Program for cloning hard drive nnm club. Drive Backup Personal by Paragon. Working with target hard disk space after cloning

When replacing hard disk to a new one, for example, a more capacious or high-speed one, as a rule, it becomes necessary to transfer information from the old drive to it.

If you do it manually - reinstalling the system, programs and copying user files, then you can spend a whole day.

It is much more convenient to entrust this to automation - special programs for cloning hard drives... With their help, all files, settings and the system itself will simply “move to a new place of residence” in the form in which they were on the old media.

Cloning hard disk is a low-level sector-by-sector transfer of data from one medium to another. In this case, the clone disk will be an exact copy of the original disk.

Cloning a hard drive

A lot of paid and free programs have been released to create clone disks. Among them there are universal ones that work with any HDD and SSD, and highly specialized ones designed for drives of a certain brand, for example, only Samsung or only Western Digital.

Let's take a look at five popular and most easy-to-use programs for cloning hard drives to SSDs or HDDs from any manufacturer.

EASEUS Disk Copy

Farstone RestoreIT Pro is primarily a system and user data recovery tool after failures, virus attacks, changes and accidental deletion.

As such, this program does not create disk clones, but it can create backups of any information on them.

The frequency of backups in RestoreIT Pro can be configured at least hourly. And restoration to the saved copy is done by pressing one button.

RestoreIT Pro features:

the ability to restore the system even after the bootloader is damaged;
2 backup modes - full and cumulative (saving only changed data);
monitoring the entire disk or only selected partitions;
storing the entire history of file changes, not just the last saved version.

The disadvantages of the program are a paid license ($ 24.95) and the lack of a disk cloning function.

Many users often need to create copies of hard drives with information stored on them in case of system recovery or lost information. The process, referred to as "cloning disks", can be carried out in several ways, depending on what information needs to be saved and what actions are supposed to be performed in the future. Making copies of optical media will not be discussed below, but we will focus on making copies of hard drives.

General principles of making copies

Before starting to consider what constitutes disk cloning, you need to initially define for yourself a few basic concepts. Copies can be made by two main methods: full copying and partial copying. Since in this moment we are interested in the issues of exceptions, let us dwell directly on the second option.

What is disk cloning with the ability to set exceptions? If we speak in simple words, such a process involves the creation of a copy in which only a part of the information that is stored on the original medium will be present, and which is necessary for the user for further preservation.

Preliminary concepts of terms

There are two other things to keep in mind when making copies: source and destination drives. Based on the generally accepted interpretations of these terms, it is easy to guess that the source disk is an HDD or a partition from which all information will be copied, including the entire file structure. The target disk is the hard drive to which the created copy will be written. However, it is worth noting that the target disk may have its own file structure (or data), different from the original disk (unless it is a new hard drive without any information on it), and during the clone creation process it will be destroyed and replaced with a file one. source disk system.

Disk cloning with Windows tools

In Windows systems, to create copies of hard drives, the backup and restore section located in the Control Panel is used. True, in most cases, using such a built-in tool, you can create only a complete copy of the contents of the original disk or partition.

The only exception is that you do not need to include in the copy. system files an operable system, which could subsequently be used to restore its operability. Therefore, cloning disks with partial copying of their contents is best done using third party utilities which have much wider possibilities. Some of them are paid, others can be downloaded for free.

Cloning a hard drive to an SSD or another partition: the best programs

It will not be possible to consider absolutely all applications created for carrying out such operations, so we will restrict ourselves to a few popular utilities, among which the following can be singled out separately:

True Image from Acronis.
EASEUS Disk Copy.
Drive Backup Personal by Paragon.
Macrium Reflect.

As a basis for the actions performed and a description of the process, we will take disk cloning with the Acronis utility. The rest of the programs work on similar principles. Therefore, having dealt with this application, you can easily perform similar actions that any other program for cloning disks offers. Let's dwell on the rest of the utilities briefly.

Acronis True Image

This utility is the most famous and popular hard drive cloning program. It has, perhaps, the widest range of capabilities and is used not only to create copies, but also to restore the system, create boot images and much more.

Cloning a disk using Acronis utility after starting the application latest version begins with the fact that the program prompts you to log into the "cloud" storage Acronis Cloud under your account. This procedure is optional, so you can skip it.

