Freeware to Copy Partition to Another Drive in Windows 10, 8, 7

With the free AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, you can easily clone partition to another drive or disk in Windows 10, 8, 7. It also allows you to clone C drive to another drive effectively.

By Emily / Last Updated March 10, 2021

Reasons to copy partition to another drive

Different from cloning an entire disk, copying partition is a process of migrating only a selected partition (a part of whole disk, not an entire disk) to another partition or other SSD/HDD. Generally, And you can enjoy the following benefits from this operation.

Back up important data: No matter you plan to copy system partition or data partition to SSD/HDD; you can make an exact backup of data stored on the selected partition.

Get rid of bad sectors: If the disk, containing the selected partition, suffers some bad sectors, you can copy important partitions to another disk to avoid bad sectors.

Transfer data quickly: When all crucial data is saved in one partition, or you just want to only keep this partition during disk replacement, copying partition will help transfer data more quickly than copying a whole disk or copying files one by one.

Freeware to clone partition to another hard drive in Windows PC

If you are planning to delete partition, format partition, shrink partition or extend partition, Windows built-in tools like Disk Management and Diskpart can help you a lot. But for cloning partition, you need to use a third-party utility since Windows doesn’t offer such functions by far. AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a great tool to copy partition to another hard drive in Windows 10/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista all editions.

This free disk partition software provides you with two copy methods:
в—Џ Clone Partition Quickly (file by file): only copies all existing files from the source partition to the destination disk.
в—Џ Sector-by-Sector Clone (complete copy): copy both all available files and lost/deleted files from the source partition to the destination disk.

Simple steps to copy partition to another drive free

Now you can free download AOMEI Partition Assistant and learn how to copy partition to another partition in five steps.

в–¶Before proceeding, pay attention to:

1. Only the unallocated space could be selected as the destination place to hold the source partition. So if there is not such a space, please first create one by shrinking existing partitions or deleting an unused partition.

2.The unallocated space must be equal or larger than the used space on source drive if you choose «Copy Partition Quickly». For «Sector-by-Sector Copy», the free space must be equal or larger than the original drive.

3. Please close programs running on the partition which you are going to copy, otherwise, this partition copying operation will be executed under PreOS Mode.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, right click the partition you wish to copy to another drive, and select «Clone Partition».

Step 2. In this window, two different ways are available to copy partition. Select one according to your needs and then click «Next».

Step 3. Select an unallocated space to save the copy of the selected partition, and then click «Next» to continue. If you are copying partition to SSD drive, you can tick the option «Optimize the performance of SSD».

Step 4. In the pop-out window, you can resize partition as you like, or you can keep the default settings and click «Finish».

Step 5. In the main interface, you can preview the result. If you are satisfied with it, click «Apply» and «Proceed» to execute this operation.

в–¶Notes:

1. To copy C drive to another drive and boot from the cloned drive, the Standard edition only supports cloning boot drive from MBR to MBR disk. If you are trying to copy OS partition from MBR to GPT, GPT to GPT, GPT to MBR, please upgrade to the Professional version.

2.To clone partition to another hard drive in Windows Server 2003, 2008 (R2), 2012 (R2), 2016 and 2019. please check out AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.

Further reading: copy partition to another drive using CMD

Besides using a professional partition clone tool to copy partition, you can also make use of xcopy command to copy files and directories, including subdirectories from one partition to another. See how to use xcopy commands to clone a partition:

Step 1. Click “Start” and type “cmd”. Right click on «cmd» and select “Run as administrator”.

Step 2. Type «xcopy c:\ f:\ /s /e /h /i /c /y» and press Enter to copy all the files and subdirectories (including any empty subdirectories, any system or hidden files) from partition C to partition F. Replace the drive letter based on your situation.

The above parameters mean:
/s: copy directories and subdirectories except empty ones. If you omit “/s”, xcopy will work within a single directory.
/e: copy all subdirectories, including the empty one.
/h: copy the hidden and system file.
/i: force xcopy to assume that destination is a directory
/c: force xcopy to continue even if it encounters an error.
/y: stop the xcopy command from prompting you about overwriting files from source that already exist in the destination location.

Bottom Line

Compared with copy partition to another drive using CMD, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard provides an easier way to clone partition in Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista. Besides, its «quick copy (with file by file)» method makes it possible for you to copy larger partition to smaller partition and copy larger HDD to smaller HDD.

What’s more, the «Migrate OS to SSD» wizard offered by Professional enables you to migrate only OS partition to SSD or HDD. It also has many other amazing features like converting boot disk between MBR and GPT disk without deleting partitions, converting dynamic to basic disk without losing data, recovering lost/deleted partitions.

