Windows Server 2012 has been running for many years, and the system disk may not have been large enough when the server was initially built. As a result, many server administrators need to replace the disk with a larger one. To improve server performance, many people also want to replace mechanical HDDs with SSDs. There are two ways to replace a disk and migrate the operating system and programs: make an image backup and restore it to the larger disk, or clone Windows Server 2012 to a larger hard drive. Creating a backup and restoring it takes twice as long, and in some cases, the restored disk may not boot on the new hardware. Cloning the Windows Server 2012 disk is a better option. This article explains how to clone Windows Server 2012 R2 to an SSD, HDD, or RAID.
Clone Windows Server 2012 to SSD/HDD/RAID
There are three common types of storage devices in a server: traditional mechanical disks, solid-state drives (SSDs), and hardware RAID arrays. If you were previously using a mechanical disk as the system disk, it’s better to switch to an SSD or hardware RAID. SSDs are now much cheaper and larger, making them affordable even for personal users. By cloning Windows Server 2012 to an SSD, server performance will be significantly enhanced without needing any other changes.
To improve both performance and system security, you may build a hardware RAID 1 with 2 SSD. One point you should know, if you want to clone disk to RAID 1, use either method:
- oClone disk to a larger one with full disk space. After copy, rebuild RAID 1 with another larger disk.
- Build RAID 1 with 2 larger disks, and then copy from original disk.
Some people make a mistake when replacing RAID 1 with larger disks. They rebuild RAID 1 using one original disk and a new larger disk, then rebuild RAID 1 with another larger disk. If you do this, you will end up with a new RAID 1 array of the same size. If you check in Disk Management, both RAID volumes will appear exactly the same. The additional disk space can only be seen in the RAID controller.
To clone a disk on Windows Server 2012 R2 to an SSD, HDD, or RAID, NIUBI Partition Editor is a great choice. It uses a filesystem level copy method, making the process very fast. Furthermore, due to its unique file-moving algorithm, it is 30% to 300% faster than other disk cloning software. Another benefit is that you can change the partition size during the cloning process. When cloning Windows Server 2012 with NIUBI, a mechanical HDD, SSD, or RAID can be used as both the source and target device.
How to clone partition in Windows Server 2012 R2
Copying partition is used when you want to migrate data, or move a partition to another disk. While copying a partition in Server 2012 R2, the target disk could be smaller, equal or larger than source disk. Before cloning Server 2012 partition:
- There must be unallocated space on the target disk, if there is not, shrink a partition to make.
- The size of unallocated space must be larger than the used space of the partition that you want to copy.
- To the partitions that should keep original drive letter such as D: (with programs), change drive letters one by one after copying. To other data volumes, this step is optional.
Steps to copy partition on Windows Server 2012 R2 with NIUBI:
- (Optional) Right click the large partition on target disk and select "Resize/Move Volume", drag either borer to the other side in the pop-up window to create unallocated space.
- Right click the partition that you want to copy (such as D:) and select "Copy Volume".
- Select the unallocated space in target disk and click Next.
- (Optional) Right click original drive (D:) and select "Change drive letter", select any letter in the pop-up window.
- (Optional) Right click the target partition, click"Change Drive letter" again and select D: in the pop-up window.
- Click "Apply" on top left to execute.
Video guide to copy and migrate single partition:
How to clone hard drive in Windows Server 2012 R2
The target disk should be blank with unallocated space. If there are files or partitions on it, move the files and delete all partitions. The target disk can be smaller, equal to, or larger than the source disk, but the unallocated space must be larger than the total used space of all partitions on the source disk.
Cloning a disk or partition with NIUBI Partition Editor does not require a server reboot. This means you can clone the system disk of a Windows 2012 server regularly without interruption. If the system disk fails, you simply need to restart and boot from the cloned disk, which can be done in just a few minutes.
Steps to clone Windows Server 2012 to SSD/HDD/RAID:
- (Optional) Right click the partitions on the target disk and select "Delete Volume" one by one. To brand new disk, you need to online and initialize it first.
- Right click the front of the disk that you want to copy and select "Copy Disk", or click "Clone Disk Wizard" on top left.
- Select unallocated space on target disk.
- Edit the size and position of each partition one by one starting from the last partition.
- Click "Apply" to execute.
After copying:
Replace original disk or change BIOS and boot from the clone disk directly.
Watch the video how to copy disk and modify target partition:
Besides cloning disk/partition in Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022/2003/2008, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you shrink, extend, move, merge, convert, defrag, hide, optimize, wipe, scan partition and much more.
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