In workplace practice, drive cloning supports multiple valuable uses, including the following: The older nomenclature persists in terms like “disk image,” and you may see drive cloning software refer to all storage devices as “disks,” even if they’re SSDs.

That said, the terms “disk cloning” and “drive cloning” are used more or less interchangeably. In fact, it’s often the case when a boot/system disk is being cloned that the source is an HD and the target an SSD because of the improved performance that such a changeover invariably delivers. But today, with solid-state drives (SSDs) as common as hard disks (HDs), both source and target can be either an HD or an SSD. The original name comes from a time when this meant spinning hard disks. drive cloningĭisk cloning, now often called drive cloning, means creating a true and faithful copy of one computer storage device on another - in other words, copying the contents of one storage device onto another storage device.

It’s critical because its proper outcome is a machine that boots and runs when that operation is complete, the old drive removed, and the new drive put in its place. Such a cloning operation becomes critical on Windows PCs when the drive to be replaced is the boot/system drive, meaning it contains the files used to boot up the machine when it’s starting up or restarting, as well the operating system files used to run Windows itself.

Cloning a PC drive comes in handy for a variety of reasons, but primarily when you want to replace one drive on a PC with another that is either bigger or faster than the original drive, if not both.

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