This article describes what Delta Clone is and its advantages over Full Clone, and details how to rapidly clone a disk to another disk using the Delta Clone feature provided by Hasleo Disk Clone, including the following content:
In the field of data backup, cloning refers to generating a copy that is identical to the source data, such as database cloning, virtual machine cloning, and disk cloning. Disk cloning refers to the exact copying of all data on the source disk to the target disk as a backup, so that the original data can be retrieved from the backup disk in case the source disk becomes damaged or experiences data loss. In the beginning, when people cloned the source disk to the target disk on a regular basis, they always completely re-copied all the data on the original disk to the target disk, even if there was already a previous copy of the source disk on the target disk, we called this cloning method as full cloning. A full clone produces an exact clone of the source disk, which is safe for the data but time-consuming.
With the advancement of technology, it has been found that in most cases the data on the source disk has not changed much in comparison with the data on the destination disk, so in fact we only need to copy the changed data blocks to the destination disk, and Delta Clone have come into being. Since we only need to copy the changed data blocks to the target disk, Delta Clone can help us save a lot of time, especially if the source disk is a large-capacity disk. One of the most important techniques for Delta Clone is how to quickly and efficiently detect changed data blocks, because if the changed data blocks are not detected correctly, the data on the destination disk will not be consistent with the data on the source disk after the cloning is completed, and incorrectly detecting unchanged blocks as changed will result in more blocks being copied.
Due to the significant reduction of cloned data blocks, Delta Clone brings the following advantages over Full Clone:
✦ 1. Increased cloning speed
✦ 2. Reduced power consumption
✦ 3. Reduced IO load
✦ 4. Reduced impact on the source system
First of all, we would like to point out that the Delta Clone feature provided by Hasleo Disk Clone can only be used to clone NTFS partitions, and Full Clone will still be used for non-NTFS partitions. Before cloning a disk using the Delta Clone feature provided by Hasleo Disk Clone, the program will check whether all partitions on the source disk have a corresponding copy on the destination drive, and the order of the copies of these partitions must be the same as the order of the source partition, and then it will find the changed data blocks of all source NTFS partitions relative to the destination NTFS partition through the block change check algorithm. Finally, copy all the changed data blocks of all NTFS partitions and all data blocks of non-NTFS partitions to the destination drive.
Limitations associated with cloning a disk using the Delta Clone feature provided by Hasleo Disk Clone:
✦ Limitation 1: Hasleo Disk Clone's Delta Clone feature currently only applies to cloning NTFS partitions, a full clone will be performed for non-NTFS partitions.
✦ Limitation 2: The size of the destination NTFS partition must be greater than or equal to the source NTFS partition, and the non-NTFS partition must be equal to the source partition.
✦ Limitation 3: The source NTFS partition and the target NTFS partition must have the same cluster size.
✦ Limitation 4: All partitions on the source disk must have a corresponding copy on the destination drive, and the order of the copies of these partitions must be the same as the order of the source partitions.
Step 1. Install and run Hasleo Disk Clone, click "Disk clone", and select the source disk for which you want to perform delta cloning, then click "Next".
Step 2. Select the destination disk you want to clone to and check the "Delta Clone" option, then click "Next".
Step 3. Hasleo Disk Clone starts delta cloning the changed data blocks from the source disk to the destination disk.
Step 4. Delta cloning completed. The time required to complete the delta cloning is related to the amount of changed data blocks on the source disk. In extreme cases, you can delta clone the source disk to the destination disk in a matter of seconds.
As shown above, Delta Clone offers significant performance advantages compared to Full Clone, so you can rapidly clone one disk to another disk incrementally with the Delta Clone feature provided by Hasleo Disk Clone.
If you are looking for a software that can backup Windows, disk or partition, we recommend that you try our fee Windows backup software - Hasleo Backup Suite.
