Summary :

Cloning Software: There are many cloning software utilities available for purchase or you may use the Acronis True Image WD Edition Software. You will need at least one WD-branded or SanDisk-branded HDD or SSD as source drive or destination drive for this program to perform cloning. If you clone a disk with Windows to an external USB hard drive, you might not be able to boot from it. We recommend cloning to an internal SSD or HDD instead. It is recommended not to format the source hard disk after the cloning until you are sure that the cloned target disk boots fine. Cloning copies the complete contents of one drive—the files, the partition tables and the master boot record—to another: a simple, direct duplicate. Imaging copies all of that to a single. Regular cloning is one thing, but there are a couple of considerations to take into account when mirroring your drive to a solid-state drive. Drive migration is basically just cloning, or in other words, drive-to-drive imaging. And while copying your documents and other files is easy enough, moving around your system files can be off-putting. Using in-built Solution. Let’s kick things off by looking at the built-in Windows solution.

Cloned hard drive wont boot? Here are the normal fix to get your computer bootable again. Also, if the fix does not help, you are able to get 2 more alternative programs of MiniTool that can guide you through a successful disk cloning process and the cloned hard drive is bootable.

There are times that you may need to clone a hard drive. For instance, you want to upgrade HDD to SSD for better performance; you need to clone hard drive to a larger one to save more files; you have got multiple computers with the same configurations to install, you just want to make a disk backup, etc.

However, when browsing the internet, we found that many users are troubled by one thing: cloned hard drive won't boot. Here is a live example from Tomsguide:

'So I've bought a new 128GB Samsung 750 EVO SSD to upgrade my current laptop with. I downloaded Macrium, put my old HDD into a dock followed by the SSD and cloned it. 2 hours later it said clone successful - so I put the SSD into my laptop and the BIOS appears but it doesn't boot straight to Windows 10. Is there further step I need to take in order for it to load windows 10 on my laptop?'

Luckily in this post, we are to share with you how to make cloned drive bootable Windows 10/8.1/7.

Common Fixes for Cloned Hard Drive Won't Boot

When the cloned drive will not boot, you need to do the following checks in general. Please go through all of them first and then try the one that fits your situation best.

1) Make sure you are cloning the whole system instead of cloning the C partition only. There is a high possibility that you have a system reserved partition or EFI system partition located on your system disk. When the cloned drive won't boot Windows 10, please make sure you did clone the intact system instead of partition only.

2) Remove other externally connected bootable devices like USB boot drive and CD/DVD bootable disc.

3) Go to BIOS utility and make sure the new target disk is recognized and is set as the default boot disk.

4) As you may know, some software allows you to clone MBR to GPT disk without disk conversion. However, the computer is not using the correct boot mode is one of the reasons why cloned SSD won't boot Windows 7/10. If your target drive is a GPT disk, make sure the UEFI boot mode is enabled, and if it is an MBR disk, then set it to Legacy boot mode.

5) If your computer does not support UEFI boot mode, the target disk cannot employ the UEFI boot mode. In this case, you need to do a GPT to MBR conversion before you can boot from the cloned drive.

6) The target disk should be internally connected to your computer via IDE/SATA/M.2/PCIe instead of externally connected via USB.

7) If all goes well, boot your computer from the installation media and run the following commands in the Command Prompt and then restart your PC.

• bootrec /fixmbr
• bootrec /fixboot
• bootrec /scanos
• bootrec /rebuildbcd

However, if all in vain and the cloned drive won't boot still, you might need to ask for help from another reliable software. Just keep reading.

Use Reliable Hard Drive Cloning Software

As many users reported that their cloned drive won't boot despite that they used hard drive cloning software. For these considerations, we suggest using MiniTool software to have a try.

MiniTool has been committed to driving the innovation providing professional solutions for disk/partition management, backup & restore, and data recovery. To clone system hard drive in Windows 10/8/7 and make the target drive bootable, two utilities are recommended.

Just keep reading and choose the one better fits your needs.

Case 1: To Clone Hard Drive and Use It on the Same Computer

If you want to upgrade laptop's HDD to SSD or a larger hard drive, use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition to help you. Generally speaking, it is a professional disk cloning software that is frequently used to clone hard drive for hard drive upgrade and disk backup. When you have used it to clone a live system disk, the target disk is bootable.

