When the system disk is getting full, backing up everything and then restoring it to a new disk takes twice as long. In addition, sometimes the operating system cannot boot in the new environment. It is much easier and faster to clone the disk directly to a larger one. To clone a disk in Windows Server 2016, there are 2 methods: "sector-to-sector" clone and "file-system-level" copy. Sector-to-sector copy is very slow, and for most servers, there is no need to perform such a clone. This article explains a fast file-system-level copy method. You can clone Windows Server 2016 to an SSD, HDD, or hardware RAID array quickly and easily.
How to Clone Windows Server 2016 to SSD/HDD
There are many tools to help clone a Windows Server 2016 disk to an SSD or a larger hard drive, and the steps are similar. However, compared with other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor offers more benefits:
- Extremely Fast - Combining its file-system-level copy method with an advanced file-moving algorithm, NIUBI copies disk partitions 30% - 300% faster.
- Hot Clone - It is able to clone a disk partition in Windows without rebooting or interrupting server uptime. Therefore, your server can keep running while cloning the system disk. If the original system disk fails, you just need to change the BIOS settings and boot from the cloned disk. You do not have to waste a long time restoring from an image backup.
- Change Partition Size - while copying a disk partition, you can change the partition size on the target disk.
There are 3 points you should know before cloning a disk in Windows Server 2016:
- There should be no partitions on the target disk; if there are, the program will ask you to delete them.
- The target disk can be larger or smaller than the source disk. However, when copying to a smaller disk, its size must be larger than the used space of all partitions on the source disk.
- The source and target disks can be an SSD, HDD, or any type of hardware RAID array.
Steps to clone the Windows Server 2016 disk to an SSD/HDD/RAID array:
- Download NIUBI Partition Editor, right-click the header of the source disk (Disk 0) and select Clone Disk, or click Clone Disk Wizard directly below Tools at the top left.
- Select the destination disk in the pop-up window and click Next.
- Select the first option to delete all partitions on the destination disk. (This step is skipped if there are no partitions.)
- Edit the partition size and location one by one using the additional disk space. (Start from the last partition on the right.)
- Click Next and go back to the main window, then press Apply at the top left to execute. (Any operations before this step only work in virtual mode.)
Video guide to copy Server 2016 disk:
How to Copy Partition in Windows Server 2016
If you want to copy the system partition (C:) in Windows Server 2016, you must copy the entire system disk; otherwise, the operating system cannot boot from the destination disk.
To transfer files in data volumes, you can copy and paste them in File Explorer. Why should you copy a partition with software? Here are 3 common reasons:
- If you copy and paste a large number of files at one time, significantly more CPU and RAM resources will be consumed. This may cause the server to become unresponsive. Additionally, it is very slow to copy and paste a large number of small files.
- The copy process may be terminated due to various reasons.
- For some special partitions, data integrity cannot be guaranteed by simply copying and pasting.
Before cloning a Server 2016 partition:
- There must be unallocated space on the destination disk; if there is not, shrink a large partition to create some.
- The size of the unallocated space must be larger than the used space of the source partition that you want to copy.
- For partitions that must keep their original drive letter, such as D: (which contains programs), change the drive letters one by one after copying. For other data volumes, this step is optional.
Steps to copy partition in Windows Server 2016 with NIUBI:
- (Optional) Right-click a large partition on the destination disk and select "Resize/Move Volume". Drag either border toward the other side in the pop-up window to create unallocated space.
- Right-click the source partition, such as D:, and select "Copy Volume".
- Select the unallocated space on the destination disk and click Next.
- Edit the partition size, location, and type.
- (Optional) Right-click the original drive (D:) and select "Change Drive Letter", then select any available letter in the pop-up window.
- (Optional) Right-click the target partition, run "Change Drive Letter" again, and select D: in the pop-up window.
- Click Apply on the top left to execute.
Video guide to copy Server 2016 partition:
How to Copy RAID Partition in Windows 2016 Server
For the operating system and NIUBI Partition Editor, it makes no difference whether you use a physical SSD, a mechanical HDD, or any type of hardware RAID array. Therefore, the steps are exactly the same whether you copy from or to an SSD, HDD, or RAID array.
RAID 1 is commonly used for the operating system and programs, while RAID 5 is commonly used for both the OS and data. If you want to clone and expand RAID 1 in Windows Server 2016, there are 2 options:
- Copy the original RAID 1 to one of the larger disks. You can extend the partitions to use the full disk space while copying.
- Rebuild the RAID 1 with another larger disk.
- Build a new RAID 1 using the larger disks first.
- Copy the original RAID 1 to the new RAID 1 directly with NIUBI Partition Editor.
Besides cloning disks and partitions in Windows Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012/2008/2003, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you convert disk and partition types. It allows you to shrink, extend, move, and merge partitions to optimize space usage, as well as perform many other disk partition management operations.
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