Disk cloning is a method of copying the entire contents of a hard drive onto another drive. There are a number of reasons to do this, ranging from simple data backup to the deployment of identical operating systems across multiple devices, but the outcome is always the same: a verbatim, one-to-one copy of the drive in question. 

It's a rather straightforward process and, for the most part, it's a process that is completed automatically once it has been started. The standard disk cloning process could take some time, depending on the size of the disk in question, but it doesn't require user intervention once it's begun. You can simply begin the disk cloning and move onto other tasks in the meantime. 

But this isn't the only benefit to disk cloning. In fact, there are a myriad of advantages associated with disk cloning that aren't necessarily seen in other methods of data backup.

#1: Receive a complete and comprehensive backup of your data. The first and most obvious benefit is that you'll have a full backup of all your data - including system files, installation files, temporary Internet files, personal documents, and more. Most backup methods intentionally skip certain files to save time and hard drive space. 

#2: Disk cloning allows you to easily transfer your data to another device. In the case of an internal disk, the new drive can easily be installed into another computer once the cloning process has completed. With an external drive, simply plug the device into another computer for immediate access to the data. You'll even be able to boot from your new drive - as long as the old one was bootable to begin with. 

#3: Easy disaster recovery. Disk cloning makes it easy to recover from an unexpected data disaster, especially when the incident is the result of a failing hard drive. As long as you maintain an up-to-date clone on a separate drive, you can simply install the new drive in your computer as a replacement for your failed hardware. Just make sure to make a new backup drive as soon as possible, so you'll be able to avoid any future data loss. If necessary, disk cloning even makes it easy to maintain multiple backup drives. 

#4: Restore individual files and folders. You'll even be able to select individual files and folders to restore during a data recovery process, which could greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to get your system back up and running at full capacity. The ability to restore individual files and folders isn't a luxury with some other backup methods - like disk imaging, for example. 

#5: Deploy an identical system on multiple devices. System deployment is one of the most common applications for disk cloning. Not only can clones be created and installed into new machines as necessary, but a single clone copied to an external hard drive can be cloned to hard drives that are already installed in computers and servers. This level of flexibility isn't always available with some of the other backup methods available today.