Use WinPE to Clone Your Windows Boot Drive

Cloning your boot drive sometimes resembles trying to repair a car engine while driving down the highway. While MultiDrive clones all drive blocks (sectors) at the lowest native level, Windows constantly locks system files and runs background processes. This can occasionally lead to the issue:

• Target copy doesn't boot
• Incomplete data in databases or applications.
• Other inconsistencies in the target copy.

The Solution: MultiDrive WinPE

We created a bootable WinPE environment with MultiDrive pre-installed.

With it, you can run MultiDrive from a USB stick while your main Windows system is completely stopped. When it boots, it automatically opens MultiDrive app in GUI, allowing to quickly start cloning.

Step 1: Download WinPE image

Our WinPE image is available on the WinPE download page in two formats:

• ZIP - restore to USB with MultiDrive.
• ISO - flash to USB with a tool you prefer.

Step 2: Prepare a bootable USB drive

2a. If you downloaded the ZIP

1. Plug any USB drive of 2GB or larger into your computer.
2. Launch MultiDrive and click Restore.
3. Select the downloaded WinPE ZIP file as Source and your USB drive as Target.
4. Click Start

2b. If you downloaded the ISO

Use a flashing tool, such as Rufus or Ventoy, to write the ISO to a USB drive (2 GB or larger).
Alternatively, burn it to removable media if your hardware supports it.

Step 3: Boot from USB drive

1. Plug the USB drive into the PC containing the source drive you want to clone.
2. Restart the PC and enter the Boot Menu (usually F12, F8, or Del, depending on your motherboard manufacturer).
3. Select the USB drive to boot.

Note: Secure Boot may block WinPE. If the USB doesn't appear in Boot Menu or fails to start, enter BIOS Setup and temporarily disable Secure Boot. Re-enable it after cloning (Step 4);

Step 4: Clone your boot drive

1. MultiDrive is open.
2. Select your internal Windows drive as Source.
3. Select your another drive as Target.
4. Double-check that your Source is your Windows drive, not vice versa.
5. Click Clone.

Step 5: Verify and boot from the target copy

1. Shut down and remove the original source drive (or change boot order).
2. Boot from your cloned drive.
3. If Windows boots successfully, you're done!

To shut down the WinPE environment, close MultiDrive window and run this command in the Command Prompt:

wpeutil shutdown

When regular cloning works fine

The WinPE image is specifically for cloning the drive Windows is currently running from.

You don't need WinPE for:

• Cloning data drives (non-boot)
• Creating backup images for archival
• Non-Windows boot drives