What does "Sector by Sector Copy" mean?
A sector by sector copy ensures that destination partition/hard disk is exactly the same as source partition/hard disk. It will copy all the sectors no matter it is used or not, even if the sector is blank or it is a logically bad sector. As a result, the target will be equal in size to the disk being copied after the process. This feature is very practical when one wants to make an entire clone for one partition or disk.
How to copy disk or partition sector by sector?
To clone a disk or partition sector by sector, you can totally rely on AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.
- ★Before you do:
- When you do sector by sector copy for a partition, you must store the copy to an unallocated space. If there is no unallocated space, you could delete or shrink other partitions to create an unallocated space. (Note: sector by sector copy for disk needs no unallocated space.)
- The destination partition/disk should be equal or larger than source partition/disk.
- Backup or transfer the vital document from destination partition/disk, because they will be overwritten after sector by sector copy.
- “Sector by Sector Copy” will copy not only the used sector, but also the unused sector, so it will take longer time than “Copy Disk Quickly” and “Copy Partition Quickly”.
Step 1. Open AOMEI Partition Assistant and look at the Wizards on the lefts side of the main window. Choose "Disk Clone Wizard" or "Partition Clone Wizard".
Disk Copy:
Partition Copy:
Tip: Since disk copy shares the same operating steps with partition copy, we will only demonstrate partition copy through the rest of steps.
Step 2. Look at the Partition copy wizard, there are two options - "Copy Partition Quickly" and "Sector by Sector Copy". Choose the second option and click “Next” to continue.
Step 3. As a result of Step 2, you will get a new window as below. Choose a source partition and then click “Next”. (as you can see from the following screenshot, I choose D partition as source partition)
Step 4. Choose a destination partition. You can only choose an unallocated space as the destination Partition. Click “Next” to go to next step.
Step 5. Put the mouse on F partition, you will see a cross arrow. You can specify the location of F partition by dragging it left or right. Click “Finish” to continue.
Step 6. Click “Apply” to execute all the operations.
- ★Tips:
- If you copy system partition/disk the operation need to be completed under the PreOS Mode.
- Before cloning system disk or partition sector by sector to another disk, of which the partition style is different from the source disk, you have to ensure your computer motherboard supports changing boot mode from Legacy to UEFI (MBR to GPT clone ), or UEFI to Legacy (GPT to MBR clone). Otherwise, the cloned disk cannot boot afterward.