After selecting a cloning partition, a special "Wizard" is launched in the process of creating copies. At the first stage, it is proposed to use either the automatic method or setting the parameters in manual mode. It is better to choose the first option, since the second is mainly used only in cases where you need to change the structure of the sections. It will not be considered due to the fact that it is more complex, and in this situation, by and large, an ordinary user is simply not needed.

We select automatic cloning, after which you will need to install the source disk or partition and the target disk. Here, just the same, you can use cloning a disk to an SSD-drive, if one is installed in the system. At the next stage, if the target disk is not new, and some information is present on it, a corresponding warning will be issued, with which you just need to agree. In the case when a hard disk is cloned to an SSD with a similar file system, on which there is nothing, the notification will not be displayed.

Next, you select to copy partitions without changes, and the program starts calculating the space on the target disk. If it is enough, you can start the process. But if there is not enough space, or just some components or sections do not need to be included in the copy, use the file exclusion button located at the bottom right.

It is not recommended to exclude files of the system partition in any case, and the rest of the unnecessary objects just need to be selected in the window on the right by checking the boxes on the corresponding files and folders in the file structure tree (you can even exclude an entire partition). The required disk space will then be recalculated. If there is sufficient volume, it remains only to press the start button ("Start"), after which a reboot will be requested (the clone is created in this mode).

If you now boot from the target disk (and it is bootable), the structure of the partitions will change slightly, and the partitions for which some objects were not copied, in comparison with the original ones, will have a smaller size. In this case, the letters of all disks will change.

EASEUS Disk Copy

This program is quite interesting for free utility... In addition to the fact that it can be partially cloned, it has a number of other advantages.

In addition to basic operations, it is quite easy to create copies of deleted partitions in it, but only if they have not been overwritten. The application itself can start from any optical or USB media, it supports all known interfaces of hard drives or dynamic partitions and HDDs with volumes up to 1 TB. The only negative is the lack of Russification and installation unnecessary programs when installing on Windows systems.

Drive Backup Personal by Paragon

Cloning disks using this program looks very simple due to the use of special "Wizards" in it for any copying mode, including the creation of clones with partial contents.

The application can be launched both in the OS environment and from removable media, it has a simple Russian-language interface, but, alas, it costs about $ 40.

Macrium Reflect

This free package for most untrained users, like the previous program, it is one of the easiest to use.

The main advantages of this application are the creation of images "on the fly" without the need to restart the system (as is the case with Acronis), the availability of copy verification tools and multilevel data encryption. In the interface, however, there is no Russian language, and during installation, unnecessary advertising garbage is installed.

What to use?

If we summarize briefly about everything that has been said about creating clones of hard drives with partial transfer of their contents to other partitions or to other HDDs or SSDs, we can say that the technique offered by the Acronis application looks the most appropriate to use. the same is one of the simplest. But this does not mean at all that you cannot use other utilities like the program from Paragon, which have no less interesting features and tools (unless, of course, the question of cost is omitted). But in general, the techniques used by any application of this type are quite simple, if only for the reason that any program, as a rule, has a "Master", so you won't be able to do something wrong.

Hard disk cloning is a very important, but sometimes necessary step.

Ensures one hundred percent identity of the clone disk with the original.

With EASEUS Disk Copy, you can clone the entire disk as a whole, as well as individual partitions and even files, including deleted (if they have not been overwritten), hidden and copy-protected.

EASEUS Disk Copy features and benefits:

the ability to run from a bootable DVD or;
independence from operating system installed on the computer;
support SATA interfaces I-II, SCSI, SAS, USB, IDE, Firewire and dynamic disks;
support for hard drives up to 1 TiB;
high speed of cloning;
intuitive interface;
free license.

Disadvantages:

lack of Russian localization, which is why inexperienced users it can be difficult to figure out how to use the program;
when installed on Windows, adware is installed along with EASEUS Disk Copy.

Paragon Drive Backup Personal

Paragon Drive Backup Personal - multifunctional tool Reserve copy data, with which you can create and clones of disks.

It can be run from both bootable media and from under Windows.

Advice! To work with Paragon Drive Backup, you do not need to read the instructions and delve into the essence of various settings - all functions are performed by “wizards”, each action of which is accompanied by prompts.

Strengths of Paragon Drive Backup:

many modes of data copying;
support for any file systems;
the ability to selectively clone individual partitions and files;
high speed of work;
support for any type of hard and solid state drives;
intuitive Russian-language interface;
support for Windows 8.1 and 10.

The disadvantages of this wonderful tool include its chargeability. The license cost is $ 39.95.