Get the free hard drive cloning software by hitting the button below.

Before you do:

Connect the target hard drive/SSD to your PC (for laptop users, a USB to SATA adaptor is necessary), go to Windows Explorer and check if there are important files saved on this drive. If so, get them backed up or transfer them to a safe location.

Then it is time to make cloned drive bootable Windows 10 using this free partition manager (also helps users running Windows 7/8/8.1).

Step 1. Run MiniTool Partition Wizard to get the main interface. Then select the current system disk and choose Copy Disk from the left action panel.

Step 2. In the pop-up window, you will be asked to choose a target disk. Here select the hard drive you have just prepared and click Next to go on. Note that all data (if there is any) on this disk will be destroyed. Once you have made the backup in advance, you can click Yes to continue.

Step 3. Then review the changes to be made on the target disk. Or, if you are not satisfied with the partition layout, make your own changes.

• Fit partitions to entire disk: this is the default copy option and will occupy all the disk space according to the original partition sizes.
• Copy partitions without resize: keep the original partition size on the target disk. Only works when the target disk is large enough to hold all the partitions located on the source disk.
• Align partitions to 1MB: improve performance for advanced format disk & SSD. Appears when you are cloning an MBR disk.
• Use GUID Partition Table for the target disk: turn the target disk to GPT disk. A paid feature if you are copying the system MBR disk to GPT. (Appears when you are cloning an MBR disk. Go to the official online store to get the Pro Edition).

Step 4. View the tip on how to boot from the target disk and click Finish.

Step 5. In the disk map area, you can preview the changes that will take effect on the target disk. Finally, don't forget to press Apply on the toolbar. This operation will bring a system reboot. Please save your files and close all the running programs.

When MiniTool Partition Wizard completes, use the target hard drive/SSD to replace the original system disk. Then go to BIOS setup and boot your computer from the target drive. Your computer should be normally booted now.

The simple guide here:

1. Create a bootable MiniTool Partition Wizard using the Bootable Media feature.
2. When you see the main interface of MiniTool Partition Wizard, repeat the process of disk copy explained above.

Case 2: To Clone Hard Drive and Use It on Dissimilar Hardware

Dissimilar hardware is the main reason that is responsible for cloned drive will not boot. In such case, the best choice here is to use MiniTool ShadowMaker. Some of you might have already known that MiniTool ShadowMaker is professional Windows backup software that is most frequently used to create scheduled system backup, disk backup, and file backup.

In fact, MiniTool ShadowMaker also works well when it comes to cloning system disk and makes it bootable on computers with dissimilar hardware. This feature is available in the paid editions like MiniTool ShadowMaker Pro. However, you do have the chance to complete this task by using the 30-day free trial edition.

Get this hard drive cloning software by pressing the button below:

Step 1. Run this Windows disk cloning software. When you are asked to choose a computer to manage, you just need to select This Computer to connect.

Step 2. When you are in the main interface of MiniTool ShadowMaker, go to Tools and choose Clone Disk.

Step 3. Next, you need to enter the Source tab to choose the system disk and then enter the Destination tab to select the target disk. When you click OK to continue, you will be prompted that data on the target disk will be destroyed. Click Yes to continue.

Step 4. The copy process begins. You will be able to see the elapsed time, remaining time as well as the progress bar.

Step 5. Once the disk copy completes, you will see the following long information. Simply put, now your source disk and target disk have the same signature. Windows will mark one as offline to avoid booting from the wrong disk. But since you are going to use the targeted disk to another computer, you just need to shut down PC and then remove the target disk.

Now it is time to create a bootable media to get the rest steps. Here are the tutorials that will lead you through all the steps easily.

Before you do:

Also, follow the universal guidance above to create a bootable media of MiniTool ShadowMaker, put the target disk to the computer that has dissimilar hardware and use MiniTool ShadowMaker Bootable to boot that PC.

Step 1. Also, go to Tools but choose Universal Restore this time.

Step 2. Then this tool will automatically detect the operating system installed on the disk. At this time you can click the Restore button directly or you can add some drivers to the system before you click Restore.

Step 3. When you see a green mark appear on the operating system, you can exit MiniTool Universal Restore.

