Creating a Partition using Portable External HDD

Griff79 · Aug 10, 2023

Hello All.

I have an interesting question here...

If I want to create a NEW Partition on my laptop from a Portable External HDD, say I want to shrink it by 1TB and then create a new Partition on my laptop to run Windows 11 Pro on the new partition, is something like this possible and will the new partition stay there or be as a "removable drive"?

I'll do a clean install of Windows 11 Pro on it also to run it.

Experts, kindly advise?????

Ghot · Aug 10, 2023

Jacques79 said:
Hello All.

I have an interesting question here...

If I want to create a NEW Partition on my laptop from a Portable External HDD, say I want to shrink it by 1TB and then create a new Partition on my laptop to run Windows 11 Pro on the new partition, is something like this possible and will the new partition stay there or be as a "removable drive"?

I'll do a clean install of Windows 11 Pro on it also to run it.

Experts, kindly advise?????

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to do... but this is the tool to do it...

Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

As an all-in-one free partition manager and disk manager software, MiniTool Partition Wizard Free helps manage disk space safely on Windows 11/10/8/7.

www.partitionwizard.com

This is the part I don't understand...

If I want to create a NEW Partition on my laptop from a Portable External HDD

I'm guessing you mean...
I want to create a new partition for my laptop , ON a portable external hard drive...

Try3 · Aug 10, 2023

You seem to be asking two questions.
1 Is it possible to create more than one partition on a Portable External HDD?
Yes
2 Is it possible to install Windows in a Portable External HDD?

Denis

Griff79 · Aug 10, 2023

Maybe I am being a bit too vague lol What I am asking is:

1. Am I able to shrink a Portable External HDD by say 1TB and then that newly created partition will be a fixed partition on the laptop or not?
It is one of those plug and play HDDs
2. Will the newly created partition from the External be part of the HDD or part of the laptop?

Ghot · Aug 10, 2023

Jacques79 said:
Maybe I am being a bit too vague lol What I am asking is:

1. Am I able to shrink a Portable External HDD by say 1TB and then that newly created partition will be a fixed partition on the laptop or not?
It is one of those plug and play HDDs

Any partitions on an external hard drive, will never be a partition ON a laptop.
They can however, be accessed BY the laptop.
When the external drive is connected to the laptop, that 1TB partition will show up in File Explorer as just another drive.

Yes... with partitioning software like I linked above... you can do anything with partitions on any drive.

In this pic the BLUE boxes show the physical drives, and the letters, show the partitions ON those drives...

It might be easier if you hook up the external drive, then take a screen shot of Disk Management, and post it here.

To post a screenshot on this forum...

1. Take the screenshot, edit it as desired, save to your desktop as .png or .jpg (max. size = 2MB)
2. Left click in your post, where you want to place the screenshot.
3. Click the Attach Files button at lower left, browse to your pic and click Insert.
4. After clicking Insert, I usually choose the Thumbnail option.

Griff79 · Aug 10, 2023

Ghot said:
Any partitions on an external hard drive, will never be a partition ON a laptop.
They can however, be accessed BY the laptop.
When the external drive is connected to the laptop, that 1TB partition will show up in File Explorer as just another drive.

Yes... with partitioning software like I linked above... you can do anything with partitions on any drive.

Okay so if I am understanding correctly:
I can create the 1TB partition on the external HDD and install Win11 on it but it will basically have to stay plugged in for me to access the Windows on it?

Ghot · Aug 10, 2023

Jacques79 said:
Okay so if I am understanding correctly:
I can create the 1TB partition on the external HDD and install Win11 on it but it will basically have to stay plugged in for me to access the Windows on it?

YES.

Unfortunately, we don't have thought control of computers... yet.
We can't just stare at our computer and think... "look on the external drive".

We still need wires to be able to talk to the external drive(s).

Here's a pic of Minitool Partition Wizard. I right clicked on Disk 4 (the 256GB USB stick), and I have the options shown in the RED box...

If the USB stick wasn't already formatted (as NTFS)... you'd also see an option to Create Partition.

BUT... as I mentioned above... the best thing you can do is post a screen shot of Disk Management... then ask your questions.
We can't "see" how things are set up on your computer. With the screen shot though, we can give much better advice.

Griff79 · Aug 10, 2023

Ghot said:
YES.

Unfortunately, we don't have thought control of computers... yet.
We can't just stare at our computer and think... "look on the external drive".

We still need wires to be able to talk to the external drive(s).

