HDClone 4.3
» New: Advanced Format drive cloning & backup
» New: Creating dynamic VMDK/VHD images
» New: Storing a cloning report
» New: MVD: virtual drives from VMDK & VHD
» New: CLI: automation using Ports and Media-IDs
» PartitionSelect - cloning partition sets
» Copying and migration of hard disks and partitions
» (Live) backup for system and data partitions
» Mount file images as virtual disks
» Compression and AES encryption
» Live defragmentation and resizing
» Mass copy to up to 16 targets
HDClone creates physical or logical copies (clones) and file images of hard disks and other mass storage media. HDClone is a perfect tool for backups and creating copies of entire software or operating system installations. A special 'SafeRescue' mode makes HDClone an invaluable tool for rescuing defective hard disks and other media. HDClone works independent of partitioning scheme, file system, and operating system. It also works with proprietary formats which would otherwise be inaccessible.
General information
HDClone ist the universal tool for copying, backups, data recovery and migration. HDClone's editions are based on each other. A higher edition will include the features of every precedent edition.
Free Edition
Simple and free cloning solution
The Free Edition of HDClone, clones an entire hard disk to another larger medium. Use it for migrating an existing installation to a new hard disk or for rescuing data. The Free Edition is real freeware without obligation to buy and is intended for infrequent use at no cost. If more frequent usage is required, we have several advanced Edition levels that offer higher performance, support for a wider range of hardware, as well as additional options—allowing you to choose the Edition that is right fore your needs, whether it is for regular, business, or professional use.
Basic Edition
Partitions and MVD (private use only)
The Basic Edition of HDClone is conceived for regular utilization, especially for system migration, backups, data rescue, and system restore. Besides higher performance, it offers arbitrary copying directions and contains extended backup (Disk-to-Partition-Backup), system restore (partition copy), and data rescue (SafeRescue mode) options.
Standard Edition
Cloning and backup (personal and business)
The Standard Edition of HDClone was developed for frequent and semi-professional use. Besides support for fast logical sector copies (SmartCopy) it offers a verify mode for data reconciliation with the target medium and high copying performance. The fast SmartCopy mode also strongly improves the performance of AutoExpand.
Professional Edition
Cloning, backup, and rescue (professionals)
The Professional Edition of HDClone is conceived for daily and professional use. Its FastCopy mode and freely selectable sector areas give technicians and professionals maximum speed and flexibility. HDClone Professional Edition supports SCSI hard disks and Firewire (IEEE1394) mass storage (SBP2) as well as SAS and RAID with HDClone/W.
Enterprise Edition
Mass cloning 4, 8, or 16 targets at a time
The Enterprise Edition of HDClone is designed for mass reproduction. It allows for mass cloning to all supported drive types. Drive types can be mixed arbitrarily within one copy run. The Enterprise Edition also offers all features of the Professional Edition.
Copying speed: According to the variant used (4x, 8x, 16x), Enterprise Edition copies to up to 4, 8 or 16 drives at a time. Thereby it achieves up to 60 GB/min and more.
