Run Windows from external SSD???

I hope I'm posting in correct forum :)

I had a new SSD installed in my laptop at a local shop. Beforehand, I was able to use xcopy to get my docs, pictures, etc saved to an external drive. He told me the old drive was toast and he couldn't read it.

I bought an enclosure adapter to test it. Well, well, well. I can see it all!!

Can I run windows from this somehow? I just want to see what happens.

Can I format it so I can use it for backups?

In a sense, you can. Since you already spent the money on the new SSD, just transfer your files over from the old drive to the new one. Then you can format the drive to be able to use it as a backup if you choose to keep it in the enclosure.

Krayzed said:

In a sense, you can. Since you already spent the money on the new SSD, just transfer your files over from the old drive to the new one. Then you can format the drive to be able to use it as a backup if you choose to keep it in the enclosure.

Click to expand...

I got my files using xcopy before I replaced. I just want to see if windows will load then I will format for storage.

Generally Windows does not like running from removable media. I haven't had a need to try it but others have, maybe Windows To Go.

Like Berton said, it's possible, but it probably won't run well at all.

Krayzed said:

Like Berton said, it's possible, but it probably won't run well at all.

Click to expand...

I just tried it since it's been a long time since I did it. It runs absolutely great. I simply cannot tell the difference from my built-in drive it runs that well. I am using a USB attached SSD, not a silly thumb drive.

EDIT: I should note that I used Rufus to install Windows to my USB SSD. I installed Win 11 24H2 build 26100.1150 and updated it to 26100.1457

hsehestedt said:

I just tried it since it's been a long time since I did it. It runs absolutely great. I simply cannot tell the difference from my built-in drive it runs that well. I am using a USB attached SSD, not a silly thumb drive.

EDIT: I should note that I used Rufus to install Windows to my USB SSD. I installed Win 11 24H2 build 26100.1150 and updated it to 26100.1457

Click to expand...

I can't lie; I never tried it. It definitely helps with an SSD, though. I couldn't imagine someone running an OS from a thumb drive. Which would probably surprise me and also work. Probably not as well.

Have you tested the data transfer speeds, maybe? Running a game or two? I'm curious. Will have to play with it myself.

I have not done any kind of benchmarking yet, but I do plan to do so soon. It may be tomorrow before I get the time to do this.

hsehestedt said:

I just tried it since it's been a long time since I did it. It runs absolutely great. I simply cannot tell the difference from my built-in drive it runs that well. I am using a USB attached SSD, not a silly thumb drive.

EDIT: I should note that I used Rufus to install Windows to my USB SSD. I installed Win 11 24H2 build 26100.1150 and updated it to 26100.1457

Click to expand...

It will be interesting when I finally get to it this weekend. I did a speed test on both. I'm guessing you just did this install to test since you said it's been a long time. I do have my Samsung recovery on a silly thumb drive though :)

Krayzed said:

I can't lie; I never tried it. It definitely helps with an SSD, though. I couldn't imagine someone running an OS from a thumb drive. Which would probably surprise me and also work. Probably not as well.

Have you tested the data transfer speeds, maybe? Running a game or two? I'm curious. Will have to play with it myself.

Click to expand...

I did a disk speed test on both. It will be interesting when I get to it this weekend.

hsehestedt said:

I have not done any kind of benchmarking yet, but I do plan to do so soon. It may be tomorrow before I get the time to do this.

Click to expand...

I keep saying I'll boot my old one this weekend. Who am I kidding :)

That's a pretty big difference of speeds. haha. Thanks for posting the results!

I think I'm going to play around with it this weekend, too. So I hope.

@Krayzed
@gigi69
@Berton
@hsehestedt

Windows to Go runs very well indeed - even on a modest Mini PC when using a decent NvMe in a USB3/USBC enclosure and could even outperform a static classic SSD on fixed internal disk.

Don't forget though for updating to Newer Windows builds / copying the WintoGo back to static internal disk to set this reg key to '0' and reboot. (PortableOperatingSystem).



Otherwise you'll on update to new build get "Cannot install to USB device" and if you clone back to internal HDD /SSD you'll get annoying message "Keep USB plugged in". Plus it will have the same update restictions.

The Key might not exist on initial creation of your Windows to Go system but it will appear after a couple of re-boots. Normal Windows updates will run OK but for newer builds you definitely will have to set the reg key to '0' as shown.

To create a Windows to Go system - plenty of references all over this Forum so not going into it here - suffice to say you don't need any 3rd party software such as Hasleo, rufus etc and certainly not PAID software. Plus you can clone a VM to a Windows to go easily enough and update the physical Windows drivers after initial boot.

On my WindowstoGo system I'm also running 4 Linux VM's under Hyper-V too.

Cheers
jimbo