Disk cloning

Disk cloning is the process of duplicating all data on a digital storage drive, such as a hard disk or solid state drive, using hardware or software techniques. Unlike file copying, disk cloning also duplicates the , partitions, drive meta data and slack space on the drive. Common reasons for cloning a drive include; data backup and recovery; duplicating a computer's configuration for mass deployment and for preserving data for digital forensics purposes. Drive cloning can be used in conjunction with drive imaging where the cloned data is saved to one or more files on another drive rather than copied directly to another drive. Disk cloning occurs by copying the contents of a drive called the source drive. While called "disk cloning", any type of storage medium that connects to the computer via USB, NVMe or SATA can be cloned. A small amount of data is read and then held in the computer's memory. The data is then either written directly to another (destination) drive or to a . Typically, the destination drive is connected to a computer (Fig. 1). Once connected, a disk cloner is used to perform the clone itself. A hardware-based drive cloner can be used which does not require a computer. However, software cloners tend to allow for greater flexibility because they can exclude unwanted data from being duplicated reducing cloning time. For example, the filesystem and partitions can be resized by the software allowing data to be cloned to a drive equal to or greater than the total used space. Most hardware-based cloners typically require for the destination drive to be the same size as the source drive even if only a fraction of the space is used. Some hardware cloners can clone only the used space but tend to be much more expensive. A common use of disk cloning is for deployment. For example, a group of computers with similar hardware can be set up much quicker by cloning the configuration. In educational institutions, students are typically expected to experiment with computers to learn.