Free Clone System Partition Guide [2024 Tutorial, Verified Effective]

Updated by

Tracy King 

Last updated on May 10, 2024

• Objective: Clone system partition
• Durational: Approximately 10-15 minutes
• Intended Users: All Windows professionals and beginners
• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7, and Windows XP/Vista

Please provide the English content you want to translate, and I'll do my best to translate it into Chinese.

If you want to clone Windows to a new SSD, or just use an SSD on a new disk, follow this guide:

"Free Clone System Partition Checklist"

What do you need for free cloning system partition? Here's a list for your reference:

1. Select a new partition or disk to clone the system partition to. 2. Download free OS cloning software or free system cloning software. 3. Use the software to clone the system partition. 4. Set up your computer to boot from the newly cloned system partition.

Now let's start cloning your system partition for free.

#1. Select a new partition or disk to clone the system partition

Before you begin, you'll need to determine where you want to clone your system partition to.

• To a new partition on the same disk, such as drive D: or E:? • Or to a new disk on your computer, such as a new HDD or SSD?

To proceed with the system partitioning, you will need to have a new partition available to do this:

Step 1: Open the target disk and move all its saved contents to the new partition.

Step 2: Make sure the target partition is formatted with the NTFS file system. If not, reformat the volume as NTFS.

Right-click the target volume in "Disk Management" and select "Format." Then, set the file system to NTFS and finally click "OK."

#2. Download free cloning software to clone the system partition

Note that the Windows operating system does not have a cloning tool to copy a partition to another hard drive or clone an OS to another disk. You will need to use reliable cloning software for this purpose.

AOMEI Partition Assistant Free, as a reliable free system cloning software, allows you to clone system partition to new partition or disk for free and efficiently.

Aside from cloning system partitions, this software offers an array of excellent features to help you manage and optimize your disk partition performance, such as:

• Enlarge C drive regardless of unallocated space
• Merge or split partitions
• Convert data disk to MBR/GPT, dynamic/basic disk
• Convert partition to NTFS/FAT32 file system
• Check file system errors
• Check disk health status - temperature, S.M.A.R.T, etc.
• Check disk speed - reading/writing speed, I/O speed, or latency
• Align SSD to 4K, change cluster size, and more

# 3. Free Clone System Partition and Make Windows Bootable on New Partition

Now you can use the Partition Master tool and follow the steps here to clone system partition to new volume for free. Here are the steps:

Step 1. From the left menu, choose "Clone." Click "Clone Partition" and then "Next."

Step 2: Select the source partition, and click Next.

Step 3: Select the partition from which you wish to recover data and click “Next” to proceed.

If you clone a partition to an existing one, you should move or back up your data beforehand to avoid overwriting it. 2. Review the warning and click Yes to proceed.

Click “Start,” and wait for the cloning process to finish.

You can view this video tutorial to learn how to clone a partition or the System Reserved Partition.

#4. Modify the boot information and set the computer to boot from the new system partition

After cloning a system partition to a new volume or new disk, you must update the boot information and reset the computer to configure the system partition on the new volume and start the operating system.

Step 1: Restart your PC from the Windows installation media and reach the Windows setup screen.

Step 2: Select “Repair your computer” and then click “Troubleshoot” > “Advanced options” > “Command Prompt.”

Step 3. Enter the appropriate command line to change your computer's load information:

Note: Replace x: with the drive label of your system partition, and replace d: with the drive label of the new operating system drive to which you cloned your system partition.

If your computer supports legacy boot mode, enter the following command:

• bcdedit /store X:\Boot\bcd /set {default} device partition=D:
• bcdedit /store X:\Boot\bcd /set {default} osdevice partition=D:

If your computer supports UEFI boot mode, type the following command:

These two commands are used to set the default boot entry device in the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) store. They configure both the default operating system device and the boot device to be Partition D:. Make sure to replace "x:\" with the actual drive letter where the EFI system files are installed. 1. bcdedit /store x:\efi\microsoft\boot\bcd /set {default} device partition=d: 2. bcdedit /store x:\efi\microsoft\boot\bcd /set {default} osdevice partition=d:

Step 4. Close the Command Prompt window, and then restart your computer.

When that's done, your computer should boot normally from the new partition.

Final Award

With a reliable OS cloning tool – AOMEI Partition Assistant, you can easily clone system partition to new volume and even migrate the whole system to a new disk.

Later, you can use the “Erase disk” feature to wipe the old system partition and repartition it as a new volume for your files.

Frequently Asked Questions About Free System Partition Clone Software

If you have more questions about how to clone or copy system partition for free, here we list some hot topics. Follow and find your answers here if you have the same doubts:

1. Are there any free cloning software options?

Indeed, a quick online search for free cloning software will yield a long list of recommended disk cloning or system cloning software. How do you determine which one is best for your needs? Check out the following list:

• Totally free of charge.
• User-friendly.
• Virus-free.
• Instant and powerful technical support.
• Capable of meeting your needs to clone OS or clone disk.

2. How to clone partition for free?

• Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant and navigate to the "Disk Clone" section. • Select the source partition you want to clone, and choose a new empty partition with equal or larger size as the target partition. • Confirm your selection and click "Execute Task."

3. How to clone the operating system from HDD to SSD for free?

• Install the SSD and initialize it with the same disk type as your system drive. • Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant and navigate to the "Disk Clone" section. • Decide how to clone the operating system – either clone the entire system drive to the SSD or just clone Windows to the SSD. • To clone the entire system drive, select "Clone System Disk," set the target as the SSD, and proceed with the operation. • To clone only Windows to the SSD, choose "Migrate OS," set the destination as the SSD, and click "Execute Task" to confirm the action.