Quick Guide | Clone Windows 10/11 to USB Drive (Bootable)
Quick Navigation:
- User case: Can I clone Windows 10 to USB drive?
- How to move installed Windows to USB drive
- Preparations before cloning Windows 10/11 to USB
- Tutorial: Clone Windows 10/11 to USB drive and make it bootable
- Conclusion
User case: Can I clone Windows 10 to USB drive?
You're wondering if you can clone Windows 10 to a 32GB flash drive, which is a common size for tablets running the operating system. The issue is that Windows 10 itself takes up around 22GB, leaving you with a relatively small amount of space for other files. However, it's technically possible to clone Windows 10 to the flash drive, but you might need to consider the following: the flash drive will likely be almost full, leaving little room for other files or apps. Additionally, some tablets might have specific requirements or configurations that could affect the cloning process.
- Question from tomshardware.com
Cloning Windows to a USB drive can be a convenient way to have a portable, self-contained system for troubleshooting or testing purposes, but it's not always the best idea. The main concern is that the USB drive might not be able to handle the demands of running a full Windows installation, especially if it's a smaller capacity drive. Additionally, some USB drives may not be optimized for running a full operating system, and may not have the necessary drivers or software to support all hardware components.
- If your internal hard drive is running out of space or performing poorly, you can consider moving your operating system to a USB drive, which can help improve the speed and performance of your computer. This is a viable option if you have a compatible USB drive and can boot from it.
- Considering Windows' instability, it's a good idea to keep a backup copy of your system intact, which can be accessed via a USB device. This way, if your hard drive fails or system errors arise, you can continue to work from the backup, minimizing downtime and ensuring business continuity.
You can clone your Windows 11/10 installation to a USB drive for convenience, regardless of your current situation. To do this successfully, follow the steps outlined in the article to learn how to clone Windows to a USB drive.
How to move installed Windows to USB drive
To clone Windows to a USB drive, you'll need to determine the purpose behind doing so, as this will dictate the best approach. If you're looking to create a bootable Windows installation on the USB drive for troubleshooting or repair purposes, you'll likely need to use a tool like Rufus or a similar software.
▶ In Windows 10 Enterprise/Education, there's a feature called Windows To Go that allows you to create a portable OS that can be booted from a USB-connected external drive and accessed on multiple computers.
Windows To Go, a feature that allowed users to run a full version of Windows from a USB drive, has been removed from Windows 10 since version 2004. This was due to its inability to support feature updates and the fact that the specific type of USB it required is no longer widely supported by many OEMs.
If you're running an older version of Windows 10, you can create a Windows To Go workspace using this Microsoft tutorial. For newer Windows 11 OS, use the indows To Go Creator.Windows To Go Creator.
▶▶ If you want to clone Windows to a USB drive as a backup or for single computer use, consider using specialized disk clone software, which is easier and less restrictive, supporting all Windows OS.
You can choose to clone the entire disk or just the operating system to the USB, giving you the flexibility to decide how much data to transfer.
Preparations before cloning Windows 10/11 to USB
- Install disk cloning software
I will be using Qiling Disk Master Professional, a software that offers several significant advantages.
▪ This software has a powerful feature called Disk Clone that allows users to migrate data and operating system between disks of different sizes. It enables users to clone a larger drive to a smaller drive, or clone a solid-state drive to a larger external hard drive.
▪ To clone only the operating system to a USB drive and keep other data partitions on the source disk, you can utilize the System Clone feature. This allows you to transfer the operating system to the USB drive while leaving the other data partitions intact on the original disk.
▪ This software supports a wide range of devices, including laptops and desktops running various Windows versions, as well as USB devices with different speeds. It's easy to use, requiring no special technical knowledge.
If the target disk is an external solid state drive, using the SSD Alignment feature can improve its reading and writing speed and prolong its life span.
Install the software on your computer to use it further.
- Delete unwanted files and apps
Before cloning, it's recommended to clean up the source disk.
