Freeware to Clone USB Drive in Windows 10, 8, 7

Planning to clone USB drive for data backup or transfer in Windows 10/8/7? This article will explain how to do it in detail.

By Emily / Last Updated October 23, 2020

Can you copy a (bootable) USB to another USB?

“Hi, experts, I have two USB hard drives,SanDisk USB flash drive32GB and Samsung USB flash drive 64 GB. Now I want to clone my SanDisk USB Flash Drive to Samsung USB Flash Drive that is much larger and faster. So I would like to know can I clone USB drive to another USB drive and how do I do it? Thanks!”

— Question from answers.microsoft.com

Why do you need to clone USB drive?

Nowadays, the USB flash drives and USB hard disks are very popular data storage media because they are small and portable to carry around. Many users choose to save important files onto the USB flash drive. And in order to avoid data loss when the USB drive is not recognized, you might want to make a backup for files on the USB drive.

To achieve that, you can copy files from one USB drive to another USB drive via“Ctrl+C” and “Ctrl+V” if you just have personal files or documents. However, if this USB drive is a bootable drive and includes boot files, that method will make your boot files useless and then you will be unable to launch programs. Thus, you can choose to clone the whole USB drive or the USB hard disk to other devices. That can easily transfer mass data or even bootable files to another device.

Best free USB drive cloning tool for Windows PC

In order to clone (bootable) USB stick or USB hard drive, the USB clone tool is required. Here we strongly recommend AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. This free clone software can help you copy USB drive without damaging the original data for free in Windows 10/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista. In addition, this tool can clone SD card, memory card, HDD, SSD to another data storage device, etc.

Besides, it is equipped with many other exciting features:
❥ Enables you to wipe a USB hard drive to completely erase privacy data from the drive.
❥ Allows you to make a bootable USB drive to enter WinPE mode for executing some special operations such as formatting C drive, wiping system disk, etc.
❥ Permits you to rebuild MBR in an easy way to deal with some Windows failing to boot up issues.
❥ Supports creating portable operating system USB with system disc or ISO.

How do you clone USB drive in Windows 10/8/7?

In this part, we will walk you through how to copy USB drive to another disk in Windows 10/8/7 via free AOMEI hard drive cloning program. First of all, please download the freeware, connect the USB drive and the destination disk to your computer, and ensure both of them are detected successfully.

Note: please back up important data on the destination disk since this cloning process will erase data stored on it. To clone USB drive in Server OS, try AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.

Step 1. Install and run the USB drive cloning utility on your Windows computer, click “All Tools” in the left panel, and choose “Disk Clone Wizard”.

Step 2. Two copying methods will be available for you to choose. Select one according to your requirements, and click “Next”. Here we choose the first method.

①“Clone Disk Quickly” only copies the used space on the USB drive to the target disk, in which you can clone USB drive to smaller drive.
②“Sector-by-Sector Clone” will copy every sector to a target disk, which requires the target disk to be equal and larger than the source disk.

Step 3. In this window, you need to choose the USB drive you plan to clon, then click “Next”.

Step 4. Now you can choose the destination disk to save everything on the USB drive. If the target disk is an SSD drive, you can tick “Optimize the performance of SSD”.

Step 5. Here, you will be able to adjust partition size based on your needs. When everything is done, click “Next”.

Step 6. Then click “Finish” to confirm this operation and return to the main window.

Step 7. In the main interface, click “Apply” and “Proceed” to execute this disk cloning operation.

With several clicks, you can easily and quickly clone USB drive to another USB drive in Windows 10/8/7 with the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.

The free Standard edition can only clone data disk between MBR and GPT, and clone system from MBR to MBR for free. If you want to clone system disk from MBR to GPT, GPT to MBR, or GPT to GPT, you can upgrade to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. It has more advanced features such as allocating free space from one partition to another, recover deleted partitions, splitting partitions and more.

How to Clone Windows 10 to USB Drive on Your Own

Are you looking for a reliable Windows to USB cloning software so that you can clone installed Windows 10 to a USB drive?

On this page, we’ll provide a complete guide to help you fully copy Windows 10 to USB so that you can boot up your own system on any type of Windows computers. Follow through this guide to clone your Windows OS to USB now:

Can I Copy or Clone Windows 10 to USB Drive

«Is there any way to clone Windows 10 to a USB drive? I bought a new Dell laptop coming with Windows 10 last week and installed some prerequisite applications. Now I want to clone the system to my USB drive so that I can easily boot my Windows 10 system and installed programs on a new computer when I amВ on vacationВ or a business trip.

How can I clone Windows 10 to USB drive in a safe and easy way? Please help!«

According to many Windows users,В OS crash or system failure is a normal issue that they have to deal with in their daily life. As a result, some of them come up with the idea of cloning OS, including applications, and important C drive files to an external USB drive.В

By doing so, they can boot up the PC from the USB whenever the computer is dead. If you are having the same need, or you want to create a Windows portable USBВ to bring your Windows OS anywhere, stay here.

Follow the full guide below, and learn how to clone Windows 10 to USB successfully on your own now.

Preparations: Getting ReadyВ to Clone Windows 10 To USB Drive

To obtain a smoothВ Windows 10 to USB cloning process, here is a list of preparation tasks that you should get ready first:

1. Download Reliable Windows System Clone Software

Professional Windows backup software — EaseUS Todo Backup with its system clone feature makesВ Windows 10 to USB cloning an enjoyable task that anyone of you can do it.

Support Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP

2. Get An Empty USB External Hard Drive, Bigger thanВ C DriveВ

Prepare an external USB driveВ rather than a USB flash drive. It mustВ be unallocatedВ andВ bigger than the used space inВ C drive.