Now remove MiniTool ShadowMaker Bootable media and try to boot your PC from the target disk. Amazing! You get a bootable operating system!

The Worst Situation

If you have tried all the solutions here but the cloned drive won't boot Windows 10/8/7, you may have to do a clean install. As to how to install Windows, you can read our previous guide How to Install Windows 10 on a New Hard Drive (with Pictures).

Summary

Reading here, we believe you have learned the way to fix cloned drive won't boot issue as well as learned the best disk cloning software that helps clone hard drive easily. Now it is your turn to try these solutions out if your cloned drive won't boot.

If you have come across some other suggestions, welcome to leave it in the comment zone. For any questions towards using MiniTool software, don't hesitate to contact us by sending an email to [email protected] with your issue stated clearly.

Nov 23, 2020 • Filed to: Take Data Backup • Proven solutions

Q: How to clone a bootable USB?

'Friends, I have a bootable USB flash drive that has Windows 7 installed on it. Now, I want to copy it to another flash drive so that I can have a backup for future use. Can I use file explorer merely to copy and paste it? Do you know any better solution to clone bootable USB?'

There is the widespread use of USB flash drives or USB hard disks because of the convenience they offer. They are both compact and portable. Most users prefer saving their files and data to USB flash drives or USB hard disks. But you can never know when your USB drive may be rendered unrecognizable by any computer system. It can mean an irreversible data loss. So you must keep the files and data on your USB drive safe.

So how can you protect your data? Most users will think of taking a backup of their USB drives. It will involve copying all the files on the disk onto some other storage devices. This copying process is going to take time and can be inconvenient.

You can find a more straightforward method to protect all your data. It is to clone bootable USB to some other device.

Part 1: What Is a Bootable USB Drive?

A bootable USB drive will have all the instructions required for the computer bootloader to load a wide range of assets for running the OS.

Usually, you will want to clone bootable USB to be used as an OS installer. The system will get the instructions to boot into the installer. The installer then unpacks a large-sized compressed file that contains the operating system’s resources. On the other hand, if an OS is installed on a different USB drive, it can also be classified as a bootable USB. However, it will be a bootable USB for a full-fledged OS.

So a bootable USB drive can be compared to an installation disc that comes from a PC manufacturer. The drive can be used to boot your system and troubleshoot it if there is any disaster or crash. All it will require is little settings change for boot priority from within BIOS.

Most of the modern systems continue to have the USB drive technology preserved in them. Many systems don’t have an optical drive. That is why it is somehow more sensible to clone a bootable USB drive instead of considering any other bootable option.

Part 2: Can You Just Copy and Paste the Files?

Traditionally, USB drives have been used for storing and moving personal data. So, most users continue to use the method of Copy/Paste for transferring files between USB drives.

You can also use it for copying personal files and folders to a different USB drive. If a USB drive has a bootable partition, along with its master boot record (MBR) and slack space, then you cannot think of using the drag-and-drop function to move it to another flash drive.

It will be required to follow the proper steps to clone a bootable USB drive. So, it is not just possible to copy-paste the files from a bootable drive.

Part 3: What Are the Reasons to Clone USB Bootable Drive?

As mentioned above, USB drives are popular because they offer exceptional convenience in terms of data storage. It makes it easy to transfer data from a computer system to another or between different USB flash drives.

However, that is not everything that USB drives are used for. They can also be used as bootable devices to deal with disaster recovery. You can clone bootable USB Windows 10 as a method of backup.

Drive Clone Bootable Usb

A bootable USB drive allows the computer hardware to rely on a USB storage stick to run all the vital system booting files and data. There are many vital reasons why you would want to clone USB flash drive bootable. Some of the most important reasons are as follows:

• Duplication of the bootable USB drive to share the same system booting data and files with other users.
• Upgrade the original bootable USB stick to the one with more space because of space consumption.
• Create a backup of your existing bootable USB drive to protect against a loss.

It is essential to understand that the process to clone a bootable USB flash drive is not just about copy-paste from a bootable USB drive to another USB stick. If you do such a copy-paste, then it is going to make the operating system unbootable, or the program can become corrupt. So, it is recommended to use a specialized USB clone tool that will ensure safety, speed, and reliable booting.

Part 4: How to Clone USB Bootable Drive in Windows Quickly?