- Connect the USB drive
Before cloning your hard drive, ensure that your USB flash drive or external hard drive has sufficient space and can be detected normally. Note that the cloning process will overwrite the USB, so it's a good idea to back up any important files on the USB first using Qiling Disk Master's "File Backup" feature. This will prevent any data loss during the cloning process.
- Compatibility issue
Qiling Disk Master supports cloning both MBR and GPT partition styles, allowing for various combinations such as cloning MBR to MBR or GPT, or GPT to GPT or MBR. To ensure compatibility, the computer's boot mode must match the partition style of the USB drive, with Legacy BIOS required for MBR and UEFI for GPT.
This software is compatible with all Windows Client OS, including Windows 11, 10, 8.1/8, 7, Vista, XP, and also works with Windows Server.
Tutorial: Clone Windows 10/11 to USB drive and make it bootable
If your USB drive is large enough, you can use Disk Clone to copy your entire hard drive, including the operating system. However, if your USB drive has limited space or you only want to clone the operating system, use System Clone instead.
To clone a Windows 10 disk, follow these steps: First, ensure you have a compatible external hard drive or USB drive with enough free space to hold the cloned disk. Next, download and install a reliable disk cloning software like Acronis True Image or EaseUS Todo Backup.
How to clone system disk to USB drive:
1. Launch the software, go to the Tools tab and choose Disk Clone.
2. Select the source disk with Windows installed, and specify the connected USB drive as the destination, then click Next.
To clone Windows from a dynamic disk, use the System Clone feature.
3. Click Proceed and wait for it to complete.
👉 Helpful features for cloning:
SSD Alignment: Accelerate the reading and writing speed or the target SSD.
Sector By Sector Clone: Copy all sectors, including unused and bad sectors, to a larger or equal-sized drive.
Edit Partitions: Adjust partition size and drive letter, allocate unused space of the target disk.
👉 If you're experiencing issues with your phone's battery life, overheating, or slow performance, using the last feature mentioned can help resolve these problems completely.
#1: The cloned drive not show full capacity.
When cloning a disk, all software makes an exact copy of the source disk, resulting in the clone drive not showing its full capacity. If the target disk is larger, try the following 3 options in "Edit Partitions" to resolve this issue.
- Copy without resizing partitions: It will not resize the partition size.
- Add unused space to all partitions: To reallocate unused space to each partition of the target disk, you can use the `resize2fs` command in Linux. This command allows you to resize the file system of a mounted file system.
- Manually adjust partition size: Extend unallocated space to any partition on the destination disk you want, if needed.
#2: The cloned drive not bootable after cloning.
The main reason for this issue is that the cloned drive's boot mode is not compatible with the original drive, which can be due to cloning a MBR disk to a GPT drive or vice versa, and the original drive's boot mode needs to be changed to match the cloned drive.
If you don't want to change the boot mode, you can change the partition style of your target drive in advance by clicking "Edit Partitions" and checking the "Convert the destination disk from..." option, which will make the partition style of your target disk the same as your source drive.
Once the cloning is complete, restart your PC, enter the BIOS settings by pressing the specific button, set the USB drive as the first boot option, save the changes and exit. This will allow your PC to boot from the USB drive.
📑Tips:
- To clone a USB bootable drive, select the source and target disk accordingly.
- The device also features a Disk Wipe function, allowing users to securely erase the hard drive or a USB drive when necessary.
Conclusion
Cloning Windows to a USB drive and booting from it is a relatively straightforward process. To achieve this, you'll need a reliable disk clone software, such as Qiling Disk Master, which allows you to clone a disk or just the operating system to another internal or USB drive, making the process surprisingly simple.
You can use the software to schedule automatic backups to protect important data or OS, and also reate a bootable media to troubleshoot Windows errors even when the computer won't start, allowing you to restore the system to an earlier state.create a bootable media to troubleshoot Windows errors even when the computer won't start, allowing you to restore the system to an earlier state.
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