Copy (clone) any E2B USB drive

Copy (clone) your E2B USB drive

If you have a working E2B USB drive complete with all payloads and configurations files, etc., you can 'clone' it to any other USB drive:

Make sure that the target USB drive is of the same type as the source drive (i.e. 'Removable' or 'Fixed' - see box below) and that you have tested the memory chips in it first (e.g. using FakeFlashTest).

I highly recommend the SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 flash drives for E2B. Some 'really fast' USB flash drives can be very slow when copying small files.

Clone directly from your E2B USB drive

Starting with E2B v1.88, you can 'clone' your E2B drive onto a different E2B drive using the \MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd script that is in the root of the E2B drive that you want to copy.

Note that only the \_ISO folder is copied however; any user folders that are in the root are NOT copied. You will need to copy any of your own folders in the root of the source E2B drive to the target drive afterwards. For instance \MyFolder and \HBCD would not be copied to the target drive, only the \_ISO folder is copied.

Note: If copying a E2B Removable Flash drive to a USB hard drive, you should remove the NOHELPER variable from within the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file on the USB HDD or Windows Install ISOs + Helper Flash drives will not work!

How to replicate your E2B USB drive

Tip: Before copying, why not update your E2B USB drive to the latest version of E2B?

The best way to copy your E2B USB drives which contain your payloads and menu files, etc. is as follows:

Copy all the files on your E2B USB drive back to the original E2B download folder on your Windows hard disk - e.g. C:\temp\E2B.
The \System Volume Information folder and \$Recycle.bin folders (if present) should not be copied.
You will now have a backup of your E2B drive which can be replicated onto other USB drives.
Now you can run the C:\temp\E2B\_ISO\docs\Make_E2B_USB_Drive\MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd script to make more E2B USB drives.
If you have added your own files or folders to the root, you must now run C:\temp\E2B\_ISO\UPDATE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd (see Note below).
Run \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd from the target USB drive.

Tip: You can Zip up the C:\temp\E2B folder and send it to your colleagues so they can make the same USB drives too.

Note: When using MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE, only the \_ISO folder is copied (and some files in the root). If you have added new folders under the root then these will not be copied to the USB drive. However, once you have made the USB drive, you can run UPDATE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd to copy across all your added folders.

e.g.

C:\temp\E2B\_ISO << folder will be copied by MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd

C:\temp\E2B\MyPrograms << folder will NOT be copied unless you use UPDATE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd

C:\temp\E2B\Myutil.exe << file will be copied by MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd

IMPORTANT: If you copy the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file from your E2B USB Hard drive to a Removable USB drive, it may have the NOHELPER variable set inside the MyE2B.cfg file. The NOHELPER variable stops Windows ISOs from working correctly (the ISO won't be loaded as a virtual CD) on Removable USB drives. E2B USB Removable flash drives should not have the NOHELPER variable set in the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file. E2B USB HDDs will boot slightly faster if the NOHELPER variable is set. If you want it to work on both types of USB drive, delete the NOHELPER variable. USB HDDs will still need a USB Flash 'Helper' drive or you can convert Windows Vista+ ISOs to .imgPTN files.

Although it is possible to use dd.exe or RMPrepUSB File->Drive and Drive->File to make an exact clone of one E2B USB drive to another USB drive, it is not recommended for several reasons:

It is slow - all sectors will be copied

The target drive needs to be at least as big as the E2B source drive you are copying

If the target drive is bigger than the E2B source drive, you will have inaccessible free space left on the target drive

If you had fragmented files or deleted files on the source E2B drive, they same layout will be duplicated on the target drive

If the E2B USB drive was NTFS, the System Volume Information folder will also be duplicated.

The drive serial number will be the same as the original USB drive - it could 'confuse' Windows or Windows applications if both drives are connected at the same time and have the same ID.

Update an E2B USB drive

The E2B download contains the script file '\UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd'. If you ensure this file is also present in the C:\temp\E2B folder (see above) then just run it to update any E2B USB drive without needing to reformat and recopy all the files. Note that the 'UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd' file is not copied to the USB drive.

You may need to run WinContig or \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd afterwards to ensure all the files are contiguous.