3. InitializeВ USB Drive to MBR or GPT — As The Same As The System Disk

• Open Disk Management, right-click the system drive, click «Properties»В to check its partition style.
• Connect the USB drive to PC, and right-click on it, select «Initialize Disk».В
• Set the partition style of the USB drive to MBR or GPT, the same as your OS disk.

Tutorial: How to Clone Windows 10 to USB Drive

Let’s use EaseUS Windows to Go creator to copy your installed Windows 10 to USB without any boot issues now. All the information on the OS drive, including the Windows system,В installed applications, settings, and the user data will be well kept to the clone image.

Support Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP

Step-by-Step Guide to Cloning Windows 10 to USB:

Step 1. Connect the USB drive to your PC and run EaseUS Todo Backup. Click «System Clone».В

The current system partition (Windows 10) and boot partition will be automatically selected.

Step 2. Select the destination disk — USB drive to clone system drive (system and boot partition) to.
(Here you can identify whether your USB drive storage space is big enough or not.)

Step 3. Click on Advanced options and tick Create a Portable Windows USB drive.

Step 4. Click Proceed to start cloning Windows 10 to USB.

You may also follow this video tutorial to clone Windows 10 to USB and make it bootable anywhere.

Follow Up: Steps to Boot Windows from ClonedВ USB Drive

Once you complete the Windows to USB cloning process, you can take the USB and boot your Windows 10 on any computer anytime and anywhere.

Here are the steps to boot your Windows OS on your own or a new computer:

Step 1.В Connect your USB drive to a new computer.

Step 2.В Restart the computer and press F2/F8/Del to enter BIOS.

Step 3.В Change the boot order and set the portable USB as a boot drive.

Step 4.В Save the changes, exit BIOS and restart the PC.

Step 5.В Wait for the computer to boot up and log in with your own password.

Now, you can use your own system and installed applications, even data on a new computer without any problems.

You May Also Interest In:

Some of you may also want to replace the old system drive with a new SSD. In this case, you’ll need to clone Windows 10 to SSD. And you may click the below link for help.

Cloning Windows 10 to USB Is Easy, Take Action Now

It’s a great idea of cloning Windows to an external USB drive so as to take it with you anywhere. With the created Windows portable USB, you can not only boot and use your own system on a new computer. You may also be able to use your computer even when it’s unbootable.

By following the tutorial on this page, you can simply clone Windows 10 to an external USB drive in only a few clicks. It’s easy and fast. Take action and let EaseUS Todo Backup help now.

How to Clone Windows 7 to USB Drive as Windows 7 To Go?

I am looking for the most simple possible way for me to clone Windows 7 to a USB drive, I have tried several disk cloning tools, but Windows 7 seems unable to run from a USB drive. I also tried Microsoft’s Windows To Go Creator Wizard to create Windows 7 To Go directly from an ISO file, it does not seem to support Windows 7. Does your software WinToUSB support cloning Windows 7 to USB drive as Windows 7 To Go?

Windows 7 is an excellent Windows operating system, it will bring us great convenience if we are able to run Windows 7 from USB drive. When Windows on the internal hard disk does not start properly, we can use it as the emergency operating system to complete data recovery or system recovery work. There are many users who ask this question, can I clone windows 7 to a USB drive, and then start Windows 7 from the USB drive? The answer to this question is no until the WinToUSB been successfully developed.

WinToUSB is the world’s first software that can help you clone Windows 7 to a USB drive and ensure that Windows 7 can boot from the USB drive. With proprietary file system cloning technology, WinToUSB can help you clone Windows 7 to a USB drive as quickly as possible. Also, make sure that Windows 7 boots properly from the USB drive by modifying the configuration of the Windows system.

Tutorial to Clone Windows 7 to USB Drive as Windows 7 To Go with WinToUSB.

Step 1. Connect the destination external hard drive or flash drive to the computer with an installed copy of WinToUSB, then run WinToUSB.

Step 2. Click the button, then click «Next».

Step 3. Select the USB drive in the drop-down list. If your USB drive is not correctly recognized by WinToUSB, you need to click the button for the program to recognize the USB drive.

Step 4. A pop-up will appear asking you if you want to format it to continue, select the partition scheme you want to use and click «Yes» to format it. If you choose «Keep the existing partition scheme», you need to manually prepare the partitions on the USB drive before this step, and here is the user guide on how to manually prepare partitions for Windows To Go. Please note that the «Keep the existing partition scheme» option is valid only for an external disk.

Step 5. Select the boot partition and system partition from the partition list, the selected partitions will be marked as red, then click «Next».

Step 6. After clicking «Next», a pop-up will appear asking you if you want to build a WinPE image to continue. click «Yes». Please note that the paid versions support hot cloning, so you can complete the clone operation without creating WinPE and restarting your computer.

Step 7. WinToUSB begins building WinPE, this may take several minutes, so please be patient..

Step 8. After successfully builded the WinPE image, WinToUSB will prompt you to reboot the computer, click «Yes» button to allow WinToUSB to reboot your computer.

Step 9. It takes some time to Clone Windows 7 to USB Drive. After the clone is successfully completed, restart the computer and change BIOS to boot from your external hard drive.

Are you looking for a solution to clone Windows 7 to USB drive as Windows 7 To Go? As stated above, WinToUSB is the best tool which can help you clone Windows 7 to USB drive as Windows 7 To Go, takes just a few steps and you can achieve your goal. In addition, you can also use WinToUSB to clone Windows 10/8 to USB drive as Windows To Go.