So let's see if this is correct:

The External HDD is named "Jacques 4TB". I shrink it by 1TB and can use the new 1TB partition to run Win11 on when plugged in?

Ghot · Aug 10, 2023

Jacques79 said:
So let's see if this is correct:

The External HDD is named "Jacques 4TB". I shrink it by 1TB and can use the new 1TB partition to run Win11 on when plugged in?

If there is nothing on the 4TB external drive, then you can do these things...

a. Make one big partition
b. Make any number of smaller partitions.
c. Make different kinds of partitions.

One of my internal drives is 4TB, and I chose to "use" it like this... You can do anything with partitions.

I don't "know" if you can actually "run" Windows from an external drive. I've never tried it, and in the past that wasn't possible.
Someone else will have to answer that.

Different ways to "run" Windows 11...

1. Regular... just install and run it.
2. Dual boot... install two copies of Windows on one "drive" (different partitions), and pick which you want to run.
3. Install two copies of Windows or maybe Windows and Linux, on two different partitions, and pick which you want to run.
4. Install two copies of Windows on two separate drives, and choose which to run at boot.

So I guess the next question is... WHY do you want to install Win 11 on your external drive?

Griff79 · Aug 10, 2023

Ghot said:
If there is nothing on the 4TB external drive, then you can do these things...

a. Make one big partition
b. Make any number of smaller partitions.
c. Make different kinds of partitions.

One of my internal drives is 4TB, and I chose to "use" it like this... You can do anything with partitions.

View attachment 67349

I don't "know" if you can actually "run" Windows from an external drive. I've never tried it, and in the past that wasn't possible.
Someone else will have to answer that.

Different ways to "run" Windows 11...

1. Regular... just install and run it.
2. Dual boot... install two copies of Windows on one "drive" (different partitions), and pick which you want to run.
3. Install two copies of Windows or maybe Windows and Linux, on two different partitions, and pick which you want to run.
4. Install two copies of Windows on two separate drives, and choose which to run at boot.

So I guess the next question is... WHY do you want to install Win 11 on your external drive?

This is what i was trying to figure out...

My main drive is 512GB SSD, I already split in into 2 partitions and am running Win11 on the larger one and Win10 on the smaller partition. Laptop only comes with 512GB pre-installed but I also love Win10 coz 11 is so annoying at times haha thought maybe it would be possible to use space from an external HDD to run Windows 11 on but seems like it is not really possible.

Ghot · Aug 10, 2023

Jacques79 said:
This is what i was trying to figure out...

My main drive is 512GB SSD, I already split in into 2 partitions and am running Win11 on the larger one and Win10 on the smaller partition. Laptop only comes with 512GB pre-installed but I also love Win10 coz 11 is so annoying at times haha thought maybe it would be possible to use space from an external HDD to run Windows 11 on but seems like it is not really possible.

Well... there's other options.

You can just get a bigger internal drive for your laptop.
You may even have another drive connector IN your laptop for a 2nd drive.

IF... there's only one drive connector in your laptop, you can just replace the 512GB drive with a bigger one.
Crucial has a tool that can recommend a drive upgrade...

Memory & SSD Upgrades | Crucial.com

Crucial Memory and SSD upgrades - 100% Compatibility Guaranteed for - FREE US Delivery

www.crucial.com

Windows ALWAYS runs better with less problems from an internal drive.

Check the 3rd post, here...

Griff79 · Aug 10, 2023

Ghot said:
Well... there's other options.

You can just get a bigger internal drive for your laptop.
You may even have another drive connector IN your laptop for a 2nd drive.

IF... there's only one drive connector in your laptop, you can just replace the 512GB drive with a bigger one.
Crucial has a tool that can recommend a drive upgrade...

Memory & SSD Upgrades | Crucial.com

Crucial Memory and SSD upgrades - 100% Compatibility Guaranteed for - FREE US Delivery

www.crucial.com

Windows ALWAYS runs better with less problems from an internal drive.

Check the 3rd post, here...

So this is my Lenovo laptop specs......Guess it just better to get a bigger SSD then.

Ghot · Aug 10, 2023

Jacques79 said:
So this is my Lenovo laptop specs......Guess it just better to get a bigger SSD then.

Probably best to get a 2.5" 1TB SSD (internal), and install that in your laptop.
Use the 512GB for dual boot Windows, and install your games and larger programs on the 2.5" internal drive.
Use the 4TB external to store backups and for bulk storage.

ian50 · Aug 10, 2023

@Jaques79

... it would be possible to use space from an external HDD to run Windows 11 on but seems like it is not really possible

If you want to do this, it's not difficult.

