Sector-by-Sector Clone or Not? Quick Answer!

Sector-by-sector clone or not?

Most advanced cloning software includes an option called “sector by sector clone”. However, there are a number of users who are confused about this option and don’t know whether to use sector-by-sector clone or not. Understanding what sector-by-sector clone is can help you make the decision.

Sector-by-sector clone, also known as bit-by-bit copy, means to clone all the sectors on a hard drive, even if the sector is blank or it is a logically bad sector. Thus, the cloned drive will keep exactly the same as the source drive. You may need sector-by-sector clone in following occasions:

✔ Switch HDD to SSD without reinstalling the operating system and all your applications, especially when the target and source drives are equal in size.
✔ Prepare a cloned drive for replacement in case that your main drive crashes all of a sudden.
✔ Clone a drive that contains encrypted files, hidden partitions, or proprietary data structures.

Nevertheless, you may not use sector-by-sector clone if:

✖ The destination drive is smaller than the source drive, or the cloning process will fail.
✖ There are bad sectors detected on the source drive. Otherwise, the bad sectors will be brought to the destination drive as well.

Now you know whether to use sector-by-sector copy or not. What you need is reliable bit copy software to help you.

Related post

Easiest Way to Run Bit Copy of an SD Card in Windows

This tutorial demonstrates how to run bit copy of an SD card in Windows easily and offers the best free SD card bit-by-bit copy software for you. Read more>>

Best free sector-by-sector clone software

Want to run sector-by-sector clone for free? AOMEI Backupper Standard can meet your demands. It’s the best free sector-by-sector clone software which supports all Windows PC operating systems like Windows 11, 10, 8.1/8, 7, Vista, XP.

🌟 It offers you the features of “Disk Clone” and “Partition Clone”. You can use them to clone either an entire disk or a particular partition.
🌟 By default, it performs intelligent clone, which enables you to clone hard drive with bad sectors by skipping those bad sectors. If you want to clone a disk sector by sector, just tick the “Sector by sector clone” option.
🌟 Nearly all common hard drive brands are supported in AOMEI Backupper. You can use it to clone HDDs or SSDs of different brands, like Samsung, SanDisk, WD, Crucial and Kingston.
🌟 The cloning process will run in the background, so you can continue your work on the computer during the process.

Download AOMEI Backupper and follow the wizard to finish installation. It will be installed in a short time. Then, how to run sector-by-sector clone on SSD/HDD? Please move on to the next part.

AOMEI Backupper

Best free disk cloning software for personal use.

Download Freeware
Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

How to sector by sector clone an SSD/HDD in Windows 11/10/8/7

Before cloning

• Prepare a destination disk that is at least as big as the source disk.
• Connect the destination disk to your PC. To connect it, you may need a screwdriver, a power cable, a SATA cable, or a USB-to-SATA adapter. 
• Backup files on the destination drive, because all the data in the destination will be deleted in the cloning process.

Steps to perform sector-by-sector copy

When everything is ready, you can copy your HDD/SSD bit by bit with the following steps.

Step 1. Run clone software and choose the Disk Clone option

Launch AOMEI Backupper. Click “Clone” on the left pane and select the clone type. Take “Disk Clone” as an example.

Step 2. Select the source hard drive or SSD

Select the source disk that you want to clone and click “Next”. 

Step 3. Select the new disk you prepared

Select the destination disk to store the cloned data and click “Next”.

Step 4. Enable Sector By Sector Clone and begin cloning

Tick “Sector by sector clone”. Confirm the operation and click “Start Clone”. If you are cloning disk to SSD, tick “SSD Alignment” to improve its reading and writing speed.

Step 5. Wait patiently for the process to complete

When the cloning process is done, click "Finish". Please note a sector-by-sector clone definitely would take a longer time than the default intelligent clone (which skips blank and bad sectors). Just be patient.

Notes:

• The Standard edition only supports cloning a data disk. To clone a system disk, please upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional. You can also clone only OS with the System Clone feature in Pro version.

• If the source disk is the system disk, you need to change boot order in BIOS or replace the source drive with the cloned one to boot from it after cloning.

• To get the best performance from a disk after cloning, it's suggested to transfer Windows 10 to NVMe. Because it has the fastest transfer speed. 

• This software is still an M.2 SSD cloner, thus you can use it to migrate Windows 10 to M.2 SSD, clone M.2 SSD to M.2 SSD, etc.

🎬Video Guide

Sector by sector cloning FAQs

1. What are the benefits and drawbacks of sector-by-sector cloning?

Sector-by-sector cloning has the following pros and cons:

2. Does sector-by-sector cloning copy bad sectors?

Yes, sector-by-sector cloning will copy every sector on the drive, including bad sectors. If your drive has many bad sectors, it's advisable to repair bad sectors before attempting a clone.

3. Is sector-by-sector cloning suitable for SSDs?

Yes, sector-by-sector cloning can be used for SSDs, but it’s not always the most efficient method. Since SSDs are sensitive to wear, cloning unused sectors might lead to unnecessary write cycles. Many users prefer intelligent-sector cloning for SSDs to prolong their lifespan.

Verdict

Whether to choose sector-by-sector clone or not? This article have given you a clear guide. In addition to cloning hard drives sector by sector, you can also enjoy the backup & recovery feature brought by AOMEI Backupper. After you figure out what to backup before reinstalling Windows 10, you can use it to finish the backup task. It also enables you to make Windows 10 manage backups automatically. Don’t hesitate to give it a try!