Copy a Flash Drive to Another Flash Drive on Windows & Mac

Copy vs Clone

Speaking of copying files from one USB flash drive onto another, you may think of it as a piece of cake! It's easy, just a Ctrl C + Ctrl V can make it. But sometimes, when users say they want to copy from USB to USB, they actually need to clone between two devices. You may feel confused. What's the difference between copy and clone? When should you copy files and when should you clone devices? Here is the answer:

Copy: Copying means creating the exact same file and putting it in another location. By copying a USB flash drive to another, you only duplicate the files to another USB flash drive, not the drive's master boot record and partition tables.

Clone: Disk cloning is to copy all the contents of one disk to another disk, including the files needed to start the system. The cloning software can generate a one-to-one copy of Disk A on Disk B. This copy is fully operational. If the original disk fails, you can use the cloned disk to replace it.

Let's make a conclusion. If you only want the files of your original USB drive, you could copy these files to the target USB. If you want an identical USB drive, you need to clone from one USB to another. In the following part, we will tell you how to copy a flash drive and how to clone a flash drive.

How to Copy a Flash Drive to Another Flash Drive

Step 1. Connect both USB flash drives on your computer.

Step 2. Open Windows File Explorer, and open the two flash drives.

Step 3. Drag-and-drop or press Ctrl C + Ctrl V to copy and paste your wanted files to the target USB.

If you want to copy all the files on the USB flash drive, you can press Ctrl-A to select all files and then press Ctrl C + Ctrl V to start a fast copy.

How to Duplicate a Flash Drive by Cloning

Duplicate a flash drive, means that you need to clone the flash drive and the most convenient method is to apply delicate cloning software. Qiling Backup is what we recommend here. It is a backup and cloning software, supports making scheduled backups, cloning hard drive, USB drive, and external hard drive, and creating backup images.

You can download the Qiling USB cloning software from the button below, and then use the following steps to duplicate your USB flash drive.

Free Download

Insert both your flash drives on the computer, and run Qiling Backup.

Tip

If you've saved data in the new USB flash drive, move those data and empty the USB in advance. Otherwise, if you directly clone your current USB data to the new one, data loss issue will occur unavoidably.

Step 1. Connect new USB flash drive to your PC

First of all, please connect the new flash drive to your PC, making it recognizable by the PC.

Step 2. Run Qiling Backup for cloning USB to USB

Run Qiling Backup on your PC and click Clone on the left pane so as to start cloning USB.

Step 3.Clone USB to USB with easy clicks

1. Choose your old USB as the original source disk.

Note: If you prefer to allocate the target disk with the same layout as the source disk, just enable a sector level clone by ticking "Sector by sector clone".

2. Select the destination disk - new USB flash drive for saving cloned data.

3. Click Proceed to start cloning USB to USB now.

After cloning, you should now keep two identical flash drives with the same partitions, data, and files.

Sum Up

That's all about how to copy a flash drive to another flash drive on both Windows and Mac. After reading this article, you may be able to distinguish the difference between copy and clone. In this article, we have listed the method of copying USB to USB and the method of copying USB to USB. You can choose to use any of them according to your needs. Don't hesitate, act now!