In computing, clone is a method of replicating every bit of information from one place to another and making the source and the destination exactly the same. There are two types of clone when it comes to upgrading hard drive: disk clone and system clone. What are they?
Now you see the difference between disk clone and system clone is to clone either the entire disk or particular partitions. Then, how to choose between them?
To choose from disk clone and system clone, you may take following things into consideration:
1. The contents you want to transfer
If you want to get an exact copy of the original drive, then choose disk clone. If you only want to use the old operating system on the new drive, then pick system clone.
2. The capacity of the destination disk
When cloning a larger disk to a smaller disk, you should make sure that the destination disk is big enough to hold all data saved on the source disk if you use disk clone. Sometimes you have to use system clone due to the capacity limitation.
System clone or disk clone? That depends on your demands and how many data your destination disk can hold. As there’s no built-in cloning utility in Windows, you may look for reliable third-party cloning software.
Qiling Disk Master Professional, powerful cloning software for Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, offers both Disk Clone and System Clone features. Wanna know Qiling Disk Master Disk Clone vs. System Clone? Please read on.
★ With the Disk Clone feature, you can clone large drive to smaller drive, clone MBR disk to GPT disk, and vice versa. It also enables you to clone HDD to SSD of different brands, such as Samsung SSD, WD SSD, and Crucial SSD. Moreover, you can optimize the performance of the SSD using the SSD Alignment feature.
★ With the System Clone feature, you can transfer OS from SSD to new SSD or from HDD to SSD without effort. The program will select the system partition and system-related partition(s) automatically, which helps to reduce human errors. After cloning, you can enjoy secure boot from the new drive.
Don't hesitate to download and install Qiling Disk Master on your PC.
Now let’s learn detailed steps of performing disk clone and system clone via Qiling Disk Master. Take cloning to an SSD as an example.
Preparations:
◈ Connect the target SSD to your computer and make sure it is detected.
◈ Backup files on the destination SSD, because the target drive will be overwritten during the cloning process.
Video tutorial:
Graphic tutorial:
Step 1. Run Qiling Disk Master. Click “Clone” on the left pane and select “Disk Clone”.
Step 2. Select the current disk as the source disk.
Step 3. Select the SSD as the destination disk.
Step 4. Tick “SSD Alignment”. Confirm the operation and click “Proceed”.
Step 1. Launch Qiling Disk Master. Click “Clone” and select “System Clone”.
Step 2. The required system partition(s) is (are) selected by default. Select the partition on the connected SSD as the destination path and click “Next”.
Step 3. Tick “SSD Alignment” to improve the read/write speed of the target SSD and click “Proceed”.
You have learned disk clone vs. system clone from this page. The best cloning software Qiling Disk Master can help you complete these two tasks perfectly. Apart from the clone feature, Qiling Disk Master is specialized backup and sync software. You may use it to do system backup, disk backup, file synchronization and more. If you are a server user who is running Windows Server 2019/2016/2012, etc, Qiling Disk Master Server is available. Go for it right now!