Free Bootable USB Clone Tool: Clone Bootable USB in Windows 10, 8, 7 Easily

If you are looking for a bootable USB clone tool, the free AOMEI Partition Assistant is a great choice. It allows you to free clone a bootable USB drive in Windows 10, 8, 7 with easy steps.

By Emily / Last Updated December 8, 2020

Can you clone a bootable USB drive in Windows 10?

Nowadays, some computer users copy Windows ISO to USB to make it a bootable drive for rescuing a computer that won’t boot due to hard drive failure.

Since the bootable USB drive is quite important, you might want to clone it for a backup. However, the «Ctrl C+ Ctrl V» (copy and paste) method is not working for copying a bootable USB flash drive. Even if you successfully transfer all data from the bootable USB drive to another USB, the pasted boot files will become invalidated and the new drive won’t boot later. Thus, you might wonder how can you clone a bootable USB drive in Windows 10, 8, 7 computers with secure boot afterward. This is exactly what we will talk about next.

Free bootable USB clone tool is recommended

As mentioned above, cloning bootable USB drive requires the use of a bootable drive cloning tool. But countless similar software might make you feel totally puzzled about which one to choose. To clone bootable drive without boot failure, we highly recommend using AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.

This free disk manager tool offers a feature named «Disk Clone Wizard», allowing you to copy a (bootable) entire disk to another one in Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista. It can perform an exact copy of the contents stored on the bootable USB drive, even including its master boot record. Then, you can boot the computer from the destination disk with success. Besides cloning (bootable) USB flash drive, it can also clone SD card, SSD drive and HDD.

How to clone bootable USB in Windows 10/8/7?

To clone a bootable USB drive, first of all, please download the free bootable USB clone software and install it on your Windows computer. Then follow the steps to clone bootable USB stick in Windows PC.

Precaution:
в‘ This cloning process will delete all data on the destination disk, so back up everything necessary in advance.
в‘ЎThe free version just supports cloning an MBR disk to another MBR disk, if you plan to clone MBR to GPT, GPT to MBR, or GPT to GPT, please upgrade to the Professional version.

Step 1. Launch this bootable USB clone tool. Click «All Tools» and then «Disk Clone Wizard».

Step 2. Select a way to copy the bootable drive, and then hit on «Next». Here we select «Clone Disk Quickly».

Note:
в‘ Clone Disk Quickly: only copied the used space to another drive, so it allows you to clone larger disk to smaller disk as long as the destination disk is larger than the used space of the source disk.
в‘ЎSector-by-Sector Clone : copy all sectors, no matter it is used or not, to the target disk, so the destination disk must be larger the total space of the source disk.

Step 3. Select a source disk from the given list and click on «Next».

Step 4. Choose a target disk and click «Next» to continue. If it is an SSD drive, you can tick «Optimize the performance of SSD» option.

Step 5. In this window, you can adjust partition size on the destination disk. Then, click on «Next» button.

Step 6. Then you will get a note about how to boot OS from the destination disk afterward. Read it carefully and click «Finish».

Step 7. Back to the main interface, click «Apply» and «Proceed» to start cloning the bootable drive.

Summary

This powerful bootable USB clone tool makes it as easy as possible to clone bootable disk in Windows computers. Besides, it also enables you to transfer only OS drive to SSD. More amazing functions including converting boot disk from MBR to GPT, or GPT to MBR without data loss, splitting a large partition into smaller partitions, extending system drive without reboot are available in the Professional version. If you are running Windows Server, you can make use of AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.

How to Copy Windows 7 to USB Drive and Make It Bootable?

Sometimes, you might want to copy Windows 7 to USB, here we introduce how to copy Windows OS to USB drive using Command Prompt and a versatile partition manager. So you can easily clone Windows to USB and make the USB drive bootable.

By Emily / Last Updated March 19, 2021

2 Situations where you need to copy Windows 7 to USB

Copying Windows 7 operating system onto USB flash drive can be useful in many cases, and below are two most common situations.

1. Install Windows conveniently

With each new release of Windows, the installation time gets shorter and shorter. However, Windows is still released in DVD or ISO form, and installing Windows OS from optical media is also still too slow. So, many users choose to install OS from USB drive, which is much faster and more convenient. To make a bootable USB as a Windows installer, you have to know how to copy Windows 7 to USB from ISO or DVD.

2. Create a portable Windows drive

Secondly, lots of computer users want to clone or copy Windows 7/8/10 to USB drive to make a portable Windows USB so that they can keep their customized OS environment in their pocket, carry around and boot familiar OS on other computers, even the brand-new one. Besides, when the computer crashes suddenly, they can also rescue it with the portable Windows USB drive.

Tutorial: copy Windows 7 to USB in different cases

Since we have listed the two most common situations where you might want to clone Windows operating system onto a USB flash drive, now we will introduce how to do it in detail respectively.

