A Detailed Guide to Clone Disk with MiniTool ShadowMaker

Some people may want to clone their data into another disk without any data loss. MiniTool ShadowMaker has issued this feature – Clone Disk – to meet your demands. MiniTool Disk Clone is attached with other features that make the process easier and safer. This article on MiniTool Website gives you more details.

Clone Disk is another useful feature of MiniTool ShadowMaker, which is significant for hard drive upgrading. A big difference between disk clone and disk image is that when you clone a disk, you can directly use it after the operation, while you will have to restore a disk image before you can use it directly.

MiniTool ShadowMaker even can help you to clone the dynamic disk.

Tips:
Is it better to make a clone? This depends on the actual situation. If you need to upgrade the disk to a larger one without reinstalling OS, cloning is recommended. If you want to back up disk data to an image file, cloning cannot realize it but the backup feature can.
Note:
System disk clone is not supported in MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition. If you want to do this, you need to select the Pro or a more advanced edition.

How to Clone Basic Disk?

Step 1: Open MiniTool ShadowMaker and choose Tools and then Clone Disk.

Step 2: Click the Options button at the bottom.

Step 3: Select Same disk ID or New disk ID under the New disk ID tab according to your requirement.

Switch to Disk clone mode, and then select Used sector clone or Sector by sector clone if necessary.

Step 4: Click OK to save the settings.

Step 5: Choose the disk you want to clone, then click Next.

On the next page, choose where to store the copy. Then click Start to begin the process.

Step 6: Confirm that you want to start the task.

Wait for the process to finish.

Note:
You can check the box next to Shut down the computer when the operation is completed so that the computer will shut down automatically and you can take either the source disk or the target disk out of the computer after the cloning.

The message you should pay attention to:

If you select Same disk ID in step 3, you will see the following message when disk cloning is finished successfully:

This means both the source disk and the target disk have the same signature, thus one disk is marked as offline by Windows. Just remove one that you don’t need.

How to Clone Dynamic Disk?

MiniTool ShadowMaker also enables you to clone the dynamic disk. Now, you can refer to the following instructions.

Note:
It can only clone dynamic disks which only contain Simple Volumes to basic disks.

Step 1: Open MiniTool ShadowMaker first. Go to Tools and choose Clone Disk.

Step 2: Click the Options button at the bottom.

Step 3: Select Same disk ID or New disk ID under the New disk ID tab according to your requirement.

Switch to Disk clone mode, and then select Used sector clone or Sector by sector clone if necessary.

Step 4: Click OK to save the settings.

Step 5: Choose the dynamic disk you want to clone and click Next to continue.

Then, choose the target to store the copy. Then click Start to begin the process.

Step 6: Confirm that you want to start the task.

Tips:
All data on the target disk will be destroyed, so please back up them in advance.

Step 7: Wait for the process to be finished.

Step 8: If you select Same disk ID in step 3, you will see the following warning message when dynamic disk cloning is finished successfully:

This means both the source disk and the target disk have the same signature, thus you need to disconnect or remove either of them.

About The Author

Anna

Position: Columnist

Anna is an editor of the MiniTool Team. She worked in this big family since her graduation. Her articles mainly focus on data backup and recovery, disk cloning, and file syncing, committed to resolving the data loss issues users may encounter on their PCs. Besides, more related computer articles are shared here. In her leisure time, she enjoys reading and watching movies. Travel can also be a good choice for her.