Best UEFI Disk Imaging and Cloning Software for Windows

What is UEFI, UEFI boot vs BIOS boot 

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a modern standard that replaces the older BIOS on newer hardware. Unlike BIOS, UEFI supports booting from hard drives larger than 2TB using the GPT partition style and also speeds up startup times.

However, UEFI isn't compatible with some older operating systems and software. Specifically, 32-bit Windows versions before Windows 8 and 64-bit versions before Windows XP don't support UEFI. If your computer has a UEFI motherboard, you may need to find UEFI disk imaging and cloning software.

Imaging vs. Cloning

For every user who values data security, the concepts of image backup and cloning should be no stranger:

📌Imaging involves creating a compressed backup file of your data. This file takes up less space than a full copy and helps with organizing backups, allowing for automated scheduling. However, you can't access the backed-up data without restoring it first.
📌Cloning, on the other hand, means copying all the content from one hard drive to another. The cloned data on the new drive remains accessible, which requires more storage space. Cloning is typically a one-time process that must be done manually and with caution.

Easy-to-use imaging and cloning software with full UEFI support

Although Windows Provides the Backup and Restore utility to help you back up computer data and create system images, there's never a cloning feature, you still need a specialized and professional tool.

Here I'd introduce disk imaging and cloning software with full UEFI support - AOMEI Backupper Professional. It works perfectly on Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP and contains an all-around backup and clone feature to help you with computer data protection.

>> For backups, you can save your system, partitions, disks, files, and folders to any recognized location. It supports scheduled backups and helps save space with incremental and differential backup options. You can also restore backups to different hardware.
>>To clone UEFI GPT disk, AOMEI Backupper offers two methods: System Clone and Disk Clone. When cloning a hard drive to an SSD, you don’t need to worry about the SSD being smaller. AOMEI Backupper lets you clone a large HDD to a small SSD, as long as the SSD can hold the data from the HDD.

What’s more, it allows you to restore or clone from MBR/Legacy BIOS to GPT/UEFI or vice versa while ensuring the destination disk is bootable without the need to convert disks. In conclusion, you don't have to be concerned about the firmware (UEFI or BIOS) while doing a clone or restore with AOMEI Backupper.

Simply download the free demo to experience the powerful functionality:

Practice: How to clone UEFI drive with its firmware

As you know, UEFI and BIOS are supported on different types of disks. You can only use a GPT disk to boot with UEFI mode and an MBR disk with Legacy BIOS mode. If you want to clone GPT to MBR disk, make sure the source disk has no more than 4 partitions, because MBR disks only support at most 4 primary partitions. If you want to clone the MBR disk to the GPT disk, make sure your system and hardware support UEFI.

👉Make the partition style compatible with the boot mode:

The partition style (MBR/GPT) of a disk should be compatible with the boot mode of the computer (MBR for Legacy BIOS and GPT for UEFI).

Before cloning, please confirm what partition style you should use for the target disk. AOMEI Backupper supports cloning MBR to GPT/GPT to MBR without conversion, but depending on the circumstances, you may need to convert the partition style of the target drive to make it the same as the source drive.

To check the current partition style of a disk, just press Win + R to open the Run window -> type "diskmgmt.msc" and hit OK to open disk management -> right-click the disk you want to check and click "Properties" -> then, select "Volume" tab to check the "Partition style".

👉Step-by-step to clone UEFI GPT disk:

1. Install and run the UEFI imaging software. Click Clone on the main interface, and then select Disk Clone.

*If you want to clone or migrate only the operating system, choose System Clone instead.

2. Select the source disk and target disk respectively. Note that all the data on the target disk will be overwritten during cloning. If there's any important data involved, please make a backup in advance.

3. Then it will bring you to the Operation Summary screen. If you want to clone the UEFI disk to SSD, check the SSD Alignment option to accelerate its read & write speed, and then click Start Clone to execute the UEFI disk cloning.

👉Other helpful features:

Sector By Sector Clone: Clone all the sectors, including the blank and logically bad sectors. You can tick this option when cloning a disk to a larger disk. It will take a longer time accordingly.

Edit Partitions: Adjust the partition size of the destination disk.

• Copy without resizing partitions: It will not resize the partition size.
• Add unused space to all partitions: Reallocate the unallocated space to each partition of the target disk, appropriate for the disk size.
• Manually adjust partition size: It allows you to extend unallocated space to any partition as you want.
• Convert the destination disk... (optional): Convert the partition style (MBR/GPT) of the target disk if you want it to be the same as the source disk. You can also leave it unchecked to keep the partition style unchanged.

👉How to boot from the cloned drive:

If you have multiple slots, you can keep the old drive connected as a secondary drive. During startup, press the BIOS key (varies by model) and set the cloned drive as the first boot option. If it boots into Windows normally, your cloning was successful, and you can decide what to do with the old drive, for example, you can wipe the old hard drive.

If your old drive uses MBR and your new drive is GPT, switch the boot mode from Legacy BIOS to UEFI. Conversely, if your source disk is GPT and you’re cloning to an MBR, change the boot mode from UEFI to Legacy BIOS.

Why do you want to clone UEFI disk

Cloning a UEFI disk offers several compelling advantages:

1. System Migration: If you're upgrading to a new SSD or larger hard drive, cloning allows you to transfer your entire operating system and data seamlessly.

2. Data Backup: Cloning creates an exact replica of your disk, which serves as a comprehensive backup. This ensures that you can quickly restore your system in case of failure.

3. Quick Recovery: In the event of a system crash or corruption, a cloned disk can facilitate rapid recovery, minimizing downtime.

FAQs about UEFI disk imaging and cloning software

Q1: Can you clone a GPT disk?

A1: Yes, you can clone a GPT disk using EaseUS Disk Copy. If the GPT disk doesn’t contain a system, you can clone it without issues. However, if it does have a system, the destination must also be a GPT disk for successful booting. Cloning to an MBR disk may cause boot failures.

Q2: Why choose UEFI over BIOS?

A2: UEFI provides faster boot times, supports larger drives, and has better security features compared to BIOS, making it a better option for modern computers.

Q3: Does cloning my disk impact system performance?

A3: No, cloning itself doesn’t affect performance. Just make sure the new disk is of good quality for the best results.

Final words

As the best UEFI disk imaging and cloning software, AOMEI Backupper also allows you to restore a system regardless of its firmware. You can use it to restore a bios-based system to a computer without manually changing anything. It just works.

If you want to protect unlimited computers within your company, you can pick AOMEI Backupper Technician. With the inbuilt AOMEI Image Deploy tool, you are also allowed to deploy/restore system image files on server-side computers to multiple client-side computers over the network.