Guide to Clone System Partition for Free [2024 Tutorial, Tried & True]

Do you need a guide to clone the system partition for free and make it bootable on a new disk? Follow this page, and you'll get a full guide to successfully cloning system partition to a new HDD or SSD successfully on your own.  

• Goal: Clone system partition
• Duration: 10-15 minutes or so
• Suitable Users: All Windows professionals and beginners
• Supported OS: Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista

If you want to clone Windows to a new SSD and even use the SSD on a new disk, you can follow this guide for help: 

Checklist of Cloning System Partition for Free

What do you need to clone the system partition for free? Here is a checklist for you to view:

• 1. Select a new partition or a new disk as the destination to clone system partition.
• 2. Download free OS cloning software or free system clone software.
• 3. Apply the software to clone system partition.
• 4. Set the computer to load the system from the newly cloned system partition.

Let's start to clone your system partition for free now.

#1. Select a New Partition or New Disk to Clone System Partition

Before you start, you'll need to determine where you would like to clone the system partition to: 

• To a new partition on the same disk, such as D or E drive?
• Or, to a new disk on the computer, such as a new HDD or SSD?

To ensure the system partition process is smooth, you'll need to set a new partition ready for the operation:

Step 1. Open the target drive and move all saved content to a new partition.

Step 2. Check if the file system is NTFS on the target partition. If not, format the volume to NTFS.

Open Disk Management, right-click on the target volume, select 'Format', then set NTFS as the file system and click 'OK'.

#2. Download Free Cloning Software to Clone System Partition

Note that the Windows operating system doesn't have a cloning tool to copy partition to another drive or clone the OS to another disk. To do so, you'll need to turn to reliable cloning software for help.

EaseUS Partition Master Free, as a reliable free OS cloning software, enables you to efficiently clone the system partition to a new partition or disk for free. 

Alongside cloning system partition, this software also provides you with a bunch of excellent features that you can apply to manage and optimize disk partition performance on your own, such as:

• Extend C drive with or without unallocated space
• Merge or split partitions
• Convert data disk to MBR/GPT, Dynamic/Basic
• Convert partition to NTFS/FAT32
• Check file system error
• Check disk health - Temperature, S.M.A.R.T, etc.
• Check disk speed - Read/Write, I/O, or Delay speed
• 4K align SSD, change cluster size, etc.

#3. Clone System Partition for Free and Make Windows Bootable on New Partition

Now, you can apply EaseUS Partition Master and follow the steps here to clone the system partition to a new volume for free. Here are the steps:

Step 1. Select "Clone" from the left menu. Click "Clone Partition" and "Next".

Step 2. Select the source partition and click "Next".

Step 3. Choose your the target partition and click "Next "to continue.

• If you clone partition to the existing partition, you should transfer or back up data before cloning to prevent it being overwritten.
• Check warning message and confirm "Yes".

Step 4. Click Start and wait for the clone to complete.

You can check how to clone partition or system reserved partition on this video tutorial.

#4. Change Load Information and Set Computer to Boot from New System Partition

After cloning the system partition to a new volume or a new disk, you'll need to change the load information and reset the computer to configure the system partition and boot OS from the new volume:

Step 1. Reboot PC from the Windows installation media, and enter Windows install screen.

Step 2. Select 'Repair your computer' and click 'Troubleshoot' > 'Advanced' > 'Command Prompt'.

Step 3. Type in the respective command lines to change load information on your computer:

Note: You should replace x: with the drive label of the system partition and replace d: with the new OS drive label where you cloned the system partition too.

If the computer supports Legacy boot mode, enter the following commands: 

• bcdedit /store x:\boot\bcd /set {default} device partition=d:
• bcdedit /store x:\boot\bcd /set {default} osdevice partition=d:

If the computer supports UEFI boot mode, enter the following commands:

• bcdedit /store x:\efi\microsoft\boot\bcd /set {default} device partition=d:
• bcdedit /store x:\efi\microsoft\boot\bcd /set {default} osdevice partition=d:

Step 4. After this, close the command prompt window and reboot your PC.

Wait for the computer to boot up from the new partition, and you can use your computer as normal again.

Final Verdict

Cloning system partition with reliable OS cloning software - EaseUS Partition Master can help you efficiently switch the OS partition to a new volume or even shift the entire system to a new disk.

After this, you can also use the Wipe Partition feature to clean up the old system partition and repartition it as a new volume to save files.

FAQs About Clone System Partition for Free

It doesn't matter if you have more questions on how to clone or copy the system partition for free. Here we listed some hot topics, and if you have the same doubts, follow and find answers here:

1. Is there free cloning software?

Yes, if you search for free cloning software online, you'll get a huge list of recommended hard disk cloning software or system cloning software. How to confirm which software suitable for your need the most? Check the list here:

• It's 100% free.
• Easy to use.
• Secure and no virus.
• Instant and powerful tech support.
• Can fulfill your demands in cloning the OS or cloning a disk.

2. How can I clone a partition for free?

• Launch EaseUS Partition Master and go to the Disk Clone section.
• Select the source partition you want to clone, and select a new and empty partition with an equal or even bigger size as the destination partition.
• Confirm and click 'Execute Task'.

3. How to clone OS from HDD to SSD for free?

• Install SSD and initialize it to the same disk type as the OS disk.
• Launch EaseUS Partition Master, and go to the Disk Clone section.
• Confirm how you would clone the OS - to clone the entire OS disk to SSD or clone Windows only to SSD.
• To clone the entire OS disk, select 'Clone OS Disk', select SSD as the destination, and execute the operation.
• To clone Windows only to SSD, select 'Migrate OS', choose SSD as the destination, and click 'Execute Task' to confirm the operation.