How to Clone Disk While Running Windows - 2024 Update

Can I clone a hard drive while Windows is running?

My OS is running and I want to clone the SSD simultaneously. Is that ok? This is a question from the Superuser forum:

"Can you clone a bootable drive while Windows is running, than simply restart the PC and use the new disk as the boot drive? If not, why? If yes, do you know any good software for doing it?"   - from Super User 

Of course, you can clone disk while running Windows. Most of the time, we need to clone drives mainly based on the following points:

◥ Users can continue working while cloning hard drives without wasting time.
◥ If something unexpected happens, the user can terminate the clone in time.
◥ Avoid rebooting into Windows PE mode or PreOS mode after cloning, making the cloning more convenient.

Market-leading software: Clone disk while running Windows without losing data

Although there are many cloning software on the market, most of them need to perform the cloning in a shutdown state or reboot Windows after the cloning is completed. This makes the entire cloning process inefficient and cumbersome.

To make the cloning process more convenient and simple, the software AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional can help you a lot. Its built-in Disk Clone feature provides Hot Clone technology, which means that users can clone drive while Windows running, and there is no need to reboot after the clone completed.

It is worth mentioning that Clone Disk allows you to clone the entire target disk to a new disk, including the OS and personal data. But if you just want to migrate OS to HDD/SSD, you can try Migrate OS to SSD feature, which supports moving only Windows system related partitions to new disk without reinstalling.

Please download the clone software to see how to clone disk when running Windows 10, 8, 7, and 11.

▶ Part 1. What to do before cloning disk?

① Please initialize the SSD first if it is brand new. AOMEI Partition Assistant can automatically identify unformatted SSDs and help you initialize SSD to MBR or GPT format.

②  Install the new disk to desktop or laptop. If your electronic device has only one disk slot, you may need a SATA to USB adapter to connect it.

③ You need to note that the partition style must be compatible with boot mode (UEFI and Legacy BIOS). To avoid changing the boot mode after cloning, you'd better keep the partition style of the new disk consistent with the partition style of the source disk. So, please convert to GPT or MBR if necessary.

▶ Part 2. Clone disk while running Windows step by step

AOMEI Partition Assistant provides several cloning methods, including disk cloning, partition cloning, and system migration. Among other things, it also allows you to perform step-by-step sector cloning and skip bad sectors. The tool has a simple interface suitable for all users.

Follow the steps and clone hard drive Windows 10:

Download the tool for free and clone your hard disk successfully while Windows is running:

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, click "Clone" in the main interface, and select "Clone Disk".

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 store the data on the source disk, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to “Sector to Sector clone”, and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.

Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk or tick "4k alignment" to improve the reading and writing speed of SSD if the target disk is an SSD drive.

Step 5. At last, click "Apply" and "Proceed" in the main interface to start cloning the hard drive.

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a high-speed disk copy software. The tool allows you to clone drive in Windows while the operating system is running without rebooting or losing any data.

▶ Part 3. Boot from cloned disk successfully

If it is a data disk, you just need to install it on the computer to use it. But for the system disk, if you want to boot Windows from the cloned disk. You must restart the PC, enter the BIOS, and change the boot order to boot the computer from the cloned disk.

FAQs About Clone Disk While Running Windows

Can you clone a SSD while in use?

Sure. You can clone an SSD while in use. Windows will not reboot after cloning.

Can I use my PC while cloning the hard drive?

Cloning is a separate task on your computer and you can use your computer while cloning. But too much activity can affect the process. For this reason, it is recommended that you use a professional cloning tool - AOMEI Partition Assistant - and carry out activities with less impact.

How do I clone a hard drive with an operating system?

You can choose a professional cloning tool, such as AOMEI Partition Assistant to clone a disk including an operating system. You can choose to clone the whole disk or migrate the operating system:

• Select the disk including the operating system as the source disk and choose Next.
• Select the destination disk.
• Check the disk layout and start the task.

Conclusion

As you see from what has been discussed above, this is the full guide to clone disk while running Windows. With the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro - one of the best disk copy software, you can clone system drive when Windows running and you can also clone Windows to SSD free.

Besides that, there are more advanced features are waiting for you to unlock. If you need to clone disk while Windows Serve running, you should switch to AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.