Windows 10: Clone system to an external bootable USB / SSD (Wintogo system)

Discus and support Clone system to an external bootable USB / SSD (Wintogo system) in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade to solve the problem; Hi folks while Ms seems to be deprecating the Windows to go idea (currently its only officially available when "Certified" devices are used and you... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade' started by jimbo45, Jun 16, 2019.

  1. jimbo45 Win User

    Clone system to an external bootable USB / SSD (Wintogo system)


    Hi folks

    while Ms seems to be deprecating the Windows to go idea (currently its only officially available when "Certified" devices are used and you use Windows enterprise you can easily make a Windows to go from any Windows edition -- the problem is that most of the Free methods involve installing a new Windows version - only the paid products offer you the ability to "clone your current running system" and even then new releases of Windows will fail at times on boot.

    The main problem is that Windows detects "Moveable devices" and will therefore not boot -- that's the idea of those "certified devices" as they will present themselves to Windows as a fixed drive.

    However the way to do it manually (and it works for all versions of Windows) is to start with a blank SSD (connect via SATA-->USB3 adapter). I prefer an SSD to a USB stick as the response time is almost as good as running from the computers own internal HDD / SSD - especially on a laptop.

    So 1) in Diskpart - in admin mode - select a disk (the external ssd) via LIST DISK
    2) SELECT XX where xx is the disk nr shown
    3) Clean
    4) convert GPT
    5) Create partition efi size=100
    6) create partition primary
    7) list partition
    8) select partition xx where xx is the EFI one
    9) format fs=fat32
    10) select partition yy where yy is the primary one
    11) format fs=ntfs quick
    12) exit

    13) Now use any partition manager or other software to copy the EFI and main Windows partitions to your external SSD

    14) you'll need a Linux system / live cd as you need to rename a file in the windows-->system32-->drivers directory and copy it as well : do this

    a) rename the uaspstor.sys to uaspstor.sys.old or whatever you like

    b) copy usbstor.sys to uaspstor.sys so you have 2 files which are really usbstor.sys !!! This seems to "poodlefake" the Windows system so it thinks it's running on "Disk C".

    15) remove from Linux and re-boot using the SSD as boot disk -- if it fails first time use Macrium to "repair / fix windows boot problems" - ensure you choose the correct Windows installation though.

    This even works for the latest 20H1 skip ahead insider releases -- I often use this method when I want to test Windows releases on Real hardware as opposed to a VM without disturbing anything on my current internal disks !! -- It's easier than restoring after each test - the external SSD boots almost as fast as the normal internal one and everything remains activated -- it also works if you boot from different hardware assuming the other machine has a digital license - Windows these days is quite sophisticated in managing new hardware at boot.

    Have fun

    Cheers
    jimbo

    :)
     
    jimbo45, Jun 16, 2019
    #1
  2. TechnoMax Win User

    Problems with bootable System Clone on USB-SSD


    For years I tried to get a running Windows system with all installed software that is bootable from USB, it never worked. Then came Microsoft with Windows To Go, but this supports only a few special USB sticks.
    The mini solution I then found is WinToUSB that at least can install a fresh Windows 10 system on any external USB drive that can boot.
    And then I ran into EaseUS ToDo Backup that promises bootable clones of a running Windows system with all its programms and drivers, all that I wanted. To my surprise this really works, so far I have produced several PCs clones to the cheapest USB-SSDs that I could get these days. (It did not work properly with USB sticks.)
    But the laptop of my wife ist the only Windows PC that could not be cloned this way. Probably because of a strange partition layout from previous repair sessions and reinstalls.
    So far I have this work around: I made a VHD backup of the laptop system partitions, installed a fresh 1803 (not 1809, that probably would not work) on an external USB-SSD and in this new Windows I installed VMWare Player 15. I made a new virtual machine in this USB drive Windows and copied the VHD into this and changed the hard disk link of the VM to this VHD (not VMDK). This gives a working external Windows system but MS Office asks for reregistration. The EaseUS clones are real duplicates of the parents Windows installation an inherit the Windows activation as well as the programm keys.

    What could I do to get a running EaseUS clone of this particular notebook too?
     
    TechnoMax, Jun 16, 2019
    #2
  3. How to make a clone disk bootable?

    My hard drive didn’t want to boot so I used Macrium Reflect 7 Free and made a clone of the hard drive to a USB external drive. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to boot my device from this cloned, external drive. I decided to install Macrium Reflect
    7 Free on the SSD to use it as a clone of the external hard drive. Now I have a bootable SSD and a non-bootable clone of the drive and I need to restore everything that
    I had on the drive before the crash. Please, how can I restore the system?
     
    masareismasareis, Jun 16, 2019
    #3
  4. Clone system to an external bootable USB / SSD (Wintogo system)

    need list of usb bootable Operating Systems

    I am looking for a good list of operating systems you can run from a usb or dvd.

    If not a list, then folks can just post their top picks.

    I want these to run from the usb/dvd without installing on the system or getting in the way of the system that exists on the hard drive.

    Thanks in advance.
     
    John Phoenix, Jun 16, 2019
    #4
Thema:

Clone system to an external bootable USB / SSD (Wintogo system)

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