install Win 10 on external hard drive

Hello,

I wonder if there is a chance to install Win 10 on external hard drive (USB 3.0 )

I tryied win to usb but the free ver doesnt support the latest windown 10 1089 .

Thanks in advance

You can create bootable USB flash drive with Windows 10 Media Creation Tool.

You can manually create the installation. On the external hard drive you will need a small (like 100 mb) primary partition formatted as FAT32. If the system is booting in legacy BIOS (or CSM) mode, the external drive will need to be MBR partitioned and the FAT32 partition will need to be marked as active. If the system is booting in UEFI mode, the drive can be MBR partitioned or GPT partitioned, and the FAT32 partition does not need to be marked as active - but if the drive is MBR, it should be marked as active anyway.

Then you will need an NTFS partition on the hard drive to hold the OS. Now either mount a Windows 10 installation ISO file or insert a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive. Open a command prompt (Admin) and change directory to the sources folder on the mounted ISO file or USB flash drive. Then you will use the DISM /Apply-Image command to apply the correct index for the version of Windows 10 you want to the NTFS partition on the external hard drive. The image file will be either install.esd or install.wim depending on where you got the ISO file from. If you don't know the index numbers, use the DISM /Get-Wiminfo command to show them.

Then you wil use the BCDBOOT command to write the boot files from the NTFS partition to the FAT32 partition. Finally change directories to the \boot folder on the mounted ISO file or USB flash drive and run the BOOTSECT command to write a boot sector to the FAT32 partition.

Code:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>dism /apply-image /?

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.18362.1


/Apply-Image /ImageFile:<path_to_image_file> /ApplyDir:<target_directory>
  {/Index:<image_index> | /Name:<image_name>} [/CheckIntegrity] [/Verify]
  [/NoRpFix] [/SWMFile:<pattern>] [/ConfirmTrustedFile] [/WIMBoot] [/Compact] [/EA]

  Applies an image to a specified drive.
  Use /CheckIntegrity to stop the operation if WIM file corruption is detected.
  Use /Verify to check for errors and file duplication.
  Use /NoRpFix to disable the reparse point tag fix.
  Use /SWMFile to reference split WIM files (SWMs). <pattern> is the naming
  pattern and location of split files.
  Use /ConfirmTrustedFile to validate the image for Trusted Desktop. See
  https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=309482 for more information about
  supported platforms.
  Use /WIMBoot to apply the image with WIMBoot configuration.
  Use /Compact to apply the image in compact mode.
  Use /EA to apply extended attributes.
  Use /SFUFile to reference split FFU files (SFUs). <pattern> is the naming
  pattern and location of split files.

    Examples:
      DISM.exe /Apply-Image /ImageFile:install.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:D:\

      DISM.exe /Apply-Image /ImageFile:install.swm /SWMFile:install*.swm /ApplyDir:D:\ /Index:1

Code:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>bcdboot /?

Bcdboot - Bcd boot file creation and repair tool.

The bcdboot.exe command-line tool is used to copy critical boot files to the
system partition and to create a new system BCD store.

bcdboot <source> [/l <locale>] [/s <volume-letter> [/f <firmware>]] [/v]
                 [/m [{OS Loader ID}]] [/addlast] [/p] [/c]

  source     Specifies the location of the windows system root.

  /l         Specifies an optional locale parameter to use when
             initializing the BCD store. The default is US English.

  /s         Specifies an optional volume letter parameter to designate
             the target system partition where boot environment files are
             copied.  The default is the system partition identified by
             the firmware.

  /v         Enables verbose mode.

  /m         If an OS loader GUID is provided, this option merges the
             given loader object with the system template to produce a
             bootable entry. Otherwise, only global objects are merged.

  /d         Specifies that the existing default windows boot entry
             should be preserved.

  /f         Used with the /s command, specifies the firmware type of the
             target system partition. Options for <firmware> are 'UEFI',
             'BIOS', or 'ALL'.

  /addlast   Specifies that the windows boot manager firmware entry
             should be added last. The default behavior is to add it
             first.

  /bcdclean  Clean the BCD Store. By default, simply removes any duplicate
             entries in the BCD. Can be followed by 'full'. In this case,
             each entry is scanned. If the corresponding device for that entry
             does not exist, the entry is deleted.

  /p         Specifies that the windows boot manager firmware entry
             position should be preserved. If entry does not exist,
             new entry will be added in the first position.

  /c         Specifies that any existing objects described by the template
             should not be migrated.

Examples: bcdboot c:\windows /l en-us
          bcdboot c:\windows /s h:
          bcdboot c:\windows /s h: /f UEFI
          bcdboot c:\windows /m {d58d10c6-df53-11dc-878f-00064f4f4e08}
          bcdboot c:\windows /d /addlast
          bcdboot c:\windows /p

Code:

R:\boot>bootsect /?

bootsect {/help|/nt60|/nt52} {SYS|ALL|<DriveLetter>:} [/force] [/mbr]

Boot sector restoration tool

Bootsect.exe updates the master boot code for hard disk partitions in order to
switch between BOOTMGR and NTLDR.  You can use this tool to restore the boot
sector on your computer.

Run "bootsect /help" for detailed usage instructions.

cereberus said:

I believe Rufus can do this.

It is a pity wintousb now charge for doing it since 1809.

Yes, Rufus does now. Forgot about that. That would be the easy way.

Would Create Windows 10/8/8.1/7 Bootable USB with AOMEI Partition Assistant work ? Haven't done a windows on a stick in a long time but I always used Backupper with MBR.

How to Create a Portable Windows USB Flash Drive