Easily Clone Windows 7 OEM including OEM Partition to SSD
Windows 7 OEM vs. Windows 7 OEM Partition
Windows 7 OEM (short for Original Equipment Manufacturer) is a version of the Windows operating system available to computer manufacturers and companies that build computer systems. Its product key is OEM license and tied to the preinstalled computer or computer you first install Windows 7 OEM on.
While for OEM partition, it's a volume less than 100 MB of a hard drive that contains system recovery programs, factory restore data, and diagnostic tools (in Dell PC), etc. It allows you to easily restore or reinstall Windows with the OEM disk or from BIOS. Also, one can delete an OEM partition if he finds it is useless.
Different manufacturers specify different activate keys. For example, you can access HP OEM partition with F9 while you need to press F12 at power-up to enter Dell OEM. When your system corrupts or gets slower, you can easily go back to the factory installation with this partition.
In addition, the status of OEM partition are not the same. some computer manufacturer like HP displays this OEM partition with drive letter yet some hide this partition and it cannot be viewed in Windows Explorer.
Why Clone Windows 7 OEM including OEM Partition?
As mentioned eariler, OEM partition is able to help users perform system recovery or factory reset, thus it is usually considered as the last resort when you have problem with your computer, such as, system crash or disk corruption.
In view of this, you'd better clone OEM in Windows 7 to other places such as flash drive or external hard drive to avoid computer failure or mistaken deletion. Then, you can delete it to gain more disk space. Despite of that the OEM partition takes little disk space, for PC user who has small disk capacity, this part counts.
Also, there are some users who want to clone Windows 7 OEM to SSD in disk upgrading. The OEM partition will be cloned if one performs Disk Clone, for example, clone Dell hard drive to SSD. However, for user who clone only system drive to SSD or do clean install on the SSD, the OEM partition does not been included under normal circumstances. If the SSD just has enough disk space, it is a wise move to keep OEM installed.
No matter which situation results in the Windows 7 OEM or OEM partition clone, what counts next is to find out how to clone Windows 7 OEM including OEM recovery partition.
How to Clone Windows 7 OEM including OEM Recovery Partition
Can you clone Windows 7 OEM including OEM recovery partition? Absolutely, the answer is yes. Nevertheless, you have to use a professional disk cloning software like Qiling Disk Master Professional to make it.
By using it, you can easily clone Windows 7 OEM from HDD to SSD in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, XP, and Vista. It provides 3 cloning methods, namely Disk Clone, System Clone, Partition Clone. And you can choose what to clone or how to clone according to your needs
- Use Disk Clone feature to clone entire disk including the OEM system and OEM recovery partiton.
- Use System Clone to clone Windows 7 OEM. With this function, you can make an exact copy of your system drive, including the operating system, system reserved partition or EFI partition, installed programs, personal data, etc.
- Use Partition Clone to clone OEM recovery partition to SSD. With this function, you can make an intact duplication of the OEM partition when you clone Dell OEM partition or clone Lenovo OEM partition.
Then, let's get started to clone OEM in Windows 7 to SSD with the following steps.
1. Connect the SSD to your PC via external disk bay or USB-to-SATA cable. Click the download button below to install and launch Qiling Backuper Professional. Then, click Clone > Disk Clone
2. In the Source Disk window, select the current disk with Windows 7 OEM and click Next.
3. In the Destination Disk window, select the new SSD and click Next. Note the destination SSD will be overwritten, please backup files you care most beforehand.
4. Tick SSD Alignment to accelerate the reading and writing speed of SSD disk as well as prolong its lifespan. Then, tick Sector by sector clone and click Proceed to start the cloning process.
Tips:
* Edit Partitions: You can edit the partition size of Windows 7 OEM to include the remaining disk space of SSD disk.
*This method also applies to clone Windows 8 or Windows 10 OEM partition to SSD.
*In most cases, the OEM active key is tied with computer motherboard.
Wrapping things up
With the help of Qiling Disk Master Professional, cloning Windows 7 OEM including OEM partition is very easy. And the cloned SSD is guaranteed to be bootable.
By default, this software will clone hard drive, system partition or data partition in Intelligent Clone mode which clone used part only. This mode makes clone larger hard drive to smaller one possible. In order to use OEM partition after cloning, it's suggested to clone all sectors of a hard drive with Sector by sector clone.
Also, you can directly clone Windows 7 OEM partition with "System Clone" or clone recovery partition to USB drive with "Partition Clone" as well. Somehow, it is an IDE to IDE hard drive duplicator, too.
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