Problems installing / cloning windows 10 to a new SSD  

I recently bought a new external portable USB SSD to replace an ageing and failing HDD. Stuck for cash i just bought the one that was lowest price tag. I have been struggling to either a) install a fresh copy of windows 10 on it or b) clone my current operating system from the HDD. I thought it would be a relatively straight forward process but I've encountered numerous problems and terms I'm not familiar with that I don't know how to proceed.

Before i go on the SSD it states not to format with NTFS as its not supported, but to use exFAT. Is this the problem?



I've made a windows 10 boot USB with the media creation tool, however i don't get further than this screen:



I also tried cloning with AEOMI but