How to Clone Bootable USB Flash Drive [Windows]
This article describes the best method and how to clone bootable USB flash drive to another one step by step in Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc. Scroll down to learn more!
Last Updated July 24, 2025
How Do I Clone Bootable USB Drives in Windows?
“So I have a USB drive that has WinPE on 1 partition, and a second partition with a WIM File.
What's the fastest way to clone this one USB drive to about 10 more?
There has got to be a way to do it in Windows, booting CloneZilla live to copy USB drives... seems.. overkill.”
- Question from Reddit
Cloning a bootable USB creates an exact copy - bootable and perfect 1:1 replica, which is critical for backing up OS installers (e.g., Windows ISO), duplicating diagnostic tools (Hiren’s BootCD, DBAN, etc), and deploying multi-boot drives.
As a result, many users want to do this, and some of them even manually copy files from a bootable USB to another USB. But this won’t create a bootable copy as it ignores boot sectors/partition table, hidden UEFI/BIOS files, the metadata, etc., that are necessary to boot from a drive. This is where the bootable USB clone tool comes in.
What’s the Best Bootable USB Clone Tool?
AOMEI Cloner is one of the best bootable USB clone tools that can easily clone bootable flash drives in Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc., and Windows Servers. It will include data files, partition table, metadata, and more.
- Easy to use and no technical skills required.
- 3 cloning methods - clone the entire disk or specific partitions.
- Intelligent clone - clone only the used sectors of a drive, greatly saving time and effort.
- Edit Partitions - automatically resize partitions of larger USB drives. Optionally, convert disk types while cloning MBR to GPT, or GPT to MBR.
- Compatible with different USB drives (USB 2.0, 3.0, C), and popular brands, such as Samsung, Kingston, SanDisk, etc.
100% SecureFree download AOMEI Cloner to clone bootable USB to another USB now! Note that the destination disk will be overwritten or deleted during cloning. Be sure to backup important data (if any) on it to prevent permanent loss.
Steps to Clone Bootable USB to Another USB
Step 1. Connect bootable USB and another USB to your computer. Open AOMEI Cloner after installing, click Clone > Disk Clone.
Step 2. Then,select the bootable USB as source disk and another USB as destination disk. Click Next to continue.
Step 3. Be sure you don’t mix the two USB drives and click Start Clone to clone bootable USB drive.
🧰Notes:
✔ Edit Partitions: The Add unused space to all partitions option will be checked automatically while cloning USB to a larger USB. Optionally, click it to confirm. You can also convert disk types from MBR to GPT or vice versa.
✔ SSD Alignment: It’s designed for SSD drives to improve disk performance and longevity.
✖ Sector by sector clone: It clones all sectors of a drive, including empty and bad sectors, and you don’t need it unless cloning a bitlocker encrypted drive.
How to Test If a Cloned USB Is Bootable
Cloning a bootable USB drive is only half the battle- verifying it actually bootsis crucial. A successful clone must replicate not just files but also thebootloader, partition table, and hidden system files.
Without testing, you risk discovering too late that your backup or deployment USB is unusable.Physical boot testing is known to be the most reliable method you can try.
- Connect the cloned USB to your computer and be sure it’s recognized.
- Restart your computer and press the BIOS key, usually F12, Esc, F2, or Del, to access the UEFI/BIOS settings window.
- Go to the Boot section and set the cloned USB as the boot drive. Press F10 to save changes and reboot.
Conclusion
You can easily clone bootable flash drive in Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc., and Windows Server with the help of dedicated cloning software like AOMEI Cloner. It will create an exact copy of the USB drive, including individual files, partition table, UEFI/BIOS files, etc., to ensure a secure boot.
What’s more, you can use it to clone any types of disks, e.g., e.g. HDDs/SSDs, MBR/GPT disks, SATA/M.2/PCIe/NVMe drives, etc., even just Clone OS only for system migration. If you have such a need, free download it to have a try!
FAQs
1. Is drag-and-drop file copying enough for bootable USBs?
No!Manual copying misses boot sectors, hidden UEFI/BIOS files, partition tables, etc., which may result in 90% of drag-and-drop “clones” failing.
2. Can I clone a bootable USB to a smaller flash drive?
Yes, but only if the used space on the original USB drive fits the smaller USB drive’s total capacity. You can choose to shrink partitions to make them smaller or directly clone only the used sectors of USB drive using a dedicated cloning software - AOMEI Cloner.
3. Why won’t my cloned USB boot?
The top causes behind "cloned USB drive won’t boot" are missing bootloader, UEFI/BIOS mismatch, corrupted sectors, etc. You can choose to:
✅ Repair bootloader using CMD
- bootrec /fixmbr
- bootrec /fixboot
✅ Convert disk types (one MBR, one GPT) to make them identical.
✅ Pick a reliable cloning software.