Free Mac Disk Copy Software

Need Free Alternative to Acronis Cloning Software

You may know Acronis True Image for a while, a fancy application for disk clone, backup and cloud things, that has quite a few advanced features. It says to support all platforms, including Windows PC, Mac PC, or even mobile devices. While the fact behind is that it barely well supports one platform.

Clonezilla is a partition and disk imaging/cloning program similar to True Image® or Norton Ghost®. It helps you to do system deployment, bare metal backup and recovery. Three types of Clonezilla are available, Clonezilla live, Clonezilla lite server, and Clonezilla SE (server edition). Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup. AweClone for Mac, one of the best disk copy/cloning software for Mac, is the award-winning program from Magoshare. ( Download AweClone for Mac ) This Mac disk copy software offers two disk copy/clone modes: 1. Copy all data from one location to another with 1 click; 2. Create disk image of any hard drive with 1 click. Download Clonezilla for free. A partition and disk imaging/cloning program. Clonezilla is a partition and disk imaging/cloning program similar to True Image®. It saves and restores only used blocks in hard drive.

Sep 18, 2021 Download EaseUS disk clone software now and spend the least effort to copy and clone a hard drive. EaseUS hard drive cloning software is just what you need to copy the exact data content of one hard drive to another, file-by-file and sector-by-sector. No data loss or system boot errors will ever happen. Furthermore, it's a versatile data backup. AOMEI Backupper is a free hard drive cloning software that is free to download and use. This software’s main feature is creating a clone a large disk to a smaller SSD drive. You can copy sectors and partitions and essential files like boot.ini, NTLDR, BCD, winload.exe, and MBR.

There are reports online about Acronis failed to support Intel RAID arrays and ACHI, and it messed around with their enterprise services, and Acronis true image cloning software refused to restore to other computer with Acronis clone image, etc.

If you have above issues with free Acronis cloning software in Windows, or you are looking for a better free disk cloning software, which is an alternative to Acronis home free, then the below paragraphs will satisfy you. There are really great Acronis True Image free alternatives out there to help you finish the drive clone. We'll introduce three popular alternatives.

#1. Free Acronis Clone Software Alternative for Windows - AOMEI Backupper

AOMEI Backupper Standard is an intuitive backup freeware. As a free disk cloning software, it comes with the capacity to easily clone one disk to another as well as clone partition from a partition to another. You are entitled to clone the disks in your computer or clone external disks outside. The same to its partition clone.

System clone is a locked feature, which can be accessed in Backupper Professional version or higher. It’s much more convenient to clone a computer with Backupper than with Acronis cloning software, mainly thanks to its better frame.

The software is perfectly compatible with Windows all PC platforms like Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, etc. Quite easy to use. Please download it to have a try right now!

Note: This version only supports cloning system disk between MBR and MBR. To clone system disk between GPT and GPT, or MBR to GPT, GPT to MBR, you could consider upgrading to AOMEI Backupper Professional.

#2. Free Acronis Drive Clone Alternative for Mac - Disk Utility

Free mac disk copy software 2019

Disk Utility is a popular backup and clone software, which embeds in Mac OS. It is a highly recommended utility software for Mac. With its help, you can create a clone image of Mac system from your present computer and restore it to another Mac.

If you use RAID, it can also be helpful when creating RAID 1 (mirror) array. Clone Mac’s drive is its advantage. It’s even more powerful than Acronis True Image’s in backup and restore performance. In all, it lives up to free Acronis cloning software alternative.

#3. Acronis True Image Alternative Open Source Linux - Back In Time

Back In Time is open-source utility software for Linux. It supports clone files, folders, system, etc, in Linux. It’s a dreamed system software inspired from FlyBack and TimeVault. Therefore, its features include their good points, like optimizing in backup and restore speed. Finally, it’s a light Linux utility software, a good free alternative to Acronis True Image.

Here you go, these Acronis clone software free alternatives can do a variety of clone tasks for you, but on different platforms. And these similar Acronis drive clone software can be used free, which makes it easier to take a shot and decide whether to use them.

