Bootable USB Cloning software?

andybird123 · 13 Dec 2021 at 10:21

Hi guys,
I have a new 2TB NVME for my PC, I have 2 M.2 slots, I also have 2 other PC's with one M.2 slots
I want to move my current 512GB hard drives to the 2 other machines, I want to image the current windows build on each drive to a new one and put the larger drive back in their respective machine.

For mine this is easy as I can remove one of the 512's, clone the windows partition on to the 2TB and then swap them over to boot from the 2TB.

But for the other 2 machines the only way I can figure is to boot from the current small disk inserted in to my main PC, which would be less than ideal, as windows would mess itself about booting from a new PC.

Does anyone know any USB bootable cloning software?
Google is defeating me by giving me lots of software for cloning USB drives, not booting from a USB drive to clone SSD's.

Armageus · 13 Dec 2021 at 10:50

Macrium Reflect Free Edition will do what you want

andybird123 · 13 Dec 2021 at 11:14

Armageus said:
Macrium Reflect Free Edition will do what you want

thanks! I did look at their website but it didn't mention bootable USB, but I will go and have a another look

bremen1874 · 13 Dec 2021 at 11:55

Once it's installed you'll have the option to create bootable recovery media.

Glanza · 13 Dec 2021 at 12:33

Acronis can do USB boot for cloning

Mcnumpty2323 · 14 Dec 2021 at 00:29

Yeah macrium can make a usb
It can also be added to the boot menu as well
So can choose it as the pc starts
Without having to find the usb you made lol
It then can boot into windows re/pe with no usb needed
I tend to use it both ways
And can be run inside windows too

andybird123 · 14 Dec 2021 at 08:31

thanks guys, is all sorted

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Yeah macrium can make a usb
It can also be added to the boot menu as well
So can choose it as the pc starts
Without having to find the usb you made lol
It then can boot into windows re/pe with no usb needed
I tend to use it both ways
And can be run inside windows too

yeah, I specifically needed something I could boot from USB, as my PC is the only one that has 2 M.2 slots and I had 3 PC's I was upgrading NVME drive on, I didn't want to risk booting a drive on my PC and windows then having a hissy fit when I put them back in their respective PC, so I was swapping about 5 drives and USB boot was the quickest way to achieve that

Snapshot · 14 Dec 2021 at 11:24

Glanza said:
Acronis can do USB boot for cloning

It certainly can but I see too many reports of unfixed bugs in the later versions to continue recommending it.

Mcnumpty2323 · 14 Dec 2021 at 14:22

andybird123 said:
thanks guys, is all sorted

yeah, I specifically needed something I could boot from USB, as my PC is the only one that has 2 M.2 slots and I had 3 PC's I was upgrading NVME drive on, I didn't want to risk booting a drive on my PC and windows then having a hissy fit when I put them back in their respective PC, so I was swapping about 5 drives and USB boot was the quickest way to achieve that

Another option would be to image with macrium
Then deploy the image to other PC's
With the bootable USB
Assuming you have an external or flash drive
Big enough to take the image file
Used macrium for more years than I remember
Always found it better than acronis have had loads
Of issues with acronis

andybird123 · 14 Dec 2021 at 14:55

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Assuming you have an external or flash drive

not anywhere large enough, no

Mcnumpty2323 · 14 Dec 2021 at 15:06

andybird123 said:
not anywhere large enough, no

If it's not something you do often
Probably not worth worrying about
But I mess around with stuff a lot lol
So got a 1tb Samsung t7 1GBs usb c portable
Full of macrium images for disaster recovery
Not the cheapest option but with big image files
You want speed

andybird123 · 14 Dec 2021 at 15:31

i havent needed a recovery image in the last 10 years at home, this was purely because of upgrading to bigger m.2 drives

Mcnumpty2323 · 14 Dec 2021 at 15:45

andybird123 said:
i havent needed a recovery image in the last 10 years at home, this was purely because of upgrading to bigger m.2 drives

I certainly can't say the same :cry:

Though most of my recoveries were
Self inflicted
By messing around with stuff I shouldn't

Though having 3 X m2 and 4 X sata ssds
And multiple operating systems including preview builds
My set ups a bit more complicated than the
Average user I guess
Sometimes it's just way faster for me to load
An image backup than mess around with stuff