Screenshots
| Features | FE | BE | SE | PE | EE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modes | |||||
| Entire drive | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Single partitions | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| SafeRescue mode | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Verification mode | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| PartitionSelect | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| File images | |||||
| Physical images | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| LiveImage | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Smart images | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Password protected images | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Compressed images | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| QuickCompress & StrongCompress | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Encrypted images (AES) | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| RAW images | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| new: Dynamic VMDK/VHD images | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Technologies | |||||
| IDE/ATA/SATA hard disks* | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| SATA / SATA II / eSATA (AHCI) | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| USB 1.1 & 2.0 (UHCI/OHCI/EHCI) | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| USB 3.0 (XHCI) | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| SCSI hard disks* | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Firewire / IEEE1394 (OHCI) | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Dynamic drives** | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Platforms | |||||
| self-booting | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| UEFI-BIOS | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Windows XP/Vista/7/8 | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Windows Server 2003/2008/2012 | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Features | |||||
| HotCopy | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| 4k sector alignment | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Media parameter adjustment | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Full GPT support | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| new: Advanced Format (1Kn/4Kn) | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| NTFS/FAT auto expand | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Downsizing FAT/NTFS automatically | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Live defrag of FAT/NTFS | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| SmartCopy (FAT, NTFS, ext2/3/4) | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Command line interface (CLI) | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| new: CLI: port number and media ID | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| FastCopy mode | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| new: Storing a cloning report | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| MultiCopy (4x, 8x, 16x) | no | no | no | no | yes |
| Performance | |||||
| Max. copy rate (MB/s) | 30 | 50 | 60 | ∞ | ∞ |
| Max. copy rate (GB/min) | 1.8 | 3.0 | 3.6 | ∞ | ∞ |
| Copying time (min)*** | 45 | 27 | 12 | 8 | < 2 ea. HD |
| Miray Virtual Disk | |||||
| Virtual drives from images | no | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 |
| File image management | no | 1 | 1 | ∞ | ∞ |
| Persistent drives | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Virtual disks @ TrueSpeed | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Writing to virtual drives | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Convert images to RAW | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Mount images via LAN | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| new: Mount VMDK/VHD images | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Usage | |||||
| Private use | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Companies/Institutions | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Technician licence | no | no | no | yes | yes |
- *
- Applicability may depend on the controller used.
- **
- Available on HDClone/W, only for logical drives/volumes.
- ***
- Based on case study: 1 partition (80 GB capacity, 40 GB used), 80 MB/s transfer rate.
Features
- New: Advanced Format drive cloning & backup
- New: Create dynamic VMDK/VHD images
- New: Storing a cloning report
- New: MVD: virtual drives from VMDK & VHD
- New: CLI: automation using ports and media ID
- PartitionSelect
- Self-booting and under Windows
- QuickCompress – fast image compression
- Password protected and ecrypted (AES) images
- UEFI and GPT support
- Mount images via LAN in Miray Virtual Disk
- Miray Virtual Disk: write to virtual drives
- SmartCopy: logical copies
- Generate VMX files and VMDK images for VMware
- SafeRescue mode for data recovery
- Automatic upsizing of NTFS, FAT and ext2/3/4 partitions
- Automatic reducing of NTFS and FAT partitions
- Defrag on the fly for NTFS and FAT
- Command line interface (CLI)
- HotCopy & LiveImage during Windows operation
New: Advanced Format
Support for modern sector sizes
For over 30 years, 512 Bytes have been the one-and-only standard sector size for any PC mass storage media. Now modern drives in “Advanced Format” can have different sector sizes (512, 512e, 1Kn, and 4Kn). HDClone allows you to create clones and file images between disks with different sector formats and converts NTFS and FAT file systems automatically.
PartitionSelect
Selective cloning
Allows to select one or more partitions of a disk to be transferred without having to copy all the partitions. This saves space on the target drive, making it possible to use a smaller target or using the additional space for the remaining partitions. The special thing about PartitionSelect is that it transfers the required data in one single step, no matter what size the partitions have or how they are arranged. Copying the partitions, plus other adjustments will be performed with almost no extra time required and HDClone will still work at its maximum speed.
Self-booting and under Windows
HDClone works without an operating system
HDClone can be booted from CD/DVD, floppy and USB stick, so you even can recover an image without a working operating system. With identical interfaces on both programs there is complete ease in switching between the self-booting version and the Windows program.
File images (New: dynamic VMDK & VHD images)
Optional compression and AES encryption
Instead of a direct copy from medium to medium, you can also store an exact image of the medium in a file image. Optionally, the image may be created compressed or encrypted. With QuickCompress, this requires almost no extra time for compressing. These file images can be stored, archived, or transmitted via network and the Internet. They can be restored 1:1 to a medium which then behaves just like a direct copy had been made. HDClone can also create dynamic VMDK and VHD images. Such an image can be mounted directly in VMware and VirtualPC virtual machines.
Miray Virtual Disk (New: dynamic VMDK & VHD images)
Direct access to file images
From the Basic Edition on, HDClone includes the software Miray Virtual Disk. You can use this software to mount file images that have been created with HDClone (including VMDK and VHD) as virtual Windows drives. This allows you to access files and folders in an image directly without having to restore the image to a physical disk before. Images can be accessed read-only or writable.
