How to Clone Hard Drive with a Free Drive Cloning Software: iSumsoft Cloner Review

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There are many reasons why you might want to clone a hard drive. This may be because you are going to replace your old hard drive and want to migrate your Windows 10 OS or data to a new SSD. Or you might want to back up your data before running the data recovery software to avoid any data risk. At these times, making a copy of the drive seems to be a logical choice. In this article, we will be having a look at a free disk cloning software – iSumsoft Cloner.

So What is iSumsoft Cloner and How does it Work?

This iSumsoft Cloner is an easy-to-use and safe utility, which allows users to clone/copy existing C drive where Windows 10 was installed (system partitions) to another hard drive freely. This includes perfectly copying the Windows operating system from one drive to another. The software also allows you to back up your drive for later recovery. With iSumsoft Cloner, you can also make a bootable WinPE USB disk that can be used to clone/backup/restore a Windows operating system or any other disk partition without having to log in to the computer.

Will it run on my computer?

The iSumsoft Cloner will work on Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP/2000/2003/2008/2012/2016 (32 bit & 64 bit) running on a 2GHz CPU or above, 512MB RAM or more. Therefore, there should be no problems running this software.

Where can I download the software from and how much does it cost?

You can download the software from here. The software is priced at $39.95, but you can download the trial version and use the software for free for 7 days to fully access the software, which is amazing because as long as you finish the work within 7 days, you can complete the work for free. Thanks to iSumsoft. Users who will be using this software frequently can then purchase the software. Having said that, let’s see what this software can do.

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Clone your Windows OS / C drive

Making a copy of your Windows system or disk partition is quite simple. First of all, connect an empty external hard drive or make sure that you have another drive installed on your computer. On the iSumsoft Cloner app, on the top left, you will find a Copy icon. Click on that. You will then see a list of all the drives and partitions that are currently available on the computer. You can also see the drive letter, the total size in the drive/partition, available space on the drive and the file system format.

The drive which you want to make a copy/clone of is the source target. Click on “select a source target” drop-down icon and select the drive which you want to make a copy of. Then under the “Select a destination target”, select the drive to which you want the files to be copied onto. Make sure that you have backed-up all the data from the “destination target” drive as the software will format the drive for the cloning process. Once that is done, click on start.

The cloning process will start and you can see the data copied and time remaining on the status area. The required time to copy will depend on the size of the data and also on your computer specification. You will get a popup once the cloning process is finished.

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Backing up Windows or a disk partition

The next thing that we will be having a look at is the Backup and Restore feature. The Backup feature lets you make a backup of your existing drive which gets stored onto another drive and can be restored later. Unlike the Copy feature shown earlier, creating a backup onto another drive will not format the drive on which the data is being backed up. The backup gets stored in a single “.icg” file which can be restored later using the Restore feature of the software. To create a backup, click on the Backup tab, then select the drive that you want to back up. Once you have selected the drive, click on “Choose” and select the backup destination and hit Save. Lastly, click on Start to start the backup.

Once the backup is done, you can find the backed up file in the target destination folder.

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Restoring the Backup

Restoring the backup is fairly simple. Click on the Restore tab. Then select the restoration destination drive. Backup all the data from the destination drive before proceeding as this process will format the destination drive before restoring the data. Click on “Choose” and select the backup file and click on Open. Click on Start. A popup message will appear stating that this operation will format the destination drive. Click on OK. The restoration process will start.

You will get a popup once the process is finished. You can then check the drive and all the backed up data will be restored.

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Cloning a partition or Windows OS using a bootable disk

You can use a bootable disk to create a clone of your disk partition or Windows OS without needing to be logged on to the computer. This might seem a bit complicated but it is quite easy. First, download and install the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) along with the Windows PE add-on for the ADK. You can download the ADK setup from here. Make sure that you have select both the  Deployment Tools and Windows Preinstallation Environment(Windows PE) while installing the ADK.

Once that is done, on the iSumsoft Cloner app, click on Make Boot Disk. It will then start making a PE (Pre-installation Environment).

Once that is done, restart the computer and go to the BIOS settings. The shortcut key to enter the BIOS menu should be mentioned on the monitor screen while the computer is being restarted. If not, then refer to your motherboard manual. In the BIOS settings, set the boot option to the USB device. This will then restart the computer and you will be prompted with the iSumsoft Cloner menu. From here, you can use the previous methods to make a copy/backup of your Windows system or partition.

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Conclusion

The iSumsoft Cloner is an amazing software for those who are looking to clone or backup their Windows or disk partitions. The user interface is quite simple and the process is very fast. iSumsoft is providing a 7-day trial version with access to the full software for free so one time users can backup or clone their data for free. I can’t see a single reason as to why you shouldn’t try out the iSumsoft Cloner.

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