Hasleo Win to Usb - works on mine, not on my friend's

I have made several Windows to go on a portable SSD using Hasleo WinToUsb for Windows 11. They run beautifully on my computer (W11). I also have a not so old custom built that won't run W11 (currently runs W10 on internal), but the portable runs on there too, very well. Both computers are custom built.

I wanted to try the portable W11 on a friend's computer, but none of the three that he has (all W10) would boot up with it. Disk Management did show the portable, but File Explorer did not.

These 3 computers of his are older, none have TPM and cannot install Windows. All are custom built.

I asked Hasleo for advice, and they said the WtG is offline by default when running the first time. If that is true, then why do all WtG that I made run perfectly on my two computers?

I read something about including drivers in the WtG so I asked Hasleo about this. They left that out when replying. I wouldn't know what drivers to include or how to include them.

Any suggestions? I don't know what specs his computers are.

Interesting.

I don't use this myself yet but looks like a good tool on the go.

There's some info on the offiical how-to but nothing over the offline part, unfortunately:

If it is meant for personal use, the stick will be already online on the PC it was created on.
My guess is you would need to set it online on each PC you try to use it on.
For this I'm looking at setting the USB drive online in Disk Management on the target PC.
Though I never encountered this with other USB tools before.

Hopachi said:

Interesting.

I don't use this myself yet but looks like a good tool on the go.

There's some info on the offiical how-to but nothing over the offline part, unfortunately:

User guide for Hasleo WinToUSB

WinToUSB is the best free Windows To Go USB creator, it allows you to install & run Windows 11/10/8/7 on an external hard drive or USB flash drive. This article will show you how to create a Windows To Go USB drive with WinToUSB.

www.easyuefi.com

If it is meant for personal use, the stick will be already online on the PC it was created on.
My guess is you would need to set it online on each PC you try to use it on.
For this I'm looking at setting the USB drive online in Disk Management on the target PC.
Though I never encountered this with other USB tools before.

Click to expand...

Possible to use on "incompatible " PC also ?
With/without internet-connection ?
Possible to repair also ?

Hopachi said:

Interesting.

I don't use this myself yet but looks like a good tool on the go.

There's some info on the offiical how-to but nothing over the offline part, unfortunately:

User guide for Hasleo WinToUSB

WinToUSB is the best free Windows To Go USB creator, it allows you to install & run Windows 11/10/8/7 on an external hard drive or USB flash drive. This article will show you how to create a Windows To Go USB drive with WinToUSB.

www.easyuefi.com

If it is meant for personal use, the stick will be already online on the PC it was created on.
My guess is you would need to set it online on each PC you try to use it on.
For this I'm looking at setting the USB drive online in Disk Management on the target PC.
Though I never encountered this with other USB tools before.

Click to expand...

Actually, Windows To Go can install to a stick, but many use portable SSD. I use both 1 and 2 Terabyte drives. I have avoided using the Hasleo "wintousb" title as it is too easy to assume the stick. I use this as my Windows OS, and it will run both online and off. The only thing we can't do is to make it run on other computers (but it does bootup and run on my older back-up computers). But my friend's computers, the first thing we did was to check if it was online and it was. Disk management sees it but File Explorer does not.

I created the WtoG on myW11 capable install computer. When I tried it on my slightly older custom built computer, I did not have to set it to online. It already was and did boot. But my friends, even though we made sure it was online, it would not boot from the WtoGo drive.

Is your friends computer setup in the Bios as the older MBR/Legacy/CSM Bios or is it set to the newer UEFI?
Boot into their Bios and go to the Boot Tab. If it doesn't mention UEFI,
Then most likely their computer is set for MBR bios,
You would need to Initialize a USB Flash drive as MBR not GPT for UEFI Bios when you burn the Hasleo ISO.

Spunk said:

Is your friends computer setup in the Bios as the older MBR/Legacy/CSM Bios or is it set to the newer UEFI?
Boot into their Bios and go to the Boot Tab. If it doesn't mention UEFI,
Then most likely their computer is set for MBR bios,
You would need to Initialize a USB Flash drive as MBR not GPT for UEFI Bios when you burn the Hasleo ISO.