UEFI and GPT support
Supports UEFI BIOS and GUID partition tables
This feature allows HDClone to run on computers with new UEFI BIOS. GPT partitions used for large (> 2 TB) hard disks are recognized automatically and copied correctly.
Faster with SmartCopy mode
Faster data transfer and shorter copying times
HDClone creates logical sector copies (SmartCopy) of FAT, NTFS, and ext2/ext3/ext4 file systems in only a fraction of the time usually needed - yielding an equivalent result. SmartCopy can clone an entire Windows XP base installation in less than 20 seconds for example.
Upsizing with AutoExpand
Upsizing on the fly
HDClone can increase your FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3/ext4 partition size automatically on the fly during copying.
Reducing with AutoReduce
Reducing on the fly for FAT and NTFS
HDClone can decrease your NTFS and FAT partition size automatically on the fly during copying. This allows you to adjust partition sizes during cloning or to migrate to smaller media. Perfect for migrating to (usually smaller) SSD drives.
Defragmentation on the fly
Make NTFS and FAT partitions faster while copying
HDClone can perform a perfect defragmentation on NTFS and FAT volumes during copying or restoring from a file image. This defragmentation only needs a fraction of the time usually required, therefore it consumes almost no additional time in relation to the copying process.
Command line interface (CLI) (New: Port and media ID)
Automated backups and toolchain integration
Starting from the Professional Edition, HDClone can be launched in the command line of Windows. This enables cloning tasks to be executed time-triggered and/or scripted. Drives can be selected by Windows ID (dynamic), port number (fixed, IDE/SATA/SCSI only), or media ID (fixed, drive name/serial).
HotCopy & LiveImage
Copies and backup during operation
HDClone now can create copies and file images of drives and partitions during Windows operation - even for the system volume.
Safe data recovery
Read defective media in SafeRescue mode
When copying from media with defective areas these areas will be skipped in the first run. The rescue operation will be performed at the end of the process to prevent further disk damage.
Hardware Requirements
Self-booting (HDClone/S)
- 586 processor or higher
- 64 MB RAM
- VGA graphics
- bootable floppy or CD/DVD drive
Windows program (HDClone/W)
See the hardware requirements of your Windows version.
Supported Controllers
| Controller type | self-booting | on Windows |
|---|---|---|
| PCI-IDE/ATA hard disk controller | yes | yes |
| Busmaster IDE controller | yes | yes |
| USB 1.1 (UHCI, OHCI) | yes | yes |
| USB 2.0 (EHCI) | yes | yes |
| USB 3.0 (XHCI) | yes | yes |
| Adaptec SCSI host adapter* | yes | yes |
| Other SCSI host adapter (LSI, …) | no | yes |
| SAS host adapter | no | yes |
| RAID controller | no | yes |
| AHCI (SATA II) controller | yes | yes |
| Firewire/IEEE1394 (OHCI) | yes | yes |
- *
- A complete list of Adaptec SCSI host adapters supported by HDClone/S is to be found here.
Supported Media
| Media type | self-booting | on Windows |
|---|---|---|
| USB key drives | yes | yes |
| Dynamic volumes** | no | yes |
| Hard disks | ||
| IDE, ATA, SATA, eSATA | yes | yes |
| USB, Firewire, SCSI | yes | yes |
| SSD | yes | yes |
| SAS | no | yes |
| Flash storage (with card reader) | ||
| CompactFlash | yes | yes |
| SD, MMC | yes | yes |
| xD and others | yes | yes |
| File systems | ||
| Physical sector copies | any | any |
| Logical sector copies | FAT, NTFS, ext2/3/4 | FAT, NTFS, ext2/3/4 |
| Up-sizing | FAT, NTFS, ext2/3/4 | FAT, NTFS, ext2/3/4 |
| Down-sizing | FAT, NTFS | FAT, NTFS |
| File images* | FAT, NTFS | any* |
- *
- Image files need to be stored to certain file systems (on Windows, any supported file system may be used).
Data sheet
You can download the data sheet for HDClone 4.3 as PDF file and print it.
Manual
You can download the manual for HDClone 4.3 as PDF file and print it.