Windows don’t provide you much flexibility. It means that there is no feature to clone bootable USB windows 10. That is why you will need a third-party program for cloning a bootable USB drive. However, you have so many cloning tools to choose from, which can make it challenging to make the right choice.

Since it is required to upgrade the USB drive, the right cloning program should allow more features than sector by sector clothing technique. Also, it should have an intelligent cloning feature that skips any bad sectors on the USB drive. It will help ensure that the cloning is successful even when there is any little damage to the USB drive. And this is where AOMEI Backupper Professional makes the right choice as an expert-recommended USB clone tool.

This tool allows you to clone a bootable USB drive to another USB stick, hard drive, or SSD drive using the Disk Clone function. When cloning, every partition on the USB drive will get cloned to the new drive. It will be done using a few clicks and will include the boot and data drive partitions. Besides, the tool also allows you to determine if you want to maintain the same layout or make changes to the partition size on the target disk. It can be resolved before the cloning process begins.

Drive Clone Bootable Usb

Why Use AOMEI Backupper?

AOMEI Backupper is a comprehensive backup software for Windows. It can be used not just to clone bootable USB Windows 10, but also to sync, backup, and restore data as per your needs. The Disk Clone feature allows you to clone a hard drive from a bootable USB drive.

Some of its key features and benefits are as follows:

• Ease-of-Use: You don’t have to be a tech-savvy user to use this USB clone tool. Its simple user interface allows you to easily clone a hard drive from a bootable USB drive by following the simple steps.
• Intelligent Cloning: You can work by only copying the useful components of the source to the new hard drive. It means that it can help accommodate even for hard drives that are smaller in size. This feature will allow you to clone old hard drive to your newer SSD, which tend to be lower in size.
• Sector-by-Sector Cloning: You can either carry out sector-by-sector cloning or comprehensive cloning. If the hard drive has more than the required space, you can choose a complete clone bootable USB flash drive.
• Free: The cloning feature is free to use if you are using it for personal purposes.

So how can you use AOMEI Backupper? It will be required to start by downloading the software on your Windows system. It is compatible with Windows XP, 7, 8, and 10. Once downloaded, you should follow the steps given below.

Steps to Clone USB Bootable Drive in Windows

So how to clone a USB bootable drive? The different steps involved are as follows:

Step 1: Connect the USB Drive

Boot your computer system in the usual way. Now, plug in the bootable USB drive and the destination disk. Ensure that Windows detects both the drives.

Step 2: Install the Software

Once you have downloaded AOMEI Backupper, install it, and run the program. Select the option 'clone' and then 'disk clone.'

Step 3: Select the Drive

Choose the bootable USB flash drive.

Step 4: Select the Destination Drive

Choose the destination drive where you want to clone a bootable USB flash drive. This destination drive could be a hard drive or some other USB drive.

Step 5: Make Changes to Partitions (Optional)

If you want to make changes to the partition size, click on the option 'Edit partitions on the destination disk.' If the destination drive is an SSD, you should check the button against ‘Align partitions to optimize for SSD.’ This will help in getting the best possible performance. Once configured, click on the option ‘start clone.’

Tips:

Drive Clone Bootable Drive

• Click on the option ‘Edit Partitions’ to make changes to the partition size.
• Select the option ‘Sector by sector clone’ if you intend to maintain the old partition layout on the new hard drive.
• Check the box against ‘SSD Alignment’ when the destination is an SSD. It helps increase the read-write speed of the SSD.

Conclusion:

There is no option in Windows to clone a bootable USB drive. You can find several third-party disk cloning tools. They are designed for disk copying and disk cloning.

Create Bootable Hard Drive Clone

But AOMEI Backupper allows you to clone bootable USB flash drive in Windows 7, 8, and 10 with just a few clicks. Moreover, it can also allow you to clone GPT disk / dynamic disk to MBR disk. You can also use it when the target disk has lesser space than the original drive.

You may use AOMEI Backupper not just to clone bootable USB, but also for USB image backup. It can also be used to swiftly create backups of bootable USB drives. This professional backup/restore tool has many functions. It can be configured to schedule automatic Windows backups. Whenever there is a system crash or disaster, it allows you to restore the system to the previous status.

So AOMEI Backupper Professional is a complete program that allows cloning, backup, restore, and more.

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