How to Clone a Hard Drive to a USB External Drive

Written by Linda on December 29, 2021 for Disk/Partition Clone | How-to Guides

USB flash drives and external hard drives are popular due to their portability. People tend to store files, data, and even operating systems on these external devices. Cloning a hard drive means copying its contents in its entirety to another location. To save time and effort, people often clone a hard drive to an external USB drive.

• Recommended Method - Clone Hard Drive to External USB Hard Drive
• Part 1: How to Clone a Hard Drive to an External USB Hard Drive (with OS)
• Part 2: How to Clone a Hard Drive to a USB Flash Drive (Data Only)

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

"Is there a secure and efficient way to clone HDD to a USB drive? I'm using a basic Lenovo laptop with a small built-in hard drive for data storage. Hence, I want to clone the HDD exactly to an external USB flash drive. Do I need any special disk cloning software? Should I perform a bit-to-bit clone to copy my files or settings to the external USB drive? This way, I can successfully transfer or back up my data to the USB drive. If you have any experience with this, please help me out!"

Recommended Method – Clone Hard Drive to USB External Hard Drive

There is no cloning tool in Windows that can clone HDD to USB, so we recommend you use the easy-to-use software - Disk Copy Tool. It can migrate your data, operating system, and applications to another hard drive without losing data.

Part 1: How to Clone a Hard Drive to an External USB Hard Drive

Here's a complete guide to cloning your operating system and data to a USB drive.

1 – Check your target USB drive.

• Keep in mind that the cloning process will overwrite your USB drive. If it contains important files, make sure to back up all of your data. Try out 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 drive, you can easily clone your operating system and data to it. Now download the cloning software "Disk Copy Tool" and follow the step-by-step guide below to clone your hard drive's OS or data to an external device. It's compatible with Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP.

3 - Steps to clone your hard drive to a USB external drive

If you're cloning an HDD to a USB for the purposes of data backup/transfer, or something similar, follow these steps.

Step 1: Download, install, and run a disk cloning tool on your computer.

Click “Disk Mode,” then select the hard drive you want to copy or clone. Click “Next” to continue.

Step 2: Select the target disk.

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

If the software prompts you to erase data from the target disk, click “OK.”

Step 4: Check and edit the disk layout.

If your target disk is an SSD, remember to check the box next to “Target is SSD.”

5. Click “Proceed” to begin the cloning process.

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

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

1 - Gather necessary tools - Disk cloning software

"Disk Copy" is a professional backup utility designed to meet your data transfer and backup needs. With this tool, you can easily:

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

Now you may already know that cloning HDD to USB is just one of the many features of Disk Copy. Download and install this powerful software on your computer, then follow the easy steps below to clone your hard drive to a USB flash drive.

2 - Steps to clone your hard drive to a USB flash drive

Make sure that the USB has enough space, as cloning data might overwrite existing data on the USB. The USB storage must be larger than the used space on the source hard disk or device, or else files on the source device might not copy completely.

In this case, you need to clone partitions with the “Partition Mode,” not the Disk Clone mode.

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 where you want to clone/copy the source partition.

Step 3. Check and edit the partition layout

Automatically resize disk Copy source Format disk

Click the “Start” button to begin the partition cloning or copying process.

Considering how often data loss happens, you should have such a tool in your computer to avoid losing your files completely. Don't be the one who realizes the importance of having a safety net after disaster strikes; be proactive.

Why Need to Clone HDD to USB?

There can be specific reasons why one would want to clone a hard drive to an external USB flash drive. Here are some common ones:

Data backup/transfer

Most users clone HDD to USB drive for backup or transfer purposes. It's the best way to protect your data from virus attacks, hard drive failure, disk corruption, or any other unforeseen circumstances, especially when you have limited space on your built-in hard drive. (If you accidentally lost data on your hard drive, learn how to use the best hard drive recovery software to get your data back.)

System cloning

It's not uncommon for users to make Windows portable or clone their system. By cloning Windows to a USB, you can use your operating system wherever you need it. However, if your target device is a USB flash drive rather than an external USB hard disk, you might run into boot issues after the cloning process. If you're looking to clone your system or create a portable device, learn how to create a Portable Windows on a USB.

Conclusions

That's it! This is how you can clone your hard drive to USB flash drive in Windows 10/8/7. The method applies to cloning HDD to SSD, HDD to HDD, and other internal or external devices. Whenever you need to clone an HDD/SSD, you can always turn to a disk cloning tool. If you have the above issues and questions, you can find the solutions from this post.

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

FAQs on Cloning HDD to USB

If you're having issues with cloning an HDD or SSD, read the respective article for additional help.

1. What is Hard Disk 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 may be used to upgrade a disk or replace an old one with a new one. In this case, the cloned disk can replace the original on the host computer.

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

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

3. How do I transfer data from my hard drive to a USB device?

Step 1. Run Clone Disk Wizard on your computer. Click "Partition Mode", and then select the source partition you want to copy or clone.

Step 2: Select the target partition for the source partition to be cloned/copied.

Step 3: Check and edit the partition layout

Step 4: Click on the “Start” button to begin the actual partition cloning/copying process.