When it comes to cloning the disk that installs OS, most users pay much attention to the problem whether the clone is bootable. Indeed, questions, for example I cloned HDD but computer won’t boot from the new disk, are often asked on the internet. Aiming at this situation, we are going to show users how to make a bootable disk clone.
Firstly, download a piece of professional drive clone software from the internet since inferior software may damage your data so as to affect the OS boot. If users do not know which one to choose, try using MiniTool Drive Copy which is free and easy to use. Note: this program does not support Windows server. For server support, please see partition manager server. Then, install and launch the cloning tool to start creating bootable disk clone.
This is the starting interface of MiniTool Drive Copy. Please choose “Disk to Disk” module in this interface.
Here, please select the OS disk as the source disk and click “Next>”. Then, select the disk which will save the image of the source disk as the target disk and click “Next>”.
Next, choose a copying method to construct the layout of target disk and click “Next>”. After that, a note which shows how to boot from the target disk will emerge:
This is the key point to solve the problem how to make a bootable disk clone. If users want to boot Windows from the target disk, set the target disk as the default boot disk in BIOS if they want to keep using the source disk as data disk. If they do not make such a setting, the OS saved in the hard disk which enjoys the boot priority will boot automatically next time for it also contains Windows. After knowing this information, please click “Finish” button.
At last, click “Yes” to start cloning. Note: since users are imaging the disk which saves the Windows OS that is running, they will be prompted to restart the computer. Do as told and the drive clone software will perform all operations in boot mode. Then, the computer will reboot automatically.
Now users would know how to make a bootable disk clone.