Easily Mirror/Clone Hard Drive to another One in Windows Server 2012

This article will show you how to clone/mirror HDD to another hard drive in Windows Server 2012 (R2) via disk cloning software – AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.

Bryce

By Bryce / Updated on May 12, 2023

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Content
Scenario
Why not perform disk mirroring/cloning in Windows Server 2012?
How to mirror Windows Server 2012 hard drive step by step?
Verdict

Scenario

“With 1 TB HDD (hard disk drive), my Windows Server 2012 machine used to work well. But recently, the HDD is filled up with files and the running speed of it is very slow. I am going to replace the HDD with a large hard drive to get more space and higher operating speed. But in the meantime, I want to keep all the applications and the operating system on the original HDD. What should I do if I want to achieve this goal?”

Why not perform disk mirroring/cloning in Windows Server 2012?

It is common that you want to replace your current disk. You may plan to upgrade hard disk drive to solid-state drive for better performance or replace the current disk whose capacity is small with a disk that owns a large capacity for more storage space. Whatever your reason is, it is not an easy task to transfer all data from the disk in use to another one.

Although the Windows built-in features of “copy” and “paste” is able to put operating system and application files to the new hard drive, the new disk won’t be able to boot and some applications could not work normally.

Thus, why not considering mirroring/cloning Windows Server 2012 disk to another one? After cloning, all applications & OS will be moved to the new hard drive and you can keep the same content. Most important of all, you can boot machine from the target hard drive.

How to mirror Windows Server 2012 hard drive step by step?

Windows Server 2012 disk mirroring is a time-saving and simple way to retain the same content on a new hard drive. Here presents how to clone Windows Server 2012 disk to another one.

► The indispensable items for Windows Server 2012 mirroring

In advance of Windows Server 2012 disk mirroring, you have to prepare the following indispensable items:

✔ Good Server cloning software: Good cloning software can assist you to clone Windows Server hard drive with a secure boot; it is important to find proper Server cloning software. Here I choose AOMEI Partition Assistant Server, a reliable and powerful disk cloning software for Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012(R2)/2008(R2). The "Disk Clone Wizard" can help you easily and securely clone HDD/SSD to another disk.

✔ A hard drive with enough space: In order to mirror Windows Server 2012 HDD or SSD successfully, the new hard drive has to own larger or equal space at least to the used space on the original disk.

✔ A readable source disk: To enable Windows Server 2012 mirroring, the source disk shall be readable.

With the essential items, you can achieve the goal of replacing HDD/SSD without OS reinstallation in Windows Server 2012.

► Clone Windows Server 2012 HDD with AOMEI Partition Assistant

Now, have a look at how to complete disk cloning in Windows Server 2012 in detail.

Before copying:
• In order to copy HDD/SSD smoothly, check the error on a partition on the source disk at first.
• It is a good choice to backup your current disk just in case some accidents occur.
Download Server Demo Windwos Server 2022/2019/2016/2012
Secure Download

Step 1. To make Windows Server 2012 mirroring, install AOMEI Partition Assistant Server and launch it. Then, right-click the source disk and choose Clone Disk.

Select Copy Disk

Step 2. Here you need to choose a way to clone the disk based on your own situation based on your own demand.

◤ The differences:

Clone method Clone Disk Quickly Sector-by-Sector Clone
Clone scope Clone only used space Clone every sector
Capacity Requirement about Target Disk Should not be smaller than the used space of the source disk Shall not be smaller than the capacity of the source disk
Time spent Less More
Suitable conditions Clone to a smaller disk Clone disk with the bad sector; clone BitLocker encrypted disk

Disk Copying Methods

Step 3. Here you need to select the target disk, here is disk 2. if the disk is an SSD, you should check to Optimize the performance of SSD.

Select Destination Disk

Step 4. You can edit partitions in the following window. Make your choice and click Next.

Edit Partition Size

Clone without resizing partitions: The size of every partition will be as same as the original size. The rest space of the target disk will be omitted.
Fit partitions to entire disk: The size of the partition will be adjusted to the entire destination disk automatically in accordance with the scale of the source disk.
Edit partitions on this disk: The size of the partition can be adjusted manually according to your demand.

Then an important Note about how to boot OS after clone will present in the pop-up window, keep it in mind. Click Finish.

Boot Note

Step 6. Check the pending operations and click Apply to implement Windows Server 2012 mirroring.

Proceed

PS: If there is unallocated space on the destination hard drive after cloning in Windows Server 2012 (R2), you can create a new partition with AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.

After cloning, to boot from cloned disk, you can change boot priority to it in BIOS or remove the old hard drive directly to test.

Verdict

Just within a few steps, AOMEI Partition Assistant Server manages to implement Windows Server 2012 mirroring. Apart from Windows Server 2012(R2), it is compatible with Windows Server 2003/2008 (R2)/2016/2019/2022 as well. You can also use it to migrate Windows Server to SSD, recover lost partitions, and so on.

Bryce
Bryce · Staff Editor
Bryce is an editor of AOMEI Technology, he covers backup & restore, hard disk & partitions management, cloud files transfer, website & database backup and so on for AOMEI. He enjoys helping people find solutions to their problems. He loves traveling, Sleeping, reserching and so on. He enjoys helping people find solutions to their problems. He loves traveling, Sleeping, reserching and so on. He would like to spend all time on reaserching computer problems. He is a very cute boy.