Copy Bootable USB to Another USB with Boot Files free

Nowdays, there are many computer users who hold more than one USB drive, and use them to store important files or transfer data to another storage. In addition, increasing users use it to create bootable USB to start the computers when it refuses or troubleshoot computer in trouble. But this kind of storage is vulnerable, so it's necessary to copy bootable USB to USB with boot files from time to time. Here are an example from the superuser forum.

"I thought it's kind of a dumb question but a search with Google seems to indicate that it is not even possible to copy/paste data on a bootable drive to another USB? But even if we were able to copy it, why should it not work? (that is creating a duplicate bootable drive). Then, how do I copy bootable USB drive to another USB free?"

Don't worry about too much, and this is to resolve this problem and show you how to copy USB to USB with boot files safely in simple steps. Please continue to read this article, there may be something you want to know. Then, let's have a glance at this article.

• What does USB flash drives with boot files mean?

• Why do you need to copy bootable USB to USB?

• Best free bootable USB clone tool

• How to easily copy USB to USB with boot files?

• Summary

What does USB flash drives with boot files mean?

USB (short for Universal Serial Bushas) flash drive or USB hard drive become one of the most popular storage devices because of its small size, light weight and convenient carrying. Also, it's cheaper and has longer lifespan as it has no fragile moving parts. 

Therefore, users not only use it for data storage and data transfer, but also use it as bootable devices, that is, a USB flash drive with boot files, also known as bootable USB. A bootable USB flash drive is a replacement of CD/DVD installation disc provided by computer manualfacturer, you can use it to reinstall Windows of a computer or troubleshoot computer in the event of a disaster. You need to change the boot priority to USB in BIOS menu when you plug it into your computer.

Why do you need to copy bootable USB to USB?

Bootable USB containing all the necesary files for Windows to start, so it can rescue your computer from disaster. Now you know how important bootable USB drives are. Therefore, it's necesary to copy USB to USB with boot files sometimes and there are four main reasons to do so.

• Replace old bootable USB to a new one. With lots of times plug in and plug out, the flash drive is vulnerable and likely to go wrong, so finnaly you may replace it. 

• Upgrade smaller bootable USB drive to a large one because of the insufficient space caused by long period of usage.

• Duplicate bootable USB drives in case you lose it oneday. USB drives are very small, so they are easy to lose. Please backup bootable USB just in case.

• Share the same operating system with others by duplicating the bootable USB stick with boot files.

Considering the particularity of bootable USB drives, users can’t directly take the traditional copy-paste method to copy a bootable USB drive to another USB drive, which is time consuming and may lead to program corrupted or OS unbootable. In contrast, cloning bootable USB is faster and safer. Most of all, the cloned USB drive will remain bootable.

Best free bootable USB clone tool

It's disappointed that Windows doesn’t offer you a direct way to clone bootable USB drives. But you still can use the best free bootable USB clone tool AOMEI Backupper Standard to copy bootable USB to another USB in Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista. Thanks to its intuitive interface, the cloning process can be completed easily and quickly. 

This software supports disk clone and partition clone, the previous one is used to clone bootable USB to USB with everything on it. It supports cloning all branded USB, such as, Patriot Supersonic Rage, Kingston DataTraveler, SanDisk Extreme, PNY Turbo, Samsung T3 SSD USB flash drive etc. Also, you can use it to replace laptop HDD with SSD, clone dell hard drive to SSD, clone SSD to larger SSD etc.

In addition, this software still offers users many useful features to make the cloning process simple and efficient, such as, sector by sector clone to make an exact copy of your bootable USB drive including hidden or protected data, master boot record and so on.

How to safely copy USB to USB with boot files?

Here take Windows 10 as an example to show you how to clone bootable USB to another USB in Windows 10 effortlessly. Detailed steps are below. 

Step 1. Insert two USB drives to your computer via USB ports, and make sure they can be detected by Windows. Then, download and install the best free USB clone tool - AOMEI Backupper Standard. 

Step 2. Launch this software and then you will see its deep-blue interface. Click Clone and Disk Clone subsequently.

Step 3. Select the bootable USB drive (here is Disk 1) as the source disk. Then click Next.

Step 4. Select the destination disk (here is Disk 2) that you want to clone the bootable USB drive to. Then click Next.

Please note that the destination disk will be overwritten after cloning. If there is any data on it, don't forget to perform a disk backup in advance. 

Step 5. Then, you will see the operation summary. Confirm your operations and then click Start Clone to copy bootable USB to another USB free.

Tips:
• By default, this software will only clone the used sectors. If you want to clone all sectors whether it's used or not, please tick the checkbox before "Sector by sector clone." Remember that the target disk must be equal to or larger than the source disk.
• If you are currently cloning USB to a large one, it's suggested to adjust partition size of the target USB with "Edit Partitions (supported by AOMEI Backupper Professional)". And you don't need to worry about cloned hard drive show wrong size issue after cloning.
• If your USB drive is an SSD, you can use "SSD Alignment" to reach its peak performance. It will be much faster than before.
• As for the old bootable USB drive, you can keep it as a backup storage to store important data or reformat it for other purposes.

Summary

That's all for how to copy USB to USB with boot files? You could use the best free USB clone tool - AOMEI Backupper Standard. With it, the entire process can be finished in a very short time. Also, you can enjoy these useful features, such as, "Sector by setcor clone", "Edit Partitions" and "SSD Alignment".  Moreover, you can use it to create bootable media, which can be used to start all the Windows operating system, including Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista.

In adidtion, this software still a free backup and restore software to safeguard your computer and data on it by its full solutions, including system backup, disk backup, partition backup, file backup, incremental & differential backup, daily/weekly/monthly schedule backup, system restore, and so on. You can download it to have a try right now.