I made a secured flash drive, a lengthy process due to its size. Can I duplicate it onto another 128GB protected USB, retaining all protection settings, or must I repeat the process? My hard drive lacks space, making redoing it incrementally time-consuming.
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Hii @pdebra
Duplicating a secured flash drive while retaining its protection settings is possible but depends on the method used to secure the drive. Here’s what you can do:
1. Cloning the Drive
- You can use specialized disk cloning software that supports copying encrypted or protected drives. Tools like EaseUS Disk Copy, Clonezilla, or AOMEI Backupper can clone the drive sector by sector, ensuring that all protection settings, partitions, and data remain intact.
- Since your hard drive lacks space, you can directly clone from the secured flash drive to the new 128GB USB drive without using your hard drive as an intermediary.
2. Encrypted Volume Duplication
- If the protection is based on software encryption (e.g., BitLocker or VeraCrypt), ensure the cloning software supports the specific encryption method.
- After cloning, test the new drive to confirm the protection features are functioning as expected.
3. Reformat and Secure the New Drive (if Necessary)
- If cloning isn’t feasible due to compatibility or encryption restrictions, you might need to reapply the protection settings manually. Check the software or method used to secure the original drive for export/import settings or batch configuration tools to speed up the process.
As mentioned by @jacky_sin , you can duplicate your secured flash drive using disk cloning software. Such tools allow direct cloning from one USB to another without needing hard drive space. Ensure the software supports encrypted drives if encryption is involved. After cloning, test the new drive to verify that all protection settings work as expected.
If cloning doesn’t work due to compatibility, you might need to manually set up protection on the new USB.
