How to copy casper-rw persistent USB install to a new HDD?

I'm somewhat of a beginner with Linux, sorry for the dumb question. I installed a persistent Linux Mint install to a USB drive. It has been working well, but now I want to install it directly to a new SSD drive I bought. I thought that using the "Install" option would already copy all my apps and user files to the drive, but as far as I can see it only installed a fresh Linux Mint install, with no apps and my /home folder only has a new user I created with the install. **Question:** How do I make the exact install I have on the USB drive be copied to the SSD drive? **Question 2:** Is it possible and advisable to use Timeshift, Clonezilla or another app to make an image of the old Linux install and then recover that image when booting with the new Linux install?