How to Clone Hard Drive via Command Prompt (2 Easy Ways)

Updated on Jun 08, 2024 | by Oaklynn

Why do we need to clone hard drive?

Cloning a hard drive means copying all the contents on the drive—the files, the partition tables and the master boot record—to another. The destination drive acts as a simple, direct duplicate. Cloning helps to back up the drive as well as upgrade the drive to a faster drive. Cloning HDD to smaller SSD is one of the most common ways.

A cloned drive is especially useful when your main drive crashes all of a sudden—you can swap to a cloned drive and be back in action almost immediately. Since it is necessary to clone a hard drive, how to clone it simply and safely?

Why copy a disk using command?

Generally speaking, there are two ways to clone a hard drive to SSD or another HDD, from graphical user interface (GUI) and from command prompt. Both methods have their advantages in different situations. For example, cloning a hard drive using GUI is more popular among users who have less computer experience. It is clean and direct.

However, the command prompt method saves time and effort and especially avoids the cumbersome clicking steps. That's why it gains more attraction from IT experts and advanced users.

How to clone a disk via cmd in Windows 11/10/8/7 simply

Command Prompt is a Windows built-in tool favored by a lot of computer users. I’ll show you how to clone a hard drive using cmd in two different ways. Note that Windows misses the feature of letting diskpart clone disk.

Method 1: Clone hard drive using xcopy program
Method 2: Clone hard drive with Qiling Disk Master.exe
FAQs about using cmd to clone drive

Method 1: Clone hard drive using xcopy program (file/folder level copy)

xcopy is a program designed to copy files and directories (including subdirectories) from one location to another. You can use xcopy command to copy files from one disk to another even if the two disks have different formats. Learn how to use xcopy to clone drive below.

1. Click “Start” and type “cmd”. Right click on cmd and select “Run as administrator”.

2. Type xcopy c:\ f:\ /s /e /h /i /c /y and press Enter to copy all the files and subdirectories (including any empty subdirectories, any system or hidden files) from drive C to drive F. You may change the drive letters according to your own needs.

Note:
The parameters mean:
● /s: copy directories and subdirectories, unless they are empty. If you omit “/s”, xcopy will work within a single directory.
● /e: copy all subdirectories, even if they are empty.
● /h: copy files with hidden and system file attributes.
● /i: if in doubt always assume the destination is a folder.
● /c: continue copying even if an error occurs.
● /y: suppress prompt to confirm overwriting a file.

3. Wait for the process to be done. Exit Command Prompt.

For more details about how to copy files to external hard drive from Command Prompt, please refer to xcopy command to copy folders and subfolders.

Method 2: Clone hard drive with Qiling Disk Master.exe (partition/drive level copy)

Now you know how to copy files from one drive to another using cmd “xcopy”. As you see, xcopy provides a file/folder level copy instead of a partition/drive level copy. You can neither use xcopy to clone multiple partitions on one disk simultaneously nor copy the file system of the source partition. Moreover, the copy process is time-consuming and error-prone.

Is there a simpler way to clone disk via Command Prompt? The best disk clone software - Qiling Disk Master Professional comes to help. While some software requires you to clean the disk and create a new partition before cloning, you can directly skip this step using Qiling Disk Master. As a complete, reliable and fast cloning software, it owns many beneficial functions:

✦ System Clone: clone only system-related partitions to another place, including C drive, system reserved partition and EFI system partition.
✦ Disk Clone: copy all data from one disk to another. The two disks can be of different partition styles and different sizes. That is, you can clone an MBR disk to GPT or clone an SSD to a larger SSD, etc.
✦ Partition Clone: copy a specific partition to another. Various file systems are supported: NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, etc.

Follow the steps below to clone one hard drive to another with Qiling Disk Master’ disk copy command:

Step 1. Open Command Prompt as mentioned above.

Step 2. Type cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Qiling Disk Master and press Enter. You should change the path after “cd” with the installation directory of Qiling Disk Master on your computer.

Step 3. Type DiskMasterUI /c /t Disk /s 1 /d 2 and press Enter to clone all the contents from disk 1 to disk 2. You should change the source and destination disks to yours.

Step 4. You will receive a prompt that the destination disk will be completely overwritten before Qiling Disk Master starts clone. Type yes and press Enter to continue if you have already backed up your important data.

Step 5. Type exit and press Enter to exit Command Prompt.

Tips:
● If you are not sure about the disk numbers of the source and destination disks, run DiskMasterUI /l to list disks and partitions on your computer.
● If the destination disk is an SSD, add “/a” after the command in Step 3, that is DiskMasterUI /c /t Disk /s 1 /d 2 /a, thus using partition alignment to optimize for SSD.

Qiling Disk Master also enables you to clone hard drive in Windows 10, 8, 7, XP, Vista with its GUI utility. Just load Qiling Disk Master and click Clone > Disk Clone to complete the process.

FAQs about using cmd to clone drive

1. Can you clone a drive without software?

Yes, you can clone a drive without using specialized cloning software. As mentioned in this article, you can use xcopy to clone drive. However, xcopy has limited features and the copy process can be error-prone.

2. What is xcopy command used for?

xcopy is a command that facilitates the copying of files or groups of files between directories. It is particularly useful when transferring data to and from a fixed disk.

3. What is the difference between xcopy and copy?

xcopy and copy are similar. However, xcopy differs from the copy command by offering additional switches that allow for precise specification of both the source and destination during the copying process.

Summary

When you want to clone hard drive via Command Prompt next time, you can either try xcopy program or Qiling Disk Master.exe. With this two tools, you can also clone USB drives via command lines. However, Qiling Disk Master offers a partition/drive level copy while xcopy doesn’t.

Apart from cloning hard drive, it enables you to backup Windows 10 to NAS. If you are looking for portable backup software that can help you create backups on any computer, pick Qiling Disk Master Technician or Technician Plus edition. Go for it right now!

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