Comparison of disk cloning software

Disk cloning software makes an exact copy (clone) of a storage medium such as a hard disk (HDD) or SSD by using software techniques to copy data from a source to a destination drive or to a disk image. For example, a bootable identical SSD clone can be made of a working HDD that boots into Mac OS.

List

Note: the operating system listed is the operating system (OS) the cloning software runs under. Some cloning software can be used to clone storage media with a different OS installed, either by booting a host computer into the cloner's OS (for example, with a boot "rescue" CD, DVD, or USB-connected boot medium), or by connecting the storage medium being cloned to a computer running the cloning software.

Disk Cloning Software
Disk cloning capabilities of various software.
Name Operating system User Interface Cloning features Operation model License
Windows Linux MacOS Live OS CLI GUI Sector by sector File based Hot transfer Standalone Client–server
Acronis True Image Yes No YesYes (64 MB) No Yes YesFAT32, NTFS, HFS+, APFS, ext2, ext3, ext4 and ReiserFSYesYesYesTrialware
AOMEI Partition Assistant Yes No NoNo No Yes YesNoYesYesNoFreemium
Apple Software Restore No No YesNo Yes No YesHFS+YesYesYesPart of macOS
Carbon Copy Cloner No No Yes No No Yes YesAPFS, HFS+YesYes?Trialware
Clonezilla No Yes No Yes (210 MB) Yes No YesFAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, reiser4, xfs, jfs, btrfs, f2fs, NILFS2, HFS+, UFS, minix, VMFS3NoYesYes (Clonezilla server edition)GPL
dcfldd No Yes No? Yes No YesNoNoYesNoGPL
dd (Unix) No Yes YesYes Yes No YesNoNoYesNoGPLv3
Disks (gnome-disk-utility) No Yes No ? No Yes Yes No No No ?Part of Gnome
DiskGenius Yes No No? Yes Yes YesFAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4YesYesNoFreemium
Disk Utility No Yes YesYes No Yes YesHFS+YesYesNoPart of macOS
FSArchiver No Yes No? Yes No NoFAT32, btrfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS-4, HPFS, JFS, XFSYesYesNoGPL
Ghost Yes No NoYes Yes Yes YesFAT32, NTFS, HPFS, ext2, ext3YesYesYesTrialware
GParted Live CD No Yes NoYes No Yes Noext2, ext3NoYesNoGPL
Image for Windows Yes No NoYes No Yes YesFAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3YesYesNoTrialware
IsoBuster Yes No NoYes No Yes YesFAT12, FAT16, FAT32, ExFAT, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, MFS, HFS, HFS+, UDF, XFS, ReFSNoYesNoTrialware
Kleo Bare Metal Backup No No NoYes (570 MB) No Yes YesFAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, HFS+NoNoYesFreeware
Macrium Reflect Yes No NoYes No Yes Yes?NoNoNoTrialware
Mondo Rescue No Yes NoYes * Yes No YesFAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3YesYes?GPL
ntfsclone No Yes NoNo Yes No NoNTFS?YesNoGPL
partimage No Yes NoNo Yes No NoFAT32, ext2, ext3, ReiserFS-3, HPFS, JFS, XFS;
UFS (beta), HFS (beta), NTFS (experimental)		?YesYesGPL
Partition-Saving Yes Yes NoYes Yes Yes YesFAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3NoYesNoFreeware
MiniTool ShadowMaker Yes No NoNo No Yes YesFAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, exFATNoYesNoFreeware
Redo Backup and Recovery No No NoYes (225 MB) No Yes YesFAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4NoNoCan access networked drivesGPL
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. ↑ For a time the home version was named Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office.
  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. ↑ "Norton Ghost". Symantec. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
  6. ↑ "Ghost compatibility with various file systems". Archived from the original on 2017-01-31. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  7. ↑ "GParted Live CD". Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  8. ↑ TeraByte Image for Windows home page
  9. ↑ Clone a drive or partition with IsoBuster, Managed or otherwise
  10. ↑ IsoBuster 4.3 Release notes
  11. ↑ IsoBuster 4.8 Release notes
  12. ↑ "MondoRescue HOWTO".
  13. ↑ About ntfsclone Archived 2008-02-21 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ ntfsclone(8) man page Archived 2008-07-06 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ "Partimage home page". Archived from the original on 2017-02-08. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  16. 1 2 "Supported filesystems". Partimage. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  17. ↑ Partition-Saving manual
  18. ↑ "MiniTool ShadowMaker official site".