Full Guide: Clone C Drive Server 2022 and Boot from Destination Disk Successfully
- What's new in Server 2022?
- When need to clone C drive in Server 2022?
- Preliminary work for cloning Server 2022 system drive
- Start cloning C drive in Server 2022 step by step
- Follow-up work
What's new in Server 2022?
Microsoft officially launched Windows Server 2022 on August 18, 2021. The newest Windows Server edition is built on the strong foundation of Windows Server 2019 and brings innovations on many features, such as:
✦Advanced multi-layer security
Compared with the previous Windows Server, the Server 2022 added the advanced multi-layer security, providing the defense-in-depth protection against sophisticated attackers and threats. That is a big benefit for most businesses worldwide.
✦Hardware Improvements
One of the major improvements in Windows Server 2022 should be the server hardware limitations, which have been extended to the highest level. The server 2022 supports 48 terabytes of memory and 2,048 logical cores running on 64 physical sockets.
✦Firmware protection
Since firmware executes with high privileges and is potentially vulnerable to threats and attacks. The secured-core server processors of Server 2022 support measurement and verification of boot processes with DRTM and DMA (Direct Memory Access), which can effectively prevent cyber attacks.
When need to clone C drive in Server 2022?
"I have a desktop computer running the newest Windows Server 2022, and I want to copy/clone the C drive to an SSD for faster access and boot. However, I am not sure how to clone only the C drive in Server 2022. Is there any recommendation? Thanks in advance."
Different users may clone C drive in Windows Server 2022 for different purposes. In general, the major purposes include: move Server from traditional HDD to a faster and more advanced SSD to boost Server performance; transfer Server from smaller disk to a larger disk to get more storage space; migrate Windows Server OS from an old disk that is suffering some failure signs to a new disk as a backup before it completely stops working.
Preliminary work for cloning Server 2022 system drive
To start cloning system drive in Windows Server 2022, or other Server OSes like 2019, 2016, 2012, 2008 or 2003, there are several important steps to take beforehand:
1. Connect the destination disk to your computer
First of all, you need to connect the destination hard drive, which you are planning to clone to, to your computer and make sure it is detected successfully. If you are using a desktop, you can installed the destination drive internally easily. However, if you are using a laptop with only one drive bay, you will need an external SATA-to-USB adapter, dock or enclosure to connect the disk to your computer.
2. Check out the available free space of the destination drive
To successfully clone C drive Serer 2022, the destination hard disk should have a piece of unallocated space that is large enough to hold all contents in the Server 2022 system partition. If it is smaller, you need to get another unallocated space, or shrink the C drive on the source disk to make it smaller to fit into the unallocated space.
3. Make sure the constant power supply
It matters a lot when you are cloning system drive on a laptop. A sudden power failure during the cloning process will lead to data loss, so it is important to ensure your device has constant power supply before starting the cloning process.
4. Check the boot mode the computer's motherboard supports
If you are cloning C drive in Windows Server from MBR disk to GPT disk, or GPT disk to MBR disk, you have to check whether the motherboard supports UEFI boot mode or Legacy BIOS boot mode since the GPT boot disk requires UEFI while MBR boot disk requires the Legacy BIOS. You will have to change boot mode from Legacy to UEFI, or UEFI to Legacy in the specific condition.
5. Find a reliable Server cloning tool
To clone C drive in Windows Server, the most important step is to find a professional cloning program, which can safely clone system partition from one disk to another and make the cloned disk bootable as well.
The Qiling Disk Master Server is such a perfect tool. It works well on all Windows Server operating systems including the Server 2022, and all the Windows PCs including the newest Windows 11. Its "Migrate OS to SSD Wizard" allows you to clone system related partitions from one hard drive to another one (SSD or HDD) and boot from the destination disk successfully after clone. Also, it supports OS drive clone from MBR to GPT, GPT to MBR, MBR to MBR or GPT to GPT disk.
Start cloning C drive in Server 2022 step by step
When everything above is verified and done, now you can download the Qiling Disk Master Server Demo and have a try.
Step 1. Install and launch Qiling Disk Master Server. Click "Tools" in the top toolbar, and choose "System Clone", click "Next".
Step 2. Choose an unallocated space on the destination disk and click "Next" button.
Step 3. Here you can adjust the system partition on the new disk as you need. Then, click"Next" button.
Step 4. Here is a note about how to boot from the cloned disk. Read it carefully if necessary.
Step 5. Click "Apply" and "Proceed" to commit the pending operation.
See? Only five steps can clone C drive in Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, 2012 (R2), 2008 (R2) to another different hard drive. Moreover, it also enables you to clone the whole Server disk to another one via the "Disk Clone Wizard".
Follow-up work
No matter you use the "Migrate OS to SSD Wizard" or "Disk Clone Wizard" to clone Windows Server 2022 C drive to SSD or HDD, you need to take the following steps to boot from the destination drive.
Step 1. Replace the original drive with the new boot disk: shut down your computer, locate the existing boot drive, carefully remove it and connect the new drive to the system.
Step 2. Restart PC, press F2/F8/F11, Del key or other keys, depending on the motherboard manufacturer) to enter the BIOS screen.
Step 3. Go to the boot section, set the cloned disk as the boot drive in BIOS. Save the changes and restart the PC.
Now you should boot the computer from the new disk successfully. If you cannot boot from the destination drive, please check the disk connection, boot mode compatibility, etc.
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