Click to expand...

When making these Hasleo WtoG, I choose from the Hasleo tutorial: "MBR for BIOS and UEFI: This option creates a Windows To Go USB that can be booted on both BIOS and UEFI computers."

My latest & greatest Custom built and also my can't run W11 but not that old both boot up.

I am not sure what his 3 computers are, I'll see if he can find out. He has knee problems so it is difficult for him to navigate the steep stairs down to the basement where the computers are.

I read something about fat32. Diskmanagement shows that when Windows was allosed to format, it was as NTFS and the small partition was fat32.

Your Hasleo boot USB shouldn't make a difference if the Flash drive is formatted NTFS or FAT32.
FAT32 is the most universal format that works for Mac, Linux, or Windows.

It may make a difference if the Computers HDD mode is set to CSM/Legacy (MBR) or UEFI Bios.

Most Windows PCs are set to natively access the C: Drive first when booting, so will never get to see an external WinToGo USB Boot Drive. This default setting was introduced years ago as a basic security measure to reduce the possibility of malware injection (whether deliberate or accidental) by simply booting with an infected external USB drive

If Booting from an external Drive is required, it may first be necessary to check and, if necessary, change the Boot priority in the Legacy BIOS/UEFI Manager to make the external source the first Boot device to be used. The user does, of course, need to understand the security risk involved in allowing this system alteration as a 'permanent' option.

Example Guide: How to Boot from External Hard Drive

Maybe your friends computers CPU is old enough to not have SSE4.2 Instructions set? Since Win 11 24H2 wont boot without SSE4.2 instructions. Check the CPU if it has SSE4.2 with CPU-Z.

Thorenzz said:

Maybe your friends computers CPU is old enough to not have SSE4.2 Instructions set? Since Win 11 24H2 wont boot without SSE4.2 instructions. Check the CPU if it has SSE4.2 with CPU-Z.

Click to expand...

We checked that, they can run SSe4.2. Supposedly, computers from the past 10 years or so, can run SSE4.2

LeLibran said:

Most Windows PCs are set to natively access the C: Drive first when booting, so will never get to see an external WinToGo USB Boot Drive. This default setting was introduced years ago as a basic security measure to reduce the possibility of malware injection (whether deliberate or accidental) by simply booting with an infected external USB drive

If Booting from an external Drive is required, it may first be necessary to check and, if necessary, change the Boot priority in the Legacy BIOS/UEFI Manager to make the external source the first Boot device to be used. The user does, of course, need to understand the security risk involved in allowing this system alteration as a 'permanent' option.

Example Guide: How to Boot from External Hard Drive

Click to expand...

I have to set the bios everytime I change the Portable SSD, so that is familiar to me. Once changed it stays until I choose another Portable SSD.
We set the bios on my friends's three computers, didn't work.

When I boot up with any Portable SSD, Disk Management always lists it as Drive C

Spunk said:

Your Hasleo boot USB shouldn't make a difference if the Flash drive is formatted NTFS or FAT32.
FAT32 is the most universal format that works for Mac, Linux, or Windows.

It may make a difference if the Computers HDD mode is set to CSM/Legacy (MBR) or UEFI Bios.

Click to expand...

My internal drive is set to NTFS, and my Win2Usb is also NTFS. Not sure what my friend's computers are, hopefully I can find out.
I am following the Hasleo tutorials of
Partition scheme: MBR for BIOS and UEFI
Installation mode: Legacy

I would try to make portable win with rufus. Had better experience with rufus. Other option i used in past was to put ssd into machine (not USB) and then clean install or clone win 11 normal way and then use it as external portable win.

Thorenzz said:

I would try to make portable win with rufus. Had better experience with rufus. Other option i used in past was to put ssd into machine (not USB) and then clean install or clone win 11 normal way and then use it as external portable win.