Case 1. Copy Windows 7 to USB using CMD for installing OS

First of all, we would like to tell how to clone Windows 7 onto a USB flash drive using CMD (Command Line) with the purpose of installing OS conveniently.

Notes:
в‘ Prepare a flash drive with at least 8 GB of space for Windows 10 and 8.1, or at least 4 GB of space for Windows 7.
в‘ЎThe process described below will delete everything currently on your flash drive. Make sure to back up your flash drive to another storage location before proceeding.

1. Connect your USB drive to the computer and make sure it is recognized.

2. Open a command prompt as Administrator: press “Win+R” combination to open Run dialogue, input “cmd” in the box and press on “Enter”.

3. Run the following commands to partition and format the USB drive.

в—Џ diskpart
в—Џ list disk
в—Џ select disk 1: modify disk number as needed
в—Џ clean
в—Џ create partition primary
в—Џ select partition 1
в—Џ active
в—Џ format fs=ntfs
в—Џ assign
в—Џ exit: exit DISKPART, but leave the command prompt window open

4. Mount the Windows installation media: put the Windows installation disc in the optical drive, mount the ISO, or extract its contents to a folder.

The ISO file will now be extracted to a sub-folder with the same name as the ISO file. This can take a few minutes to complete.

5. Use BOOTSECT command to make the USB drive bootable

After the media mounted to extracted, run the commands below to update the filesystem on the flash drive to make it bootable.

в—Џ E:
в—Џ cd boot
● bootsect.exe /nt60 F:”

Be aware: Replace E with your install media drive letter, and F with your USB flash drive letter.

6. Use ROBOCOPY command “robocopy E:F: /s /v /mt: 16”to copy the contents of the Windows installation media to the USB drive

When it completes, type “Exit” to leave the command prompt. Then you can boot your computer from the bootable USB drive and install Windows. Besides copying Windows 7 onto USB drive from DVD/CD using Command Prompt, you can also use Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, a free utility that will automatically make a bootable USB flash drive using a Windows 7/8/10 ISO image file.

Simply download the tool, choose the ISO file and USB drive, then the Wizard will do everything for you.

Case 2. Copy Windows 7 to USB for portable Windows 7 device

This section is about how to copy Windows 7 to USB flash drive to make a portable Windows operating system. For this task, Windows released a new feature named “Windows To Go” for Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education/Enterprise/Pro. With that, users can burn Windows ISO files to USB, boot and run Windows from USB devices.

But it cannot work on Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 Home/ Pro/Education as well as Windows 10 Home. Thus, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional instead. It developed a more powerful and versatile “Windows To Go Creator”. Compared with Microsoft “Windows To Go”, it is a better choice for the below advantages:

вќ¤ It is more compatible and allows you to copy all versions of Windows 10, 8.1/8 or 7 onto a removable USB flash drive to boot it from any computer as you need.
вќ¤ It only requires a 13GB USB and a non-certified USB drive is also OK, while the «Windows To Go” needs a USB drive of 32GB at least and the USB must be certified by Microsoft at the same time, otherwise you cannot convert ISO to USB successfully.
вќ¤ It permits you to create Windows to go USB with either Windows disc/ISO or current system.
вќ¤ It allows you to make a bootable USB for mac and run Windows from USB on Mac.

Now, you can download the demo version and learn how to clone Windows 7 to USB drive step by step.

1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro on your Windows 7 computer. Connect the USB drive to the computer and make sure it is detected successfully.

2. Click “All Tools” > “Windows To Go Creator” on the left side.

3. Choose «Create Windows ToGo for personal computer» and click «Next».

4. Select the first method «Create Windows To Go with system disc/ISO» and choose the prepared ISO file. Click «Next».

PS.: If the Windows 7 ISO files are not available or you don’t want to download or extract the ISO file, you can choose «Create Windows To Go with current system».

5. Then choose the USB drive and click «Proceed» to start cloning Windows 7 to USB drive.

After cloning Windows OS to USB via the above methods, you can plug the USB drive into any computer at any place, enter BIOS, and change the boot order to USB first and save. Then you can successfully boot computer into your familiar Windows 10/8/7 environment.

Sum Up

Now, I am sure you have a clear idea of how to copy Windows 7 to a USB drive from DVD using CMD or clone Windows operating system to USB drive for a portable Windows. By the way, AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro also has many other fantastic features, such as migrating only OS drive to SSD/HDD, quick partitioning a large hard disk within two clicks, recovering lost partition, and more. To move Windows Server to USB drive, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.

3 Methods to Create Bootable USB Windows 10 [Full Guide]

Here, we collect three different methods to help you create bootable USB in Windows 10 easily and effectively.

By Emily / Last Updated June 10, 2020

Why create a bootable USB in Windows 10?

In most cases, when the Windows 10 operating system goes wrong and the PC starts to run slowly or even stop working properly, your first move will be searching online for a solution. If lucky, you can get an effective solution to fix this issue. If not, the last resort should be reinstalling the operating system from the DVD or CD. What if your PC does not have an optical drive, or the original installation DVD is not available any longer?

