Windows 10 Clone, not copy data only drive

[James Anning]

I am running Windows 2012 Server Release 2. The Operating system is on Drive C.
My D drive, is pure data...in fact, it is used basically as a network drive,
to back up a Windows 8.1 PC on my network. It has NO operating system on it,
It just happens to exist on my Windows 2012 box.
Its a 1 Terabyte drive and only has less than one meg free space. I have a new
2 Terabyte drive. I would like to clone the existing 1 TB to the 2 TB drive.
I would prefer a "clone" as opposed to a "copy", I feel more comfortable, just
swapping the drives doing the clone.
Two months ago, I used Paragon to do this exact same thing on my windows 8.1 box,
Cloned a data drive to a bigger drive, after done, I just swapped and good to go.

My question...is there anything native to windows ..specifically Win 2012 server
I can used that will 'clone'...not just copy my existing drive to the new drive?
I do have the correct paragon, for 2012...but, would rather go more simple if I can.

I beleive Robocopy can do this, keeping in mind I do want a true clone,
What are these steps?

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi,
In the past Server cloning was usually not reliable, and even the best commercial products could not accomplish cloning on servers due to MS copy protection, dissimilar hardware issues including special NIC and GPU requirements and limitations. Server 2012 is a W10 era product, and so I've never personally done it. The 3 current best backup softwares that do cloning reliably on workstation PCs are Macrium Reflect, Acronis True Image, and EASEus TODO. Several of us here have rigorously tested this on W10. However, I don't know how well Server products from this companies would work for you. I believe that I would start with Macrium first, as I believe that they have the most innovative technology for both image backups and cloning.

Take a look at these 2 links:
Link Removed

Link Removed

You have not mentioned whether you are running this in an office or business environment, but with only a couple of client workstations it sounds like you might be running it at home, and are testing either the Server 2012 software or other programs, programs that you possibly are developing on this platform. Home users do not usually run this software as it's quite expensive. Thousands of dollars there.

If you fall into the latter category (am only guessing what you are doing with Server 2012 at home??), and you are running a few apps possibly Exchange or SQL server with a couple of user machines, cloning might work with the above products. You can check websites for Acronis and EASEus TODO and see if they have similar product offerings. This being said, there is a big difference when you are running a network server with a couple of apps on it with a few users, and hundreds of apps and thousands of users on a live production network server. Cloning software for those situations, has never worked well in the past. However, that was many years ago (early 2000's), and the technology may now exist as I mentioned. Some of the other guys here are still in IT and have direct recent experience with cloning of large production network server drives, which is what Server 2012 software is designed for.

I guess I am telling you that even if Macrium or one of the other products works on your Pilot network server to Clone the boot drive, there is a long way to go to Cloning on a large production network server. Apples and Oranges I'm afraid.

Hopefully, others here will correct me if I am wrong or out of date on this or both.

Best of luck with your search,
<<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>>

 

[James Anning]

Hi,
In the past Server cloning was usually not reliable, and even the best commercial products could not accomplish cloning on servers due to MS copy protection, dissimilar hardware issues including special NIC and GPU requirements and limitations. Server 2012 is a W10 era product, and so I've never personally done it. The 3 current best backup softwares that do cloning reliably on workstation PCs are Macrium Reflect, Acronis True Image, and EASEus TODO. Several of us here have rigorously tested this on W10. However, I don't know how well Server products from this companies would work for you. I believe that I would start with Macrium first, as I believe that they have the most innovative technology for both image backups and cloning.

Take a look at these 2 links:
Link Removed

Link Removed

You have not mentioned whether you are running this in an office or business environment, but with only a couple of client workstations it sounds like you might be running it at home, and are testing either the Server 2012 software or other programs, programs that you possibly are developing on this platform. Home users do not usually run this software as it's quite expensive. Thousands of dollars there.