Macrium Reflect

Macrium Reflect is another handy tool for creating hard disk copies for transferring to another medium. Free distribution.

In addition to cloning, it creates images of partitions and entire disks, which, after recovery, can be mounted in Windows Explorer and used as virtual media.

Functional features of Macrium Reflect:

full and partial disk cloning;
creation of images "on the fly" - without rebooting the system;
verification (identity check) of finished images;
high speed of work;
the possibility of multi-level encryption of the created images to ensure their security.

Disadvantages:

English-language interface;
installation of advertising modules along with the program.

Acronis True Image

Acronis True Image is a program similar in capabilities to Paragon Drive Backup and, perhaps, one of the most popular of its kind.

In addition to backup, he can create clones of a variety of drives with different file systems.

At the choice of the user can clone individual partitions, files or an entire disk. Well compatible with both old ones Windows versions and with Windows 8.1

To create a clone of a disk with with Acronis True Image, all you need to do is boot the computer with or on which the program is written and start the clone wizard.

Advantages of Acronis True Image:

multifunctionality;
Russian-language interface and intuitive settings;
automatic and manual mode work;
the ability to select data for transfer, including those invisible in Windows Explorer and copy-protected;
high speed of work.

The disadvantage of this program is the same as that of Paragon Drive Backup - a paid license. Its price is 1,700 rubles.

The frequency of backups in RestoreIT Pro can be configured at least hourly. And restoration to the saved copy is done by pressing one button.

RestoreIT Pro features:

the ability to restore the system even after the bootloader is damaged;
2 backup modes - full and cumulative (saving only changed data);
monitoring the entire disk or only selected partitions;
storing the entire history of file changes, not just the last saved version.

The disadvantages of the program are a paid license ($ 24.95) and the lack of a disk cloning function.

An easy way to clone a hard or SSD drive using Acronis True Image

This video shows an easy way to transfer information from an old hard drive to a new one using Acronis True Image 2013.

Have you ever reinstalled your operating system? Then you probably know what a hassle it is. After all, reinstalling the system itself can be quite quick, but reinstalling all programs and licenses is no longer so easy and fast. How do you save all databases or playthroughs? Even if you know how to do it, it won't happen quickly. You will have to sweat a lot, and it is not a fact that then everything will work well. But what if in advance to make a clone of the hard disk with all programs, databases or passing games?

When I go on vacation at work, I always clone the hard drives of the most critical computers. This is especially true for accounting. I have no desire to restore all Treasury and Tax programs. Those who work with these programs will understand me.

And the other day at my daughter's home computer a warning popped up that HDD damaged and about to crumble. She was seriously nervous, because she has a lot of all sorts of complex programs on this hard disk and it will take a long and hard work to reinstall and configure them. And then we decided to clone her hard drive.

We always keep all the most valuable information on other hard drives or even on external media. Several external terabyte drives with photos, movies, music, etc. we lie separately. When we need some information from them, then we connect them through.

Everything's going to do or buy network storage, but money is sorely lacking. As soon as you think about postponing something, according to the law of meanness, some unplanned spending is bound to appear.

Of course, it's not cheap to buy extra hard drives now, but peace of mind is much more expensive, so I always have a small (500 GB) in reserve. Why small?

Because this is quite enough for the operating system, and all other information must be kept on other disks. Then, when reinstalling the system, you will not have to look for the "fifth corner" and think about how to save your precious data (if you still have the opportunity to save it).

Cloning is done when it is necessary to transfer all programs and data to a new faster, and most importantly, a working hard drive. You don't have to reinstall and configure anything again. Even all licenses will work.

In order to make a clone of a hard disk that will immediately work as if nothing had happened: all programs, licenses, etc., we also need a cloning program.

It is advisable to choose a hard disk of the same size as the disk that you will clone or more. If you have an initial 500 GB disk, and the occupied space on it is only 100 GB, then you can take a disk with a smaller volume for transfer (if you find one now), but then you need to do it on the original disk before transferring, otherwise the data transfer may fail because all file fragments are scattered across the entire 500 GB disk. we will not just transfer data, but clone, then they will not fit on a smaller disk.

The new disk must be installed in the computer, either through or through. After new disk decided, you need to run the cloning program.

Hard disk cloning software

There are many programs for creating clones, both paid and free. Type in the browser search "hard drive cloning software" and choose what you like.

EASEUS Disk Copy - Simple free English-language program for sector-by-sector cloning of hard drives of any type and any file system... Using this program, you can clone both the entire disk and its individual partitions. Hidden, protected and even deleted and overwritten files will also be transferred.

