By Ivy / Last update November 1, 2022

Why clone USB drive to SSD?

USB drives are widely used to store important files and even boot files for its portability. But the data stored in USB is not 100% safe, you may still want to make a backup in case of data loss or USB  failure.

For files like photos, music, documents and videos, you can copy & paste them directly. But if it's a USB booable drive, or you've stored some applications on the USB flash drive/hard drive, you may need to copy it via disk clone.

Specifically, cloning bootable USB drive to SSD or HDD will create an exact copy of all the contents including boot files and apps. If you clone a USB drive with Windows installed to SSD, you can also boot from the SSD after cloning.

Then, how to clone USB drive to SSD in Windows 11/10/8/7?

Best USB clone software – AOMEI Backupper

When it comes to clone partition or hard drive, it is better to turn to third-party tool. As an example, the freeware AOMEI Backupper Standard owns a powerful Disk Clone feature to clone USB stick or USB hard drive to SSD, HDD as well as another USB drive.

If the USB drive is smaller than target SSD, that's okay because AOMEI Backupper enables you to clone USB to larger SSD, and you can perform sector-by-sector clone to copy all the sectors bit by bit.

If the target SSD is smaller, the intelligent cloning technology also allows you to clone larger drive to smaller drive as long as it's large enough to hold all the used sectors.

For the target SSD, there's also an alignment option to improve its performance and prolong its life span.

Download the clone software to have a try: 

Download Freeware Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Note: The Standard edition supports cloning all the data disks. If you want to clone bootable USB to another one, please upgrade to Professional edition.

How to clone USB drive to SSD or HDD via AOMEI Backupper

1. Plug in the USB drive and make sure the SSD is connected properly. Then install and launch AOMEI Backupper. All existing partitions on destination disk will be overwritten, so it's suggested to backup important files beforehand.

2. Go to Clone tab and choose Disk Clone to clone the entire USB drive.

Disk Clone

3. Select the USB drive as the source disk, then select the SSD as the destination disk. Click Next to continue.

Select Source USB Drive

4. Check SSD Alignment to accelerate the SSD's writing & reading speed. Then, click Start Clone and wait for the process to complete.

You can tick Sector By Sector Clone to copy all the sectors, including the blank or bad sectors. It requires the target disk to be larger or equally sized.
For a larger target disk, you can also use Edit Partitions to resize partitions and assign unallocated space. Note that it will make the Sector by Sector Clone option unavailable.

Start Clone USB

Tips:

Summary

Generally speaking, clone USB drive either to SSD, hard drive or another USB, the vital part is choosing the right cloning software. With AOMEI Backupper, the entire clone process could be done in four steps. As a matter of fact, this cloning software is a great USB image tool as well since it is also a backup solution.