If you fall into the latter category (am only guessing what you are doing with Server 2012 at home??), and you are running a few apps possibly Exchange or SQL server with a couple of user machines, cloning might work with the above products. You can check websites for Acronis and EASEus TODO and see if they have similar product offerings. This being said, there is a big difference when you are running a network server with a couple of apps on it with a few users, and hundreds of apps and thousands of users on a live production network server. Cloning software for those situations, has never worked well in the past. However, that was many years ago (early 2000's), and the technology may now exist as I mentioned. Some of the other guys here are still in IT and have direct recent experience with cloning of large production network server drives, which is what Server 2012 software is designed for.

I guess I am telling you that even if Macrium or one of the other products works on your Pilot network server to Clone the boot drive, there is a long way to go to Cloning on a large production network server. Apples and Oranges I'm afraid.

Hopefully, others here will correct me if I am wrong or out of date on this or both.

Best of luck with your search,
<<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>>

 

[James Anning]

WOW.......its you again. I remember last time you did this same thing. Long Long explanations that are off subject and a lot of what you said ...simply was wrong. And this is not an exception.
1) I am NOT cloning a win 2012 server drive..as I originally said >>> "It has NO operating system on it, It just happens to exist on my Windows 2012 box"
2) I have used Paragon, to clone windows 2003, 2003 advanced server, 2008 server and 2012 R2, I am on now......IS a clone.....so, not sure what you are talking about....it works.
My question was "is there anything native to windows ..specifically Win 2012 server I can used that will 'clone'...not just copy my existing drive to the new drive?"
I have to ask BlackBeardJedi O B one-d..did you even read my original post?

 

[ussnorway]

Can you please clarify what server side setup... Is it installed as the native system or as a Virtual server inside something like hyper-v?

If a hyperviser is active then I would use it to clone the drive otherwise I have successfully cloned drives (12 & 12r2) with Acronis

 

[James Anning]

If you read my original post....its very clear.....The drive I wish to clone, is a data drive, that is 1 TB....being I am going to "replace it" with a 2 TB drive....that pretty much tells you it can't be a VM.

 

[ussnorway]

There are senarios were physical data drives run on virtual servers... Hyper-V is especially good at this but again... Acronis is the software I use and I know it works.

Best of luck with it mate

 

[northangrywolf]

== So actually you can clone it with some software, but u still want to simplify it right?
I will introduce a third -party software named EaseUS Todo Backup server 10.0 version. It is created only for the server. Maybe u can try it. But I never have a chance to use it, I never have the problem that u ask.... It is said this company focus on the development of such software.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

WOW.......its you again. I remember last time you did this same thing. Long Long explanations that are off subject and a lot of what you said ...simply was wrong. And this is not an exception.
1) I am NOT cloning a win 2012 server drive..as I originally said >>> "It has NO operating system on it, It just happens to exist on my Windows 2012 box"
2) I have used Paragon, to clone windows 2003, 2003 advanced server, 2008 server and 2012 R2, I am on now......IS a clone.....so, not sure what you are talking about....it works.
My question was "is there anything native to windows ..specifically Win 2012 server I can used that will 'clone'...not just copy my existing drive to the new drive?"
I have to ask BlackBeardJedi O B one-d..did you even read my original post?

>>>In this case, you are right. Sorry about that. The short answer is I am not aware of any built-in software in 2012 server that can clone a hard drive. And you're right about trying to clone a DATA drive that lives in your 2012 box. You can do that with Acronis, Macrium, or EASEus TODO as mentioned. I personally haven't done it with a Server OS and those 3 products. Just to be clear. Sometimes, we are up late at night working on these posts, and we miss a thing or two. I'll try to keep my answers to you shorter in the future. And you did get an answer from Norway that he did clone a data drive as well as a boot drive on 2012; just not using a built-in feature to 2012; he used Acronis a 3rd party solution which you were already using with the Paragon.
In any case, sorry again about the Gaff--I should be working at the Oscars!<<<
BBJ

 

[Neemobeer]

If all it is is data there's no real reason to clone the drive simply format the new drive and copy the data over. There is no benefit to clone the drive in this case.

 

[James Anning]

Even though it is just data, the benefit of cloning.......all the security settings, drive map info etc get cloned and the transition is seamless.

 

[Neemobeer]

Use the O and X switches when you copy and it will preserve the ACLs you'll want to use xcopy or even better is using robocopy.