Clone SSD/HDD Sector by Sector
Overview of Sector-by-Sector Clone
Most of the backup software would have one feature called "sector-by-sector clone". This feature works when users want to clone their HDD or SSD, it would clone all the sectors on a hard drive, even if the sector is blank or it is a logically bad sector. In case some users are not familiar with the term sector, it is a subdivision of a track on a disk, and each sector stores a fixed amount of user-accessible data.
Generally, a sector-by-sector clone makes no difference to a normal backup. But if your data is of vital importance, and you want to make sure that even if the hard drive has a bad sector, you can still recover data from the bad sector, then you can choose this clone mode.
The sector-by-sector clone also has another apparent advantage. By cloning the disk, you can migrate Windows OS from HDD to SSD without reinstallation, while sector-by-sector clone ensures the target hard disk or partitions keep identical properties (drive status, drive size, drive letter, the number of volumes, etc.) with the source disk or partitions. This feature is significantly helpful when you prefer an exact look of the old disk on a new disk.
Sector-by-Sector Clone SSD/HDD Tutorial
No matter you want to make a sector-by-sector clone or a normal backup, there's a great tool we want to recommend - Qiling Backup. It provides all-in-one computer backup and disk cloning solutions for home and office users. With this tool, you can backup and restore everything instantly, and clone, upgrade and transfer your system easily.
The disk clone feature allows users to transfer all data including system, personal documents, and media files, etc to an upgraded disk, like a brand new HDD, larger HDD, efficient SSD with higher performance. Once the sector-by-sector clone is checked, even if the sector on the source disk is blank or logically bad, it'll be copied to the destination disk without neglect.
Learn how to perform the sector-by-sector clone HDD/SSD with Qiling clone software.
1. Launch Qiling Backup and choose "Disk/partition Clone" feature.
Step 2. Select the Windows disk or partition that you need to clone and click "Next".
Do remember to tick Sector by Sector clone under Advanced options so to clone every part of the Windows 10/8/7 partition or disk without losing anything.
Step 3. Choose the target partition or hard disk that you want to clone to.
Step 4. Preview the disk layout to confirm the settings of the source and destination disk. Click "Proceed" to execute disk clone.
5. Click Proceed to execute disk clone.
After the operation is done, close Qiling clone software. Go to Windows Disk Management to check if the cloned disk is exactly the same as the source disk.
For Windows 7 computers, navigate to My Computer -> Manage -> Storage -> Disk Management.
For Windows 10 computers, navigate to This PC -> Manage -> Storage -> Disk Management.
Bonus Tip: How Long Does Sector-by-Sector Clone Take?
Unlike the normal backup, a sector-by-sector clone definitely would take a longer time. According to users' feedback, cloning a 1TB disk sector-by-sector will take 20 to 30 hours. So if you want to make such a time-consuming clone, please be patient.
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