2. Macrium Reflect - free program in English to create hard copy disk. Can create images of partitions in the form of virtual media.

3. Paragon Drive Backap Personal - paid Russian-language program for backup and cloning of disks. Everything is done with the help of a "master".

4. Acronis True Image is multifunctional paid program with a Russian-language interface with manual and automatic operation.

I personally use Acronis True Image. One or two hours is enough and all your data and programs will be transferred to the new disk, which must be connected instead of the old one.

Hard drives must be monitored and cared for. Sometimes free space on it disappears, and you will find out about it at the last moment. Install at least special utility(program) to determine the temperature of the disk. She will warn you about the problems that have arisen. And don't forget to periodically defragment your disk. Check disks for and broken clusters.
If you don't know your computer yet and are afraid to go inside, then buy and store your photos and files on it.
If for some reason you have only one hard drive and you store everything on it, then be sure to back up your files. Or this drive is into several logical ones and keep your files separate from the system ones. It's good if the hard drive still tells you about your problems, and you have time to do something. And if not?

Unfortunately, experience shows that only 5% of computer users back up their data. The rest, either do not know how to do this, or hope for "maybe". Although this does not require any money, it is enough to carve out time or make automatic reservations at a certain time and day.

Protect your data and don't postpone it. Everything collapses very unexpectedly and always at the wrong time.

Cloning a hard drive is a hassle-free operation. Windows installation and software when transferring data to a new disk (SSD-drive or regular hard drive). As part of this operation, on a computer connected second hard the disk transfers the entire structure of the partitions of the first hard disk, all the data on them, as well as a workable activated Windows system with all the settings and installed software.

The function of cloning hard drives is offered, in particular, by the programs for backing up data Acronis True Image, and the disk manager Paragon Hard Disk Manager. All of them provide for the transfer of only Windows itself to another disk by separate processes while maintaining its operability, cloning individual non-system partitions, as well as cloning the entire disk with the ability to make changes to the structure partitions hard disk clone.

Distinctive feature Acronis True Image is a hard drive cloning feature with the ability to exclude individual unnecessary files... We will familiarize ourselves with this process in detail below - we will clone a hard disk using Acronis True Image, and during the cloning process we will exclude some data for transfer.

1. About Acronis True Image

True Image is a product from the master of the software market, the company Acronis, which offers, in particular, various solutions for disaster recovery data at a professional level. True Image is not only a panacea for all problems with Windows in the form of restoring it to a state from a once saved backup. The software package also contains a lot of other useful functions such as:

bootable media and a utility injected into the system preboot mode for cases when Windows does not start;
Windows recovery on a computer with other components;
storage backups in the cloud storage of the company Acronis;
system cleaning tool;
trial mode Windows work with the ability to cancel the changes made;
other useful utilities.

The current version of Acronis True Image 2016 can be purchased on the developer's official website.

The program has a free 30-day trial version designed to familiarize users with most of the functionality of True Image. However, the hard drive cloning function is disabled in the trial version. For these purposes, you need a fully-fledged activated Acronis True Image 2016. This is exactly what will be used in our case.

2. Source and destination hard drive

To define hard disks, we will use the terminology of Acronis True Image itself. The hard drive from which the data and partition structure will be copied is the original hard drive. The disk that will become a clone of the original is the target hard disk. The disk management utility, standard Windows tool. Fast access to it in versions 8.1 and 10 is implemented in the context menu on the "Start" button. The universal way to launch it is to call the Run function (+ R keys), enter the diskmgmt.msc command and press Enter.

In our case, two hard drives are connected to the computer. The original hard drive is marked by the system as Disk 0. This is a working hard drive with Windows and data on non-system partitions. As Disk 1 in the utility displays the recently connected hard disk, it will be the target, that is, it will become a clone of Disk 0.

Destination Disk 1, as you can see, has a partition structure and some stored data. When cloning a hard disk, all information from the target disk, as well as its original partition structure, is destroyed. Therefore, if there is some kind of important information, it must be transferred to your original hard drive or external media.

As a rule, the cloning process does not require even an approximate matching of disks in terms of size. The target hard disk can be of any size and can be as small as the original one, as long as there is enough space to accommodate the data that actually takes up space on the source disk. And in the case of Acronis True Image, this is not even necessary due to the ability to exclude individual folders and files.

