Is it Possible to Clone Disk without Rebooting?

Is it possible to clone disk without rebooting?

No matter you want to upgrade your current disk to a larger one, you tend to move to a new SSD to speed up your computer, or even you just plan to make a duplicate of your disk in case of any future accidents, you may have tried cloning your disk to achieve your goals. However, you have to employ third-party disk cloning software to realize it due to the lack of built-in utility in Windows.

But soon, you might find lots of problem occur while cloning, like Samsung Data Migration Stuck at 99 Percent, Samsung Data Migration interrupted for unknown reason, or cloned hard drive or SSD won't boot, etc. In addition, one of the most annoying issues is the need to reboot Windows while cloning the disk, which has been harassing the majority of users for a long time. So the question "Is it possible to clone disk without rebooting" arises.

Just try the hot clone

To answer the question, you'd better figure out the differences between cold clone and hot clone. Cold clone is a clone method that requires you to clone the disk when your computer is offline. To complete the disk clone successfully, you need to get into Windows PE mode and you are not allowed to use your PC during the cloning process. Only when the clone gets done, you can reboot your Windows and then continue to use it.

Hot clone, however, is another preferable clone method that enables you to use your computer when your disk is being cloned. Using this method, your current workflow won't be interrupted, your running applications won't be shut down, and more importantly, your Windows won't be required to restart.

In other words, hot clone makes it possible to clone disk without rebooting Windows 10. Thus, if you have the planning of cloning your hard drive, hot clone should be the best choice.

How to hot clone disk without rebooting the computer?

After choosing the best clone method, it's time to decide which software can be considered into account to hot clone. The fact proves that not all the third-party utilities can apply hot clone. Luckily, a versatile disk clone software named AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional comes into sight. Its "Disk Clone Wizard" feature has the property of hot clone, allowing you to hot clone any disk you wish to transfer without rebooting the computer. The reasons why it's warmly welcomed among users also have something to do with the following highlights:

It's totally compatible with all Windows editions like Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, XP, or Vista.

If you don't want to clone the whole hard drive, you are able to clone any partitions as you like or you can just migrate OS to SSD, which saves a lot of disk space.

It can clone disk between MBR and GPT disk and won't cause any damage to the system disk or data disk.

This software enables you to optimize your hard drive by adjusting the partition size or performing partition 4k alignment even during the cloning process.

After a new disk is prepared, you can download the demo version to see how to clone disk without rebooting Windows.

Step 1. Install and open AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Go to "Clone" option and "Clone Disk".

Step 2. Select a disk clone method as you like. Here we recommend you to choose "Clone Disk Quickly” for the first time.

"Clone Disk Quickly": It will clone only used space to another disk and allow to adjust the size of partitions.

"Sector-by-Sector Clone": It will clone all sectors to another disk, whether used or not.

Step 3. Select the disk you want to clone as the source disk and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then select another drive as the destination disk and click "Next". Tick "Optimize the performance of SSD" to make partition 4K alignment if you choose SSD as your target disk.

Step 5. In this window, you can adjust the size of the partitions on the new drive. Select the one you like and click "Next".

Copy without resizing partitions: The source disk configuration will be copied on the new disk with same partitions size.

Fit partitions to the entire disk: The partitions on the source disk will occupy the entire destination disk.

Edit partition on this disk: You could change the size of the partitions manually on the new disk.

Step 6. Then, you will back to the main console, click "Finish" and then click "Apply" to commit the operation. 

Note: Wait patiently until the clone process is finished. During the process, it's possible to clone disk without rebooting the computer so that you are able to use your computer as usual and you won't be interrupted by any prompt for restarting.

Conclusion

Is it possible to clone disk without rebooting? Absolutely yes! The hot clone function provided by AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional can complete the copy task perfectly. And in this page, you have learned a step-by-step tutorial about how to perform hot clone via AOMEI software.

It's worth mentioning that this software is not only a clone disk without Windows restart tool, but also a professional partition manager, helping you manage your partitions more effectively by converting MBR to GPT without losing data, resizing partitions to make full use of space, extending C drive to make PC faster, etc. When you meet any problems about partitions and disks, don't hesitate to ask AOMEI Partition Assistant for help.