How to Clone or Move Your Windows 10 Installation to a Larger Hard Disk or SSD

When it comes to technology, upgrading is a fact of life, whether it’s your operating system, applications, or hardware devices. One of the most common hardware components users want/need to upgrade is their local hard drive. Reasons include limited space, better performance, and the ability to take advantage of advanced features like UEFI or support for GPT disks. Upgrading to a new SSD drive, for example, can extend the life of a desktop or laptop PC for many years. I know I’ve done it several times.

However, the issue with upgrading is dealing with the migration of your existing OS and data to the new drive. After all, who wants to rebuild the OS, figure out how to re-activate it, track down and reinstall all the apps, and oh yeah, move all your personal files over. Yeah, not me! That’s why today, I’m going to review an alternative process using the built-in System Image and Easeus Todo Backup to restore your installation to a larger or smaller disk.

There is an alternative in system imaging and cloning. In this article, we take a look using the built-in System Image and Easeus Todo Backup to clone your drive to a larger or faster hard drive.

Migrate your Windows 10 Installation to a New Hard Disk or SSD

Windows 10 includes a built-in option called System Image, which lets you create a complete replica of your installation along with partitions. We already covered the steps on how to create the system image. To back up your installation, you will need a USB external hard disk to store the image. An external hard disk with lots of storage is cheap, and a recommended buy, whether you plan on performing an activity such as this or keeping your system backed up regularly.

There is one major problem with System Image in Windows 10 and earlier versions of Windows; it doesn’t support restoring to partition layouts smaller in size than the drive it’s replacing. For instance, if you go from a 500 GB hard disk to a 256 GB SSD, when you attempt to restore the system image created from the 500 GB disk, you will receive an error indicating the disk is too small. If this is the case for you, then system imaging is of no use; instead, you should consider cloning, detailed further in this article.

After creating your backup, shut down the computer, install your hard disk or SSD drive, start the computer then load your BIOS or UEFI firmware. Check to make sure the drive is detected. After confirming these changes, connect your external hard disk, then power on the device. Boot from your Windows 10 install media, which will be used to facilitate the restoration of your system image created earlier. When you arrive at the Install Now screen, click the Repair computer link; this will load the Recovery Environment.

Click Troubleshoot, then click the System Image Recovery menu.

Your external hard disk should be detected along with the most recent system image you created. If it’s not the right one, use the Select a system image radio box, select the right image, then click Next.

If you have more than one local disk or partition, you can exclude it from the restoration process.

After confirming your selections, click Next to begin the restoration, then wait. Restoration can take some time, depending on the size of the system image. When complete, Windows 10 will restart then boot to the Windows 10 desktop.

There is a possibility if you restored the system image to larger disks, you will need to reconfigure your partitions if you restored the image to a larger hard disk or SSD. In Windows 10, press Windows key + X and click Disk Management. You will see an unallocated space created for you. You can recover this space using the Extend volume wizard. Right-click the system partition, then click Extend, click Next, then click Finish.

Restoring to a Smaller Hard Disk or SSD

If you are going the opposite direction, restoring to a smaller hard disk or SSD, cloning will be the recommended option. The best solution I have found for cloning and restoring a Windows 10 installation is the free EaseUs Todo Backup. EaseUs Todo Backup can not only restore a backup of your Windows 10 installation, but it can also do so to a non-corresponding partition layout. You can download a free copy here.

Once you have EaseUS Todo Backup installed, launch the app. You will need to connect the target hard disk or SSD to your computer where you would like to clone your Windows 10 installation. This can be done multiple ways; you can install the storage device as a local disk; or install it in a USB external enclosure, then attach it to your computer. After settling on a method of attaching the target disk, launch EaseUs Todo Backup, click the Clone tab.

Choose your source disk containing the operating system. As you can see below, I have two sets of disk attached: my Windows 10 installation on hard disk 0 31 GB and my new LOCALNEW disk 25 GB where the clone will be copied. Click Next.

The next step is to select the target disk, in this case, our LOCALNEW disk 25 GB drive. Click the checkbox, then click Next.

The following screenshot shows the disk layout after cloning the old drive to the new. Click Proceed to begin the clone.

Click OK to confirm the changes.

This process can take some time, depending on the clone’s size and the amount of data. After the clone is complete, click Finish, shut down your computer, remove the old storage device, install and configure the new hard disk or SSD as your boot drive.

Please turn on your computer; Windows 10 should start as it previously did. Still, if you experience activation problems, you can use the Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10 Anniversary Update or later to resolve any problems.

This is definitely an involved task, and users considering upgrading their storage device should think carefully about the migration method they plan on using. My personal lesson, if you are moving to a storage device that’s larger than the one you are replacing, the built-in System Image tool in Windows 10 is more than sufficient. If you are moving to a smaller hard disk or SSD storage, then you will need a third-party utility such as EaseUs Todo Backup to help you. It goes without saying, additional tools to facilitate the restoration might be needed, such as an external hard disk or even an external enclosure.