Frequently asked questions: free alternatives to Acronis True Image

1. Is there a free version of Acronis?

Disk

The answer is NO, Acronis now only provides 30-day free trial version for users. You can test most of its features, such as, backup, but you cannot execute the cloning feature until you upgrade to its advanced version.

2. How do I clone a free disk?

There are many free disk cloning software online that allows you to clone a disk for free, such as, AOMEI Backupper. It allows you to clone system disk between 2 MBR disks.

Free Mac Disk Copy Software Download

3. Which is better Aomei or Acronis?

Both of them are very popular disk cloning software to help you clone hard drive to another one. However, the latter only provides the free trial version, and you cannot even use the clone feature. Thus, if you want to clone a disk free, try AOMEI.

Mac Disk Copy Software Free

Summary :

What is the best free drive copy software? MiniTool Partition Wizard is the best hard drive cloning software which can be used to clone hard drive easily and safely. Download the free cloning software now and have a try!

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Why Clone Hard Drive?

Disk cloning is very useful in hard drive management. Simply put, disk cloning copies the complete contents of a hard drive, including the files, the partition tables and the MBR to another location.

It is worth mentioning that when you clone a hard drive, both the source disk and the target disk can be used directly, which is regarded as a simple, direct duplicate (however, cloning is different from copy & paste, check Clone VS. Copy & Paste for the detail).

In the following situations, you may consider hard drive cloning:

  • To upgrade to larger hard drivewhen the current hard drive is too small and cannot meet your data storage requirements any longer. For example, you meet the 'low disk space' issue but all partitions are almost full.
  • To upgrade hard drive to more advanced SSD to enjoy smooth computer performance. This is extremely useful for those who want to upgrade system disk, as SSD offers faster read-write speed.
  • You have a batch of computers (with the same configuration) to be installed. To avoid installing all computers one by one, you can install only one at first and then turn to hard drive cloning software to save effort and time.
  • To make an exact hard drive backup. Through free disk cloning, you get a copy of disk backup and avoid the trouble of data restoration when the backup copy is needed.

So the conclusion here is that if you are upgrading your hard drive to a larger one, or replacing it due to a physical failure, cloning hard drive is the easiest method to complete that task. Besides, doing hard drive copy reduces the risk of any accidental data loss.

Recommended Hard Drive Copy Utility

Since hard drive copy is significant, you must be wondering: which is the best freeware for drive copy? In my opinion, MiniTool Partition Wizard is the top recommendation. I will give you my explanation.

Developed by MiniTool Software Ltd., MiniTool Partition Wizard is regarded as the best drive copy software for Windows users, including those who are running 32/64 bits Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows7.

As free drive cloning software, MiniTool Partition Wizard offers two ways to clone hard drives for hard drive upgrade or data backup, including 'Copy Disk' and 'Migrate OS to SSD/HD' (if you only want to clone the system).

All you have to do is put the new drive in the computer as a slave or secondary drive and use this disk copy software to clone the old drive to the new one. Once the process is complete, switch the new drive to the primary and then you are good to go (for hard drive upgrade).

Just press the button to have this free drive cloning tool downloaded! The free edition is flexible to copy any non-system disk; while to copy your system disk, you will need to upgrade to a more advanced edition.

Tip: For Windows Server users, MiniTool Partition Wizard Server Edition is the right choice. Please go to the Online Store to get a suitable edition.

Knowing what MiniTool Partition Wizard is, let's have a look on how to clone a hard drive by using MiniTool Partition Wizard. Here we just take clone hard drive Windows 10 for example, and MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition should be the right choice.

Note:
  1. To use 'Copy Disk Wizard', both the source disk and target disk must be basic disks.
  2. The target disk will be cleaned during the cloning process. Please make sure it can be cleaned; otherwise transfer data out at first.

Step 1. Run MiniTool Partition Wizard to the main interface, then you can see all your hard drives connected to this PC are shown in the middle panel and some operable features are listed in the left panel. Now, select Copy Disk feature to clone hard drive.

Step 2. Here you need to select the target disk (must be basic disk) and click Next to continue. Make sure you know which drive you are cloning to so you do not overwrite the wrong drive.

Step 3. Here come the copy options. If you are copying from a GPT disk, you are able to see 2 options. (4 options when you are cloning an MBR disk, see details here.)

