Best Free Hard Disk Raw Copy Tool for Windows 11/10/8/7

Hard disk raw copy is very useful in some cases, especially for data recovery. Check this guide to learn a free HDD raw copy tool which can help you create raw disk image in Windows easily.

Lily

By Lily Updated on June 12, 2023

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What is hard disk raw copy?

A raw disk copy is a kind of disk clone method that will copy all the sectors in the hard drive including the blank ones. The other clone method is intelligent disk clone that only clones the used sectors.

For a raw disk clone, the target hard drive must have capacity no less than the original drive that needs cloning. Obviously, a hard drive raw copy will take more time than intelligent disk clone.

When should you create HDD raw copy?

One of the most common reasons for using a raw disk copy is to clone a failing hard drive. When the source drive is completely failed, you can try to recover the data from the cloned hard drive.

Besides that, an HDD raw copy can be used in the following cases:

  • Data or system migration: transfer everything on the hard drive including system to another one.

  • Data backup: serve as a full backup of original hard drive just in case of data loss.

  • Media duplication: use it to clone storage media devices including SSD, external hard drive, USB flash drive, and SD card.

Free HDD raw copy tool for Windows 11/10/8/7

AOMEI Backupper Standard is a free HDD raw copy tool for Windows 11/10/8/7.

  • It can help make an exact copy of your hard drive (sector by sector). Also, it is able to do intelligent disk clone, which is helpful to clone a hard drive with bad sectors.
  • It supports most of the storage devices that Windows recognizes such as an M.2, mSATA, SATA, IDE, SAS, SCSI hard disk drive or SSD. It also works with USB removable storage devices.
  • While the disk copy is in process, you can still use the computer to do other things. If you do not want to clone hard drive within Windows, you can create a bootable media and boot from it to start the clone.

HDD raw copy tool tutorial - create raw disk image step by step

AOMEI Backupper Standard will help you achieve disk raw clone job regardless of your hard drive partition style, capacity, and file system. You can refer to the following steps to create HDD raw copy.

Before you do, make sure the capacity of the destination disk is greater than or equal to the source disk. As mentioned, the blank sectors will also be cloned in a raw disk copy. Now let's begin.

Step 1. Download, install and launch AOMEI Backupper Standard. Select “Disk Clone” under “Clone” tab. 

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Disk Clone

Notes:

👉 The Standard version only supports cloning a data disk. To clone a system disk, please upgrade to the Professional version at least. 

👉 The Professional version also allows you to clone MBR to GPT disk and vice versa without converting the partition style beforehand.

Step 2. Select a disk you want to clone as “Source disk” and click "Next".

Select Source Disk

Step 3. Select a disk to save the clone as “Destination Disk”. Then click “Next”. If you do it for backup purpose, it is recommended to clone to external hard drive.

Select Destination Disk

Step 4. At this screen, you can view the operation. Tick the option “Sector by sector clone”. If the destination disk is an SSD, “SSD Alignment” is recommended to optimize SSD performance. After that, click “Start Clone” to start the hard disk raw copy.

Sector by Sector Clone

During the cloning process, you can watch some videos or do other things because the cloning process will not take much computer resources.

Conclusion

As you can see, the best free HDD raw copy tool - AOMEI Backupper Standard can help you create hard disk raw copy in just a few clicks. If you don’t want an exact hard disk raw copy, you can use it to clone only used space of a disk (uncheck “Sector by sector clone”) so as to save your time and disk space.

Besides cloning feature, AOMEI Backupper Standard is also a comprehensive backup tool which provides many other features to help you protect your hard drive data, like hard drive image backup, system backup, file sync, etc. Just try it by yourself now!

Lily
Lily · Editor
Lily Green joined AOMEI in 2018 and has since become a professional in the areas of data protection and data transfer. She is committed to helping users protect their precious computer data and troubleshoot Windows system errors. She consistently stays vigilant about the latest trends in technology, guaranteeing that the given information aligned with the ongoing advancements in the field.