In this situation, a bootable USB installer is a great alternative, which allows you to reinstall Windows 10 from a USB drive. Briefly, the USB stick is portable and compatible with nearly all desktops or laptops. After all, a USB port can be found on every PC. Besides, installing OS from USB drive is also quicker than from DVD or CD. Therefore, more and more users like to make a bootable USB installer to keep handy.

3 Methods to make a bootable USB drive for Window 10

In this part, we would like to share 3 different methods with you to make a bootable USB flash drive so that you can install OS more flexibly. Without any further ado, let’s get started.

Note: no matter which method you will choose finally, please ensure you have a copy of the required files stored in USB stick because it will be erased in the process. Free AOMEI Backupper is recommended for this backup task.

1. Create bootable USB Windows 10 via CMD

First of all, we will demonstrate how to make a bootable USB using Command Prompt. Download the Windows 10 ISO files from the official site and make sure the USB flash drive has at least 5GB free space.

Step 1. Press “Win+R” at the same time to open “Run” dialogue. Input “cmd” and hit on “Enter” key.

Step 2. When the Command Prompt window opens, type “diskpart” and press “Enter” to launch DiskPart.exe tool. Then execute the following command in sequence.

в–ёlist disk
в–ёselect disk #
в–ёclean
в–ёcreate partition primary
в–ёselect partition 1
▸format fs=ntfs quick (To create UEFI bootable USB, format it as FAT32 with command “format fs=fat32 quick” instead)
в–ёactive

After you format the USB flash drive and set the primary partition as active, type “Exit” to close the diskpart.exe. Then use File Explorer to copy and paste the entire contents of the Windows ISO to the USB flash drive.

What if file copy fails?
If the Windows image file is over than 4GB, surpassing the file size limit of FAT32 file system, you will fail to copy files onto the USB flash drive. Once it happens, do as below:
1. Copy everything except the Windows image file (sources\install.wim) to the USB drive (either drag and drop, or use the following command, where D: is the mounted ISO and F: is the USB flash drive.)
robocopy D: F: /s /max:3800000000
2. Split the Windows image file into smaller files, and copy them onto the USB drive:
Dism /Split-Image /ImageFile:D:\sources\install.wim /SWMFile:F:\sources\install.swm /FileSize:3800

2. Make bootable Win 10 USB via Windows USB/DVD Download Tool

Secondly, you can make use of the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool. It can create a copy of ISO files onto USB flash drive as an installer.

Step 2. Run it. In the Source box, type the name and path of your Windows ISO file, or click BROWSE and select the file from the OPEN dialog box. Click “Next”.

Step 3. Select USB DEVICE to create a copy on a USB flash drive.

Step 4. Choose your USB drive and click “Begin copying”.

After it is finished, install Windows by moving to the root folder of your USB drive, and then double-click Setup.exe.

3. Make bootable USB via MediaCreationTool

Considering that most users tend to use MediaCreationTool, so here we also illustrate how to use this tool to create bootable USB in Windows 10.

Step 1. Download MediaCreationTool and run it as an administrator.

Step 2. Select ”Accept” in the license terms screen.

Step 3. Select “Create installation media for another PC”, and then select Next.

Step 4. Choose the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10.

Step 5. Choose ”USB flash drive” and click “Next”.

Step 6. Choose your prepared USB drive from the list, then ”Next”.

Step 7. Once done, the tool will start to download the latest Windows 10 installation files to your device.

When it is over, this data is written to your flash drive and the USB is made bootable with the newest Windows 10 setup.

Further study: create bootable USB to run Win 10 from flash drive

Above content is all about how to make a bootable USB stick to install OS. If you do that for running Windows 10 operating system on another computer with an older operating system, you can run Windows 10 directly through a bootable USB drive. For this purpose, you can turn to the free partition manager: AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. It is compatible with all editions of Windows 10/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista. With it, you can create Windows bootable USB drive with ISO files. Below is the detailed instruction:

Step 1. Download the freeware, install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.

Step 2. Click “All Tools” > “Windows To Go Creator” on the left side.

Step 3. Tick “Create Windows ToGo for personal computer”, and then click “Next”.

Step 4. Choose “Create Windows To Go with system disc/ISO” and select the prepared ISO file. Click “Next”.

Step 5. Select the USB drive you have prepared and click “Proceed”.

After it is done, you can insert the bootable USB to the target computer, change boot order in BIOS and boot PC from it.

If you want to create bootable USB drive with current operating system installed on your computer, you can upgrade to Professional. That also enables you to run Windows from USB on Mac.

Summary

In this article, we shared 3 different ways to create bootable USB in Windows 10 as an installer, plus an additional way to make a portable boot USB to run OS on any other computers. Choose one according to your specific requirements. If you plan to create a bootable USB to repair boot issues caused by damaged MBR or disk errors, the AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can also help you a lot.