How to Clone a Hard Drive to a USB External Drive

Due to their compact and portable nature, USB flash drives and external hard disks have become popular and convenient for storing files, data, and even operating systems. Disk cloning refers to the process of copying all the contents of a hard drive to another location. To save time and effort, people often choose to clone a hard drive to a USB flash drive.

Before we delve into the details of the process, let's see what you need to clone HDD to USB drive.

Click here to download this excellent disk cloning software.

Can I clone my hard drive to a USB flash drive?

"Is there a safe and efficient way to clone HDD to USB drive? I'm using a Lenovo Essential laptop with a small built-in hard drive for data storage. Therefore, I'd like to clone the HDD precisely to an external USB flash drive."

Do I need any special disk cloning software? I suppose I should clone my files or settings byte-by-byte to an external USB drive for a successful data transfer or backup to the USB drive. If you have had similar experiences, please help!"

How to Clone a Hard Drive to a USB External Drive

• Part 1: How to Clone a Hard Drive to an External Hard Drive (with Operating System)
• Part 2: How to Clone a Hard Drive to a USB Flash Drive (for Data Only)

Windows does not have a cloning tool to clone SSD to USB flash drive, so we recommend using the user-friendly cloning software - AOMEI Backupper Standard, which can help you easily clone hard drive or clone USB drive.

It can migrate your data, operating system, and applications to another hard drive without losing any data. You can use it to clone your hard drive before replacing it and create a bootable WinPE bootable disk. Additionally, it lets you move your OS from HDD to SSD or from SSD to SSD. For instance, it allows you to transfer Windows 10 from HDD to SSD without losing data without reinstalling Windows.

Part 1: How to Clone a Hard Drive to a USB Flash Drive

Here's the full guide to cloning your operating system and system disk data to a USB drive.

1. Check the USB drive that you want to format.

Please note that the cloning process will overwrite the target USB drive. If it contains important files, remember to back up all your data. You can try this free backup software. Make sure your USB drive has enough space to store the data.

2 – Gather the tools you need.

If your USB drive is an external hard disk, you can easily clone the operating system and system disk data to the external drive. Now, download the USB Drive Clone software tool – Disk Copy, and follow the step-by-step guide below to clone your USB drive or HDD's OS or data to an external device.

Step 3 - Clone Your Hard Drive to a USB Drive

If you want to clone your hard drive to a USB drive for backup/data transfer purposes, or something similar, follow these steps.

Step 1: Download, install, and run the disk cloning tool Disk Copy on your computer.

Click “Disk Mode,” then select the disk you want to copy or clone. Click “Continue” to proceed.

Step 2: Select the target disk.

Note: If you're cloning or copying a disk, the target disk should be at least as large as the source disk, or larger.

Step 3: Check and edit the disk layout.

If your target disk is an SSD, check the “Target is SSD” option.

Step 4: If prompted, confirm that you want to erase the data on the target disk.

Step 5: Click “Proceed” to start the cloning process.

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Part 2: How to Clone a Hard Drive to a USB Flash Drive

For instructions on how to back up or transfer hard drive data, see the full guide.

1 - Get the Tools You'll Need - Disk Copy

AOMEI Backupper Standard is a professional disk cloning tool for you to clone external hard drive to another external hard drive, and it's designed to meet your data transfer/backup needs. For instance, with this tool, you can easily:

• Create a bootable clone of Windows 11/10/8/7
• Recover data from a bad sector HDD
• Clone UEFI disk to SSD
• Migrate Windows 10 to a USB flash drive, etc.

Clone a Hard Drive to an External USB Drive

 

Now, you might know that cloning HDD to USB drive is just one of the many features that tools like Disk Copy offer. After downloading and installing the main program on your computer, you can easily clone disk to USB flash drive.

2 - Steps to clone hard drive to USB flash drive

Make sure there is enough space on the USB drive, as cloning data may overwrite existing data on it. The storage space on the USB drive must be larger than the used space on the source disk, or files on the source device might not copy completely.