Just search for and then read the following (thoroughly). Then try. Aomei Partition Standard is freeware and well known. Just be aware that boot time off a Win To Go USB connected drive is generally slower. Other advice here may suggest to you not to try but if you carefully follow the steps listed in the Windows Club tutorial, you can do no damage and the experience is generally helpful.

I'm inclined myself to suggest you will gain from the experience in understanding partitions, installations, boot files etc. When you're done, you can decide if you should keep the USB Win11 external boot you've made. Be careful not to mix system files between the internal and external discs as they will inevitably become different builds over time.

After you've created a bootable Win11 To Go USB, to pick which disc to boot from at boot time, simply use F9 (Esc, F10 may be the key your PC uses) to show a list of bootable choices. I've done this to keep a bootable Win11 USB installation on an external SSD as a "failsafe" to access the internal installation if something fouls up (I have other tools as well for emergencies).

But above all, make a full backup image of your existing internal installation before you start this process.

Windows To Go Creator in Partition Assistant Standard Free Edition in AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard

Try3 · Aug 10, 2023

Jacques79 said:
1. Am I able to shrink a Portable External HDD by say 1TB

Yes

Jacques79 said:
that newly created partition will be a fixed partition on the laptop

No. It's on the Portable External HDD.

Jacques79 said:
2. Will the newly created partition from the External be part of the HDD or part of the laptop?

part of the HDD

Jacques79 said:
external HDD ... install Win11 on it

Jacques79 said:
can use the new 1TB partition to run Win11

Jacques79 said:
use space from an external HDD to run Windows 11 on but seems like it is not really possible

Not really but you could investigate "WindowsToGo" & the use of the boot menu to boot into an external version of Windows.
When I tried it I succeeded at first but the installation could not be updated. The next Cumulative update rendered the external disk unbootable.

Jacques79 said:
Guess it just better to get a bigger SSD then

Yes.
By the way, that note you'll find in many specs "up to 512GB"
- might merely mean that that's all they bothered included in their testing,
or
- might mean that the computer is not capable of providing enough power for any thing bigger.
The only way to find out is to try it, unfortunately, but you might get a good steer if you ask in the computer maker's user forums about what others have tried in the same model.

Denis

Try3 · Aug 10, 2023

ian50 said:
follow the steps listed in the Windows Club tutorial

What Windows Club tutorial? Nobody else has mentioned it.

ian50 said:
Windows To Go Creator in Partition Assistant Standard Free Edition in AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard

Was that supposed to be a link to an article on the subject?

Denis

jimbo45 · Aug 11, 2023

A lot of obfuscation here -- first from the OP in not being sufficiently clear as to what's actually required and then to various methods of solving a problem when there's no clear meaning as to what the OP actually wanted.

From what I understand is does the OP want to create a partition on an external drive - and then can a full windows system run on it.

Yes - it's simple in both cases -- DISKPART on the laptop can create partitions on any device external or internal.

Yes you can create a WindowstoGo system on an external device -- use dism /ApplyImage to the partition you want to use for booting a windows system. You don't even need UEFI or secure boot. After doing that simply install the bootloader - which can still work on MBR partitions if the last bit of the boot parameter via bcdboot is f MBR instead of f UEFI. There's loads of posts all over this forum on how to do this --you don't even have to use physical vhdx files either.

the basic syntax of the command is bcdboot <windows external device>:\windows /s S: /f UEFI in the case of UEFI installs where S (big one) is the letter of the EFI partition - assign in Diskpart) -- but check google for other syntax or @NavyLCDR who seems to be the resident expert on this stuff.

If it's a simple windows install media that the OP wants then there's loads of ways - UUPDUMP or the Ms's MCT -- however the MCT these days will check for valid hardware so a bit of a no-no if running on older (but still very capable hardware).

I'm posting this from a current W11 system running from an external nvme device (actually even via usb3.0 connection on an older laptop with a gen 6 i5 cpu (not supported for W11) which still faster than the original 2.5 inch sata ssd in the computer itself running W10 natively !!!!!)

Cheers
jimbo

Winuser · Aug 12, 2023

@jimbo45, The way I understand this thead is that the OP has a laptop with a 512GB SSD and partitioned it so they could install Windows 10 and Windows 11. They want to know if they can make a partition on an external HDD so the can install Windows 11 and run Windows 11 from It. I agree with @Ghot. Seeing how the laptop can use a 2.5 SSD I would go that route.