Cloning Software

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What Does Cloning Software Mean?

Cloning software is a range of tools designed to make a complete copy of a hard drive to an image file. This copy can than be used to duplicate the contents of a hard drive to the same computer or to a new computer. The cloned disk is a bit-for-bit copy.

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Techopedia Explains Cloning Software

Cloning software is used to make a complete backup copy of a hard drive, where conventional backup software typically works on individual files. A bit-for-bit copy is made to an image file, which can then be copied back to the hard drive in case of failure.

There are several major uses for cloning software. Companies can load a standard image file with the operating system and applications and deploy it to all computers using a clone server. If the hard drive is being upgraded to a larger one, all the information can be copied to the image for restoration after the new drive is installed. A computer that is sold or given to a new users can be reloaded with an image without the previous user’s files.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.