smaller than the source disk but must be larger than the used space. If you choose "Sector-by-Sector Clone", the target disk must be equal to or larger than the source disk.
3. Select a disk as the destination disk (here we select disk 2). When you click next it will pop up a box that reminds you the data on the target disk will be deleted.
4. Click "Next" and then it will turn to the next page where you can edit the disk in three different options. Click "Next".
Notes:
"Clone without resizing partition": means keeping the size of source partitions.
"Fit partitions to entire disk": means the program automatically adjusts the size of the partition to fit the entire disk.
"Edit partitions on this disk": means resizing the partition size on the disk by you.
5. In the next page, you will get a reminder "How to boot computer from destination disk", and then click "Finish".
6. You can preview the disk cloning operation by viewing the "Pending Operations". To commit the "Pending Operations", please click "Apply" and "Proceed".
Is that simple? You could not only copy a disk but also copy partition to other disk you want.
Following the above steps, you can easily copy a drive (both the current system drive and your data drive) on your computer to another HDD or SSD. As a result, you can replace your system drive with a larger HDD or SSD to improve your computer performance. If you run a data drive copy, you can easily migrate your data on one hard drive to another one to make a backup copy.
Besides, Partition Assistant also offers other useful functions to manage your computer drives, for example, migrate OS to SSD, and convert MBR to GPT, and so on.
Notes:
Pay attention when copy disk 1 to disk 2. All data on disk 2 will be erased and destroyed. Besides, you could not copy the disk to a dynamic disk.
If you clone a current system drive, to ensure the destination disk is accessible and bootable after the cloning process, you should install the target disk internally. And, if the source disk and target disk are of different types (one uses MBR mode and the other uses GPT mode), you have to modify the boot mode in BIOS/UEFI when you boot from the target drive.
FAQs:
Q: Can I connect the destination drive via a USB connector during disk copy?
A: Yes, you can connect the destination drive via a USB connector during disk copy. But after successful disk copy process, please connect the cloned drive internally to boot from it.
Q: After disk copy, will the source system be deleted or not bootable?
A: Disk clone won't take any effect on source system.
Q: After disk copy, how to change the drive letter of the system partition on the destination disk into C:?
A: When you boot from the cloned drive, Windows will assign letter C to this partition automatically, so you can't manually assign letter C to the partition.