How to Clone USB Drives

It is much easier to clone and transfer the contents of a USB drive than it is a hard drive. While cloning and transferring hard drive data will require you to spend much of your time installing a new hard disk into a tight, awkward space, installing an extra USB drive takes nothing more than plugging the drive into the USB port.

How you clone USB drives depends largely on the contents of that drive. If you are using the drive as a bootable disk or have any software installed to it, you will need to use special software to copy the drive. In most other cases, however, you can use Windows Explorer to perform the entire cloning process..
1.
Step 1

Plug in both USB drives to your computer. If you do not have enough slots available, you will need to connect a USB hub, an external device containing multiple USB ports. Press "Shift" before plugging in the USB drive to be copied; this will disable autoplay. Sometimes certain start-up software will prevent the files from being copied; disabling autoplay will prevent this.
2.
Step 2

If the USB flash drive is a bootable disk and you want to transfer that capability over to the new flash drive, download, install and use a cloning software such as Acronis True Image. Otherwise, right-click "Start" and click "Explore" to open Windows Explorer. Locate the USB drive you want to copy files from, as well as the USB drive you want to copy files to.
3.
Step 3

Open the USB drive you want to clone. Click the first file or folder, then, holding "Shift," scroll down through the list files using either the down arrow or page down ("PGDN") functions on your keyboard. Make sure all files and folders are selected, then press "CTRL" and "C."
4.
Step 4

Switch to the USB drive you want to copy the files to. Press "CTRL" and "P." The copied files will populate. The transfer process may take several minutes.