Last Updated on May 27, 2026
As you probably know, we use hard drives in computers to store our files, install our programs on and also to run our operating system (Windows, Linux, macOS etc.). But sometimes we end up using too much space on our drives and need to either delete files to free up space or move them to another drive, or even expand our drive if we have any unallocated space available.
You may also run into a situation where your hard drive is failing, and you want to migrate\copy your operating system drive with its installed programs to a new drive or maybe even a larger drive to give you more space in the future. In this article, we will be showing you how to clone your system\Windows drive for free using DiskGenius.
DiskGenius is a hard drive management tool that has many features such as the ability to clone disks and partitions, manage drives, edit sectors, recover data and more. They have a free version as well as a Standard and Professional version, each with additional features. We will be using the free version for our demonstration.
Preparing the DiskGenius Environment
1. Check the Disk Management Utility
If you open Disk Management in Windows, you can see the details about your hard drives and any attached external drives. As you can see in the image below, we have a 100GB system drive that has Windows installed as well as a new 120GB drive with no volumes\partitions created. We will be cloning the 100GB to the 120GB drive for our demonstration.
2. Install the DiskGenius Software
You must download the correct installation file directly from the developer website. When you install DiskGenius, you will get a warning telling you that you should not install it on a partition where you want to recover files. This specific warning does not apply to the cloning process we will be performing. Installing it directly on your primary Windows drive will be perfectly fine.
Using DiskGenius to Clone your System\Windows Drive
1. Navigate to the OS Migration Tool
When you first open DiskGenius, you will see that there are many things you can do with the software. You want to make sure you go to OS Migration rather than just cloning a drive or partition. This exact tool forces the software to make the cloned drive bootable so you can start your computer with it.
2. Choose Your Blank Target Disk
Next you will need to select the target disk from the hardware list. It should show you your new blank disk by default, but you need to make sure that it has chosen the correct one. The target disk is the one that will be completely wiped. This is the exact destination where your OS files will be copied to.
3. Verify the Source Disk Settings
The software analyzes your active system environment automatically. The source disk should be chosen automatically since it is the one that is currently running Windows. There are a couple of options at the bottom that you can try. Whether they work or not will depend heavily on your specific computer motherboard architecture.
4. Configure the Post Clone Boot Order
You can have DiskGenius try and change the boot order of your computer so it boots from the new drive first, that is if you are leaving the old drive in the computer and not removing it. You can also have it try to boot to the BIOS so you can manually change the boot order yourself. We will be removing the old drive before booting the computer with the new drive so we will not select any of these options since we need to shut down the computer to remove the old drive.
5. Confirm the Partition Overwrite Warning
Once you click the Start button, the software halts the process to verify your choice. You will be given a warning saying all the partitions on the target disk will be overwritten. Read the prompt to ensure the drive target is completely accurate. You will need to click OK to continue the formatting process.
6. Understand Hot Migration vs WinPE
You then have the option to boot into the WinPE environment or use the Hot Migration option to clone the disk while Windows is running. WinPE (Windows Preinstallation Environment) is a lightweight operating system environment designed for system deployment, recovery, and troubleshooting tasks. It provides a minimalistic yet functional Windows environment that can be booted from various media.
7. Select the Hot Migration Option
The WinPE environment works perfectly from external USB drives or network shares. It allows users to perform strict tasks such as installing or repairing Windows, partitioning disks, running diagnostic utilities, and accessing network resources without the main OS locking the files. We will bypass this and just be using the Hot Migration option for our standard example.
8. Finish Migration and Shut Down
The cloning speed depends heavily on your drive speed and total data volume. When the cloning process is complete, you will get a message asking if you want to restart your computer now. If you plan on physically removing the old drive, you should click on No and shut down instead.
9. Verify the New Windows Drive
After removing the old drive and making sure the new 120GB drive is configured to be the first boot device, we can then load Windows. It will boot directly from the freshly cloned SSD. Open the management tool again to see that our new 120GB is now the C drive or system drive and the old 100GB drive has been removed.
As you can see, it is fairly easy to clone your system\Windows drive using DiskGenius. You can download DiskGenius from their website here.
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