Bootable USB drives are useful when you cannot boot into advanced repair mode from Windows or when you cannot access Windows at all. However, like all drives, USB drives are known to stop working all of a sudden. You can see it as unrecognized hardware when connected to a computer. It is therefore a good idea to create a copy or to clone the bootable USB key, in particular by creating an image in order to be able to reuse it.
How to copy or clone a bootable USB key
If you are wondering why copying files or a bootable USB drive will not work, then the answer is that copying will not make the drive bootable. Windows starts the computer, it searches for an available entry point in the MBR or GPT. A simple copy does not create this MBR or GPT.
Here is the list of free tools you can use to copy or clone a bootable USB drive.
- USB image
- EaseUS Todo Backup
- Clonezilla.
This software may differ in functionality, but it will create a replica of the thumb drive and, in some cases, partitions. In addition, some applications do not detect USB drives if you connect them after launching the software. If so, you may need to update or relaunch the software to identify it.
1) USB image: create multiple copies of USB key
The most powerful of the lot, this free tool can simultaneously clone or copy to several USB flash drives. When cloning a USB drive, it copies to the binary level so that if you have a 2 GB source and an 8 GB destination, the destination will not be able to use the rest of the space. This is a drawback, and the developer therefore recommends using similar storage disks. You can also burn ISO files directly to multiple discs.
- Open the app and you need to configure or select from three options
- USB flash drives
- action
- Select an image or select a location to save the image
- In our case, select the USB drive, then choose to create an image from the USB drive and select a location to save the image.
- Click create, and it will copy or clone the bootable USB drive to the last bit.
If at any time you want to delete all content, you can use the Zero function or format the player to reclaim space. The Zero function writes “0” on each bit of the reader. This is handy if you don't want anyone to recover data from the disk.
Note: You can also burn ISO images from CD to USB even if the format of CD or DVD drives is different. Previously, this was a problem due to the difference in the file system.
Download from OSForensics. It is a portable application. So you just need to extract and start using it.
2) EaseUS Todo backup
Another free backup software from a professional company that has been investing for a long time in backup and restore solutions. Todo Backup is free software that can create an image of USB sticks and hard drive partitions. You can use the image to produce more copies. In the case of the bootable USB key, it creates an exact copy. You can therefore use them to start a computer and troubleshoot if necessary.
- Connect the USB drive you wish to clone.
- Download, install and launch the software. Then go to the Clone option. You can identify yourself by finding the icon of the two files on the left.
- It will reveal a list of hard drives, USB keys connected to the system.
- Select the bootable USB drive, then click the Next button
- The next screen allows you to choose a target device. It is useful if you want to immediately create another copy of the player.
- Since it will copy bit by bit, the new USB drive will also be a bootable USB drive.
Download from EaseUS.
3) Minitool Partition Free
Minitool Partition offers a free version of their software that can copy USB keys. Launch the software and look for the "Copy Disc" option, which can also be used for USB drives or partitions on your hard drive.
- Select the bootable source USB flash drive as the source.
- Right click and select Copy, or you can click the Disc Copy Wizard to guide you through the process.
- Then you need to choose the target drive, which will become to clone or copy the source.
- In the last screen, you will have to choose from a few options
- Adjust the partition across the entire player or copy partitions without resizing
- Decide on the partition size of the destination drive.
- There are few options like aligning the partition or using GUID tables. You can ignore them for this case.
- Click Apply to start the cloning process.
Download from MinitTool Home page (Look for the free download of MiniTool Partition Wizard).
I hope these tools were easy to use and you have found the one that is right for you.