How to Make Exact Copy of Hard Drive in Windows 11 (2 Ways)

Make an Exact Copy of Hard Drive in Windows 11: Clone vs. Backup 

To create an exact copy of your hard drive in Windows 11, you can either back up or clone the drive. Both methods transfer data, but they differ. Backing up usually focuses on specific files like documents, photos, and music.

In contrast, cloning captures everything on the drive, including the operating system, settings, applications, and all data. This means you can boot your computer from the cloned drive and use it just like your original setup.

How to Make an Exact Bootable Copy of Hard Drive in Windows 11

It's frustrating that Microsoft doesn't offer built-in disk cloning software. However, you can easily find solutions through third-party programs. One excellent option is AOMEI Backupper Professional, which simplifies the process of cloning one hard drive to another. This software comes with a variety of benefits, making it a reliable choice for your needs.

Secure boot: It allows you to directly boot your computer with the cloned hard drive after cloning.

Intelligent clone: By default, it will only copy the used sectors, so you can clone a larger HDD to a smaller SSD if you need to. At the same time, it will skip bad sectors. 

Live Clone: The cloning task can work in the background so that you can use your computer normally during the cloning process.

 Multiple storage paths: You can not only clone disk to a hard drive but also SSD, external USB drive, NAS, Cloud, etc.

All the operations are based on an intuitive interface, so users can understand it easily and quickly. Please download it before cloning. This software applies to Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista. For server users, please try the AOMEI Backupper Server.

Then you can follow the steps below to make exact copy of hard drive in Windows 11. Before that, you need to backup your important files on the target disk because all the data will be removed after cloning.

Step 1. Make sure your target disk is connected to your computer, whether it’s via a USB to SATA adapter, or it’s in a disk bay within your cabinet (for desktop PCs), and ensure it can be detected. Then, open the software and click Clone > Disk Clone.

Note:✎...

If you want to only copy Windows to a new hard drive, you can use System Clone.   

Step 2. Choose the original hard drive you want to clone as the source disk. 

Tip: The Professional edition supports cloning both data disks and systems disks from MBR to MBR/MBR to GPT, or GPT to GPT/GPT to MBR. If you only want to clone data disks, you can pick the complete free Standard edition.

Step 3. Choose the other hard drive as the destination disk.

Step 4. Confirm your operations and click Start Clone to make exact copy of hard drive in Windows 11. If your target disk is an SSD, you can tick SSD Alignment to make the disk’s reading and writing speed faster.

Notes:✎...

Sector By Sector Clone: It will clone all sectors, whether they are used or not. Even blank or logically bad sectors will be cloned.

 Edit Partitions: When your target disk is larger than the source disk, it allows you to change the partition size automatically or manually. Also, you convert the destination disk to MBR or GPT disk, depending the disk type of source disk.   

Boot your computer from the cloned hard drive in Windows 11

After the cloning is completed, you can follow the steps below to modify the boot sequence and then boot your computer directly from the cloned disk.

1. Restart your computer, remember not to remove the cloned hard disk from your computer. Then press F2, F12, or Del to enter the BIOS setting.

2. Find the boot menu and set the target disk as the first boot order, then press F10 to save the changes and exit the BIOS.

3. The computer will automatically start after you press F10, this time it will boot directly from the cloned disk and you will be able to use your computer as before after booting.

Traditional Way: Backup System and Restore It with Built-in Tool

If you don't want to install extra software, you still can use built-in tool to backup system and then restore it to new one. If you want to backup entire hard drive, you need to select other non-system partition manually.

We recommend that you backup to an external hard drive to make it more secure. You can get started by following the graphic tutorial below.

How to Create System Image

Step 1. Press Win+R together to open the Run window, then type control and hit Enter. Then, click Backup and Restore (Windows 7) under System and Security.

Step 2. Click the Create a System Image link on the left.

Step 4. Select the external hard disk as the system image destination and click Next.

Step 5. You will see the list of the backup drives and the EFI system partition, please confirm them and click Start backup. Then wait for your computer to complete the process

Step 6. After completed, you will be prompted to do a system repair disc that requires CD/DVD as a storage device. If you don’t have a CD/DVD, you could create a bootable USB with built-in tool Recovery Drive or third-party media creator because you need to use the bootable disk to boot the computer if cannot boot.

How to Restore the System Image to Another Disk

You need to boot the PC into Advanced Recovery with a bootable USB drive. Please navigate to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > System Image Recovery. Connect the external drive, and choose to recover the PC. The Windows System Image Recovery process will use your system image and then start the restoration.

FAQs About Making Hard Drive Copy

Q1: Is there built-in cloning software for Windows 11?

A1: No, Windows 11 doesn’t come with its own cloning tool. You’ll need to use a reliable third-party tool to clone your system. AOMEI Backupper lets you clone Windows 11 easily and for free.

Q2: Does cloning a hard drive include the OS?

A2: Yes, cloning differs from backups because it makes a complete copy of everything on the drive, including the operating system, settings, and all your files. Many people choose to clone their hard drives to protect against system failures, disasters, or theft.

Q3: Is it better to clone or copy a hard drive?

A3: Cloning and copying are not the same; cloning is usually the better option. Cloning creates an exact sector-by-sector copy of the original drive while copying just transfers the data.

Summary

In this article, you will learn how to make an exact copy of hard drive in Windows 11 with disk cloning software - AOMEI Backupper Professional, and then you can directly boot from the cloned drive. Also, you can use Windows built-in tool to do so, but it only backs up the system instead of the entire disk. It allows you to manually select other non-system partitions, but you cannot restore the entire disk.

Thus, It's suggested to use AOMEI Backupper and clone the hard drive directly. By default, it clones only used sectors, so you can easily clone large HDDs to smaller SSDs. Also, you can easily clone the drive to a larger drive with its Edit Partition feature. Either way, You can boost the performance of SSD disk.