  • Fit partitions to entire disk: all partitions will be cloned to the target disk and take up its full capacity according to the partition size proportion.
  • Copy partitions without resize: all partitions will be cloned to the target disk according to the original partition size. This option is available when the target disk is large enough to hold all partitions on the source disk.

After you have made the copy options, you can customize each partition size according to your own preference. Then click Next to go on.

Step 4. Then you can see a note which reads 'To boot from the new disk, please configure computer BIOS settings. Make sure the new disk is configured as the default boot disk.' Please keep this in mind if you are cloning the system disk before you click Finish.

Step 5. Finally, you need to press the Apply button located on the toolbar to start hard drive cloning process. When finished, you will find all your files stay intact on the original drive and the target drive has an exact same copy.

Note: Any operations related to system partition require a reboot, and the time to finish hard drive cloning is closely related to the data amount and your computer configuration. So please be patient and wait until Partition Wizard completes all operations.

For a more intuitive guidance, please watch this video:

Don't hesitate to have a try on this free cloning software now!

RECOMMEND:

Want to know more information about how to successfully boot computer from the new hard drive? Now, you can find answers from our previous post: 2 Ways to Boot from New Hard Drive after Copying Disk or Migrating OS.

Disk Copy Download

In fact, MiniTool also puts forward another free cloning software to clone hard drives which is called MiniTool ShadowMaker. Although it is mainly designed for Windows backup, it also comes with useful Clone Disk feature. To get the details of how to use this disk copy software, you are suggested to read Clone OS from HDD to SSD.

Tips for Cloning Your Hard Drive

Now you know how to clone hard drive by using MiniTool free cloning software. Here I would like to put forward some tips to help you deal with cloning issue better.

  • Don't just copy & paste files to another location on your hard disk if you are leading the operating system. Use professional disk cloning software like MiniTool Partition Wizard to help you.
  • Use another hard drive, especially an external hard drive for your backup copies, because there is less chance of losing/damaging computer and external hard drive at the same time.
  • At least one cloning copy should be kept well. Don't erase the current backup unless you are going to create a new one.
  • If you use your computer frequently, back up your data often. Having a recent backup is always good for data recovery. Apart from hard drive clone, professional disk imaging software is also recommended to save effort.

Further Reading: Cloning VS. Imaging

When dealing with backup issue, cloning or imaging is always the question asked by many users. Many people choose to make a disk image, while many prefer hard drive cloning. Before I state my opinion, I would like to start with cloning VS. imaging.

One may ask, 'what the heck is the difference between cloning and imaging?'

Imaging is frequently used for preventative backup, which means you never know when you need the backup image for data restoration. Today most disk imaging software offer schedule backup feature, and you can set to back up files daily, weekly, or monthly. Besides, incremental backup and differential backup are provided, making it possible to save hard disk space.

If something bad happens, you can have the original image for restoration purposes without having to reinstall Windows and other applications.

Free Dvd Disk Copy Software

Disk cloning is more significant for hard drive replacement or hard drive upgrading, which means probably you will use the destination disk right away. When you clone a hard drive, actually you are cloning the entire contents of the drive instead of creating an image file.

The only issue you need to concern is that you need to have another physical hard drive that is large enough to contain all data in the original drive. During the cloning process, all files on the target disk will be cleaned so be sure that you are operating the right disk.

The conclusion here is: although cloning and imaging both back up and restore data, whether to choose cloning or imaging all depends on what you want to accomplish. In a word, for frequent backup issue, imaging software is better; for hard drive upgrading issue, free hard drive cloning software should be given the priority.

Disk Software Free

Summary

In this post, I mainly tell why you need to clone hard drive, which tool is best for hard drive clone, how to use it to clone hard drive, the differences between cloning and imaging, and several tips on hard drive cloning. Hope all these information is helpful in dealing with your hard drive copy issues.

Free Mac Disk Copy Software Free

Now it's your turn to have a try. Just download the best free drive copy software and start cloning hard drive. I believe you can do everything smoothly as long as you follow this guide correctly. For any suggestions or questions towards using MiniTool software, please contact [email protected] or leave us comments below. Much appreciated!