Easily Clone Dynamic Disk to Basic with the Best Clone Tool

User case: need to clone a dynamic disk

“Hello,
Why we can't clone a dynamic disk?? I have an HP ZBook 15, and I need to clone my disk which has been configured from Factory as Dynamic. What is the solution? I tried Acronis True Image 2015, without success!! Can someone advise me, please? Thx in advance.”

As you see, cloning dynamic disk in Windows 10/11 fails sometimes. If you try to copy data from dynamic disk to basic, some tools may ask you to convert dynamic disk to basic first. However, Windows Disk Management won’t allow you to convert dynamic disk to basic unless you delete all existing volumes. Deleting volumes means removing all the data. What a dilemma!

How to copy data from dynamic disk to basic without disk conversion? Please move on to the next part.

What tool do you need to clone a dynamic disk?

Cloning a dynamic disk would be a piece of cake if you choose a right tool. The best cloning software – AOMEI Backupper Professional can give you a hand.

• It allows you to transfer data between different disk types without disk conversion, such as clone dynamic disk to basic disk, clone MBR disk to GPT disk, etc.
• To clone a dynamic disk including OS, you can make use of the System Clone feature. To clone a dynamic disk without OS, you can choose the Partition Clone feature.
• The SSD Alignment option can help you optimize SSD performance when you clone dynamic disk to SSD.
• All editions of Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP are supported.

Don’t hesitate to download this cloning tool to have a try.

How to clone dynamic disk to basic in Windows 10/11

Before you start, please connect the target disk to your computer. If there is no free disk bay inside your computer, you may use a USB cable to connect it. Then, backup files on the target disk, or you’ll lose them after cloning.

Now follow the guidance below to clone dynamic disk to basic. Let’s say the dynamic disk is a system disk.

Step 1. Choose System Clone in AOMEI Backupper.

Install and launch AOMEI Backupper. Click Clone and select System Clone.

Step 2. Choose the target basic disk.

The boot-related volumes are selected by default. Choose a partition on the destination basic disk to hold the cloned data and click Next.

Step 3. Begin dynamic disk clone.

Check SSD Alignment if the basic disk is an SSD. Finally, click Start Clone to begin copying data from dynamic disk to basic.

>> Make full use of disk space: If the destination partition is larger than the source partition(s), then the software will check this option by default to extend the boot volumes.
>> Sector By Sector Clone: use this option if you want to copy both used and unused space on the source partition(s). It requires the destination partition to have at least the same capacity as the source partition(s).

🌟 Useful tips:

• AOMEI Backupper only allows you to clone dynamic volume from a dynamic disk to a basic disk, not from a dynamic disk to a dynamic disk.
• If there are other dynamic volumes you want to clone besides boot volumes, you can use Partition Clone to clone them one by one. You should choose different partitions as the destination path, because each destination partition will be overwritten after cloning.
• To boot your computer from the cloned disk, you may change boot order in BIOS or replace the original drive with the cloned drive directly.

FAQs about dynamic disk clone

Conclusion

If you want to clone dynamic disk to basic without disk conversion, you can seek help from the best clone tool – AOMEI Backupper. It offers two ways of dynamic disk clone: “System Clone” to clone a dynamic disk with OS and “Partition Clone” to clone a dynamic disk without OS. Furthermore, AOMEI Backupper is still specialized Windows backup software. You can use it to create bootable backup, disk image backup, and file backup, etc. Give it a try and you won’t regret!