Click to expand...

I have read where users use Macrium Reflect to restore an image to a Vmware Workstation virtual machine. Never tried it though.
Does a portable with Rufus boot up with any machine? I mean, like Hasleo is supposed to do.
To make a portable, I put the ISO onto the Rufus thumb drive like usual. Then I proceed to install Windows onto the portable SSD?
The only thing, Windows doesn't like being installed to an external, doesn't it? To a usb anyway.
I usually make my Windows Portable SSD with it plugged in to the Thunderbird port.

IDC said:

I have read where users use Macrium Reflect to restore an image to a Vmware Workstation virtual machine. Never tried it though.
Does a portable with Rufus boot up with any machine? I mean, like Hasleo is supposed to do.
To make a portable, I put the ISO onto the Rufus thumb drive like usual. Then I proceed to install Windows onto the portable SSD?
The only thing, Windows doesn't like being installed to an external, doesn't it? To a usb anyway.
I usually make my Windows Portable SSD with it plugged in to the Thunderbird port.

Click to expand...

Never tried it eighter. But with Rufus you can make Windows To Go. Should boot up on any computer with bios boot set to UEFI. It wont work if BIOS is set to Legacy (CSM) mode. Follow the steps bellow.

1.Open Rufus and check "List USB Hard Drives".


2. Select your Portable SSD. IT WILL BE WIPED obviously.


3. Select your ISO image. Preferably untouched ISO from MS.


4. Select Windows To Go in Image Options. Select GPT partition scheme. Target system UEFI.


5. Click "Start", choose your preferred edition, create local account if you want.

As you know creating Windows To Go could take a while. After done, you should be able just to boot up from portable USB the same way as you would boot up installation Media.

Let me know if that worked for you. Good luck.

Thorenzz said:

Never tried it eighter. But with Rufus you can make Windows To Go. Should boot up on any computer with bios boot set to UEFI. It wont work if BIOS is set to Legacy (CSM) mode. Follow the steps bellow.
As you know creating Windows To Go could take a while. After done, you should be able just to boot up from portable USB the same way as you would boot up installation Media.

Let me know if that worked for you. Good luck.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. I made several W2G using Hasleo, and I tried running them both on a new and a lslightly older computer and they worked perfectly. My older computer didn't pass the requirements for W11 yet it ran very well.

The problem comes when I tried to run the W2G on my friends older computers. None of the 3 would boot.

Since them I have found the Hasleo W3G Help Forum (not just tutorials, they actually offer suggestions).

1. Both Secure Boot and fast startup should be disabled.
2. Portable SSD should be connected directly to a USB port, not a pci add-on card or hub
3. If W2G won't boot from a USB 3.0 port, it will from a USB 2.0
4. Some computer's Bios have problems with booting USB drives larger 128 gigs.

Another Hasleo user could not get his W3G to boot on modern Pc (this was 2013) but it would run on older.
Hasleo suggested to set the Fat32 partition as the first (set as the system partition), and the NTFS partition as the 2nd and the boot and primary.
This did work for him. My W2G was already like that.

So I am thinking maybe it is the secure boot and fast startup needs to be disabled on my friend's computers. And maybe using 2.0 ports.
Unfortunately, my friend is rather different in his old age, and installed Linux on his computer. So now I'll never know.
I will definiately try Rufus, thanks for the tutorial. I am one that needs pictures :)

You are welcome. And yes good point with secure boot, forgot to mention that in my previous post. So try to disable Secure Boot. Do the same if W2G made with Rufus wont work. Dont use USB 2.0, because it will be super slow for W2G.

Thorenzz said:

You are welcome. And yes good point with secure boot, forgot to mention that in my previous post. So try to disable Secure Boot. Do the same if W2G made with Rufus wont work. Dont use USB 2.0, because it will be super slow for W2G.

Click to expand...

Sounds lika a plan. Thanks again for your help. I just checked both of my computers and both have only 3.0 usb ports. And win2go flies!