Comparison of disk cloning software

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Disk cloning software facilitates a disk cloning operation by using software techniques to copy data from a source to a destination drive or to a disk image.

Contents

List

Disk Cloning Software
Disk cloning capabilities of various software.
NameOperating systemUser InterfaceCloning featuresOperation model License
Windows Linux MacOS Live OS CLI GUI Sector by sector [a] File based [b] Hot transfer [c] Standalone Client–server
Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office [1] [d] YesNoYesYes (64 MB)NoYesYes FAT32, NTFS, HFS+, APFS, ext2, ext3, ext4 and ReiserFS [2] YesYesYes Trialware [e]
AOMEI [3] YesNoNoNoNoYesNoNoNoNoNo Freemium
Apple Software Restore NoNoYesNoYesNoYes HFS+ YesYesYesPart of macOS
Carbon Copy Cloner No?YesNoNoYesYes APFS, HFS+ YesYes? Trialware
Clonezilla [4] NoYes?Yes (210 MB)YesNoYes FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, reiser4, xfs, jfs, btrfs, f2fs, NILFS2, HFS+, UFS, minix, VMFS3 NoYesYes (Clonezilla server edition) GPL
dcfldd NoYesNo?YesNoYesNoNoYesNo GPL
dd (Unix) NoYesYesYes [f] YesNoYesNoNoYesNo GPLv3
Disks (gnome-disk-utility) NoYesYes?NoYesYesNoNoNo?Part of Gnome
DiskGeniusYesNoNo?YesYesYes FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4 YesYesNo Freemium
Disk Utility NoYesYesYesNoYesYes HFS+ YesYesNoPart of macOS
EaseUS Partition Master [5] YesNoNoYes (526MB)NoYesYes NTFS, ext4, ext3, ext2, FAT32, FAT16, FAT12, ReFS YesYesYes (Enterprise edition) Trialware
FSArchiver NoYes??YesNoNo FAT32, btrfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS-4, HPFS, JFS, XFS YesYesNo GPL
Ghost [6] YesNoYesYesYesYesYes FAT32, NTFS, HPFS, ext2, ext3 [7] YesYesYes Trialware
GParted Live CD [8] NoYesNoYesNoYesNo ext2, ext3 NoYesNo GPL
Image for Windows [9] YesNoNoYesNoYesYes FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3 YesYesNo Trialware
IsoBuster [10] YesNoNoYesNoYesYes FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, ExFAT, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, MFS, HFS, HFS+, UDF, XFS, [11] ReFS [12] NoYesNo Trialware
Kleo Bare Metal Backup No??Yes (570 MB)NoYesYes FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, HFS+ NoNoYes Freeware
Macrium Reflect Yes??YesNoYesYes?NoNoNo Trialware
Mondo Rescue [13] No?NoYes * [g] YesNoYes FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3 YesYes? GPL
ntfsclone [14] [15] NoYesNoNo [h] YesNoNo NTFS ?YesNo GPL
partimage [16] [17] YesYesNoNo [h] YesNoNo FAT32, ext2, ext3, ReiserFS-3, HPFS, JFS, XFS;
UFS (beta), HFS (beta), NTFS (experimental) [18]
?YesYes GPL
Partition-Saving [19] YesYesNoYesYesYesYes FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3 NoYesNo Freeware
MiniTool ShadowMaker [20] YesNoNoNoNoYesYes FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, exFAT NoYesNo Freeware
Redo Backup and Recovery NoNoNoYes (225 MB)NoYesYes FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4 NoNoCan access networked drives GPL
Notes
  1. Sector-by-sector transfer involves accessing the disk directly and copying the contents of each sector, thus accurately reproducing the layout of the source disk.
  2. File-based transfer (as opposed to sector-by-sector transfer), involves opening all files and copying their contents, one by one. It requires the cloning utility to have a knowledge of the file systems on the source disk. The target disk's layout may not resemble that of the source disk.
  3. Hot transfer refers to copying the contents of a volume on which there are open files in use. Implies use of shadow copy or a similar technique.
  4. Previously known as Acronis TrueImage. This is the home version.
  5. At the trial version, you can't perform Disk Cloning feature via UI nor Rescue disc. Both methods are locked.
  6. There is no Live OS dedicated specially to dd. However Live CDs of various flavors of Linux should include dd as a part of coreutils. In general this applies also to Linux-based rescue CDs (although they may not provide dd explicitly as their primary tool, they still may give access to a shell which allows dd invocation).
  7. There is no ready-to-use Live CD with this utility. It does come bundled with Mindi-Linux which is a small Linux distribution that can be used to create a customized Live CD.
  8. 1 2 There is no Live CD dedicated specially to this utility. However, it is present on several rescue CD's together with other software.

See also

Concepts

Lists

Comparison

References

  1. Zhidkov, D. A., Kuligina, N. O., & Pavlycheva, T. N. (2020). Methods and Problems of Updating the Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System to Microsoft Windows 10 in the Energy Enterprise. European Journal of Natural History, (6), 30-34.
  2. Bate, Madeleine. "Acronis True Image Review 2021: Is the High Cost Worth It?" Website Planet, WebsitePlanet, 10 May 2021, https://www.websiteplanet.com/cloud-storage/acronis/.
  3. "AOMEI". AOMEItech. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  4. Clonezilla home page (includes supported filesystems and other info)
  5. "EaseUS Partition Master home page".
  6. "Norton Ghost". Symantec . Retrieved 15 December 2012.
  7. "Ghost compatibility with various file systems". Archived from the original on 2017-01-31. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  8. "GParted Live CD" . Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  9. TeraByte Image for Windows home page
  10. Clone a drive or partition with IsoBuster, Managed or otherwise
  11. IsoBuster 4.3 Release notes
  12. IsoBuster 4.8 Release notes
  13. "MondoRescue HOWTO".
  14. About ntfsclone Archived 2008-02-21 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ntfsclone(8) man page Archived 2008-07-06 at the Wayback Machine
  16. "Partimage home page". Archived from the original on 2017-02-08. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  17. Partimage supported filesystems
  18. "Partimage - Supported filesystems".
  19. Partition-Saving manual
  20. "MiniTool ShadowMaker official site".