Here, you would use “Partition Mode” to perform a partition clone, rather than a disk clone.

Step 1: Run the disk cloning tool on your computer. Click "Partition Mode," and then select the source partition that you want to copy or clone. Click "Next" to proceed.

Step 2: Select the target partition to which you want to clone/copy the source partition.

Step 3: Check and edit the partition layout.

Step 4. Click “Proceed” to start the partition copy or clone process.

Why Clone HDD to USB Flash Drive?

There can be specific reasons why one might need to clone a hard drive to an external USB flash drive. Here are some of the most common ones:

Data backup/transfer

Most users choose to clone HDD to USB drive for backup or data transfer. This is the best way to protect your data from virus attacks, hard drive failure, disk damage, or any other unforeseen circumstances, especially when you have limited space on your built-in hard drive.

System cloning

It's not uncommon for users to make Windows portable or clone their system. By cloning Windows to a USB flash drive, you can use your operating system wherever you need it. However, if your target device is a USB flash drive and not a USB hard drive, you might encounter booting issues after the clone. Whether for system cloning or creating a portable device, learn how to create a portable Windows on a USB drive.

Further Reading: Western Digital Cloning Software

Conclusions

Here's how to clone a hard drive to a USB flash drive in Windows 11/10/8/7. This method also works for cloning a disk to an SSD/HDD or other internal/external devices. Whenever you need to clone an HDD/SSD, seek help from a disk cloning tool. If you encounter such issues, you may find the solutions within this article.

• How to clone an entire hard drive to an external hard drive?
• How to clone a bootable USB flash drive?
• How to clone a hard drive to an SSD via USB?
• How to transfer data from a hard drive to a USB?

Frequently Asked Questions About Cloning HDD to USB

1. What is hard drive cloning?

Hard drive cloning refers to creating a bit-for-bit copy of a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD), not just its files. Disk cloning can be used to upgrade a disk or replace an old one with a new one. In this case, the cloned drive can replace the original drive in the host computer.

2. How long does it take to clone a hard drive?

This depends on the amount of data on the source disk and the transfer speed during the cloning process. If your clone process transfers at 100 MB/second, cloning a 100 GB hard drive would take approximately 17 minutes.

How to transfer data from a hard drive to a USB device? To transfer data from a hard drive to a USB device, follow these steps: 1. **Connect the USB device**: Insert the USB drive into your computer's USB port. 2. **Backup your data**: Before starting the transfer, ensure that important data on your hard drive is backed up in case of any unexpected issues. 3. **Open File Explorer or Finder**: On Windows, click "This PC" or use the keyboard shortcut `Win + E`. On a Mac, click the "Finder" icon in the Dock. 4. **Locate the files and folders to transfer**: In File Explorer/Finder, navigate to the folder on the hard drive containing the data you wish to move. 5. **Select the files and folders**: Select all the files and folders you want to transfer to the USB device. Hold down `Ctrl` (Windows) or `Command` (Mac) to choose multiple non-contiguous files, and `Shift` for consecutive files. 6. **Copy the files**: Right-click and select "Copy" (Windows) or press `Command + C` (Mac). 7. **Open the USB device**: In File Explorer/Finder, locate and open your USB device. 8. **Paste the files**: Within the USB device's window, right-click and choose "Paste" (Windows) or press `Command + V` (Mac). 9. **Wait for the transfer to complete**: The transfer may take some time depending on the file size. Be patient and do not disconnect the USB device during the process. 10. **Eject the USB device safely**: After the transfer is finished, safely eject the USB device from your computer to prevent data loss. On Windows, right-click the USB icon in the taskbar notification area and select "Safely Remove Hardware." On a Mac, find the USB device in Finder, then choose "File" menu > "Eject." Now, the data has successfully been transferred from the hard drive to the USB device.

You can use the tool Disk Copy to help you transfer data from your hard drive to a USB drive. Download it to your PC, and then clone SSD to USB flash drive following the steps above.