3. Cloning process

After starting True Image 2016 will prompt you to log in to account cloud storage Acronis. We can close the entrance window.

Directly in the program interface in the side ribbon of the menu on the left, select the "Tools" section-tab, and in it - the "Clone disk" item.

And follow the step-by-step wizard for cloning disks. We need a preset automatic cloning mode. Click "Next".

The window for selecting the source hard disk: here we click with the mouse, respectively, on the disk from which the data will be transferred. The numbering of disks in True Image differs from the numbering of the standard Windows utility, therefore it is better to designate disks by their size or model. Click "Next".

The window for selecting the target hard disk: here we click on the disk to which we want to transfer the partition structure, Windows and other data. Click "Next".

Since in our case the target hard disk is not a new disk with unallocated space, but a disk with a structure and stored data, Acronis True Image efficiently warns us about the danger of data loss. Everything we need is saved, so we can safely press "OK".

Recovery method selection window: here you must leave the preset option of copying partitions unchanged. Click "Next".

Summary window: here you can already start the hard drive cloning process by clicking the "Start" button at the bottom, respectively, if the target disk has enough space and there is no need to exclude individual files. And, perhaps, there is enough space on the target disk, but you simply do not want to transfer unnecessary data from the source disk to it, thereby increasing the duration of this process in time. To clone a hard drive not in full, in the data summary window, click the "Exclude files" button.

In the file exclusion menu, we will see the tree structure of the contents of the source hard disk. Files and folders cannot be excluded from the system partition C, we will work only with non-system ones. For example, in our case, we will exclude several video files on the second partition of disk E. The process of excluding files requires the completion of data processing, this will be indicated in the information line at the bottom of the window.

Exclude the third partition of the original disk F from the cloning process entirely. After cloning as a partition, it will not cease to exist, but will be empty. After completing all operations to exclude folders and files from the hard disk cloning process, we can start launching it. We press "Proceed".

After the preparatory steps, Acronis True Image will ask you to reboot the system. The program will carry out the cloning process in the Windows preboot mode.

In preboot mode, in the Acronis True Image window, you will see the preset option to turn off the computer after the cloning operation is completed. You can leave it on in order to be distracted by your business, and then, when you turn on the computer, go directly to the BIOS and set the boot priority from the target hard disk.

Cloning is complete, we can boot from the target hard drive.

4. Working with target hard disk space after cloning

Booting from the target hard drive and entering Windows system, first of all, let's look at the partition structure. Launch the standard disk management utility. Since the target disk is now the first in the boot priority of the computer, Windows identifies it as Disk 0. The latter became a clone of Disk 1, once the original, with the same partition structure and proportionally allocated space according to the structure of the original hard disk.

When excluding files, we completely removed all data from the third partition of the original hard drive. This partition now appears as partition I on the original disk and still contains data. Its clone on the target disk - now partition F - is empty as expected.

You can use it to either store data or attach its space to any other partition. For these purposes, there are software disk managers. Disk Director the same company Acronis, no less effective Paragon Hard Disk Manager, free or their analogues. You can resort to them if you already have experience with this kind of software. Moreover, during the cloning process, True Image 2016 provides for the possibility of simultaneously redistributing the space of the target disk. To do this, at the first stage of the clone wizard, you must select not the automatic mode, but the manual one.

Naturally, such a move will complicate the operation and increase the chances of making mistakes for beginners. In our case, the operation was already burdened with the work of excluding individual files, therefore, we will entrust some simple operations to form the structure of the hard disk-clone partitions to the lite-version of the disk manager - a standard Windows utility.

The disk management utility has a minimum of functionality and does not provide for overwriting hard disk sectors in order to combine partitions or borrow from some part of their volume for others. However, operations to expand partitions by free space adjacent partitions on the right without overwriting the data can be done.

Let's add, for example, the space of the empty third partition of the target hard disk to its neighbor, the second non-system partition. To do this, the third section F must be deleted. In the utility window, click it, call the context menu and select "Delete volume". We confirm the action.

The third section is now displayed as unallocated space.

We call the context menu on the adjacent section E and select "Expand volume ...".

We follow the wizard to expand the volume and give the second partition all the available space.

Now there are only two partitions on the target hard disk - the system partitions and the enlarged non-system partitions.

By the same scheme, you can do differently, leaving the third partition for storing data. Need to transfer to it required files from the second section, and delete the second section. Due to its unallocated space, it is then possible to expand system partition WITH.

Have a great day!