Windows 10: (inquiry) running win10 from a usb device

I would like to know, on a scale of 1 to 10, for someone such as myself with limited computer knowledge, how hard would it be to run win10 from an external HDD. . or...possibly run another OS within the external*Shock

:)

 

USB Connection showing "Fixed Disk" rather than "Removable Disk"

I re-installed Win10, and connected my GPS via USB, and the Win10 OS still categorizes the device as a "Local Fixed Disk". When connected to my Surface Pro3 running Win10, the GPS is categorized as a "Removable Device".

I then used the suggestions in Method 1 and Method 2, and the device drivers were installed in compatibility mode (Win7). Again, the Win10 environment sees the USB GPS device as a "Local Fixed Disc" rather than a "Removable Disk".

Why is it that my Win10 Surface Pro3 coming from Win8 sees the USB device as a removable disk and my Win10 desktop PC coming from Win7 defines it as a local fixed disk? I don't believe this is a Garmin problem.

 

Toshiba Ext Hard Drive

Hi Mohan,

Thanks for reply. As Requested, win10 bld..10586.545, ver 1511. Run on HP Touch Smart 600. No trouble with other hard drives ( WD ). Toshiba hard drive runs on HP laptop running same win10 version. Also device not shown in device manager. When
inserted in USB port dialogue box warning appears “ USB Device not recognised”. Hope you can help.....

Thanks again Tony

 

Not too hard:
Best Windows To Go Creator to create portable Windows 10/8/7 USB drive!

WinToUSB - Install and Run Windows on a USB Drive

 

And you can run Linux from a Live USB flash drive too.
How-To Geek: The Best Free Tools for Creating a Bootable Windows or Linux USB Drive

 

I keep hearing how good Linux is. thx for replies guys

 

I prefer Windows, but I keep a bootable Linux Live USB handy as a useful trouble-shooting tool. You can install Linux from a Live USB, it's good for giving a second life to old XP machines incapable of running Windows 10.

 

it seems intriguing running win10 from external. the main reason is I want to preserve what memory I have. currently 436GB out of 500GB. maybe I should buy a second external 1TB drive? the one I have now still has 950GB left

 

It's not called 'memory' (that word should only be used for the installed RAM) - what you mean is disk space (or storage). There's a surprising amount of space you get back just by running Disk Clean-Up. Click its 'Clean up system files' button and see how much space old windows update files are taking up, for example. It also has a 'More options' tab where you can delete all but the last Restore Point (these can take up a lot of space).

Though don't clean up Windows Updates if you feel you'll ever wan to uninstall an update. or delete restore points if you may want to go back further than the most recent one.

 

thx. ok so just now, after turned on the pc, I went to setup to boot from usb device finally. on the screen,

>options
>choose other options
>use a device
>UEFI OS

so iam guessing the usb flash is now ready to be booted whenever I need to access it..otherwise, ill resume win10 normally by not choosing that option. hope I did ok

also, if wanted to change the boot option from usb flash to external HDD, how do I do that*Think

 

I think you should investigate this issue rather than booting from an external drive. You can indeed boot from external drive fairly easily but it will run slower (somewhere between "a bit slower" and "incredibly almost unusably slow" - depending on if it is USB 2 or 3, the type of drive etc).

Better would be to run disk cleanup as @Bree said to reclaim some disk space said and then move some big documents onto your existing (nearly empty) external drive or just delete them if you don't want them any more. You may have some old games or videos you don't need on your main drive - they can be quite big.

Have a look at TreeSize Free to see if you can find any big files you don't want.

You can do both of course - boot from external drive and tidy up a bit *Smile

 

I run wise disk cleaner which does a better job at clearing away a lot of junk files. I do have treesize free, thx anyways mate*Party

 

I use rEFInd as a bootloader. It will find any Windows (or other OS) on any attached drive (internal or external) and give you the option to boot from it. I have Windows on SD card and it even finds that and will boot (but it runs like a snail)...

Alternatively if you run bcdboot.exe the standard Windows loader will give you the option to boot from USB drive and just fail if you chose that option and it isn't plugged in. usb - How to run Windows 10 from an external hard drive? - Super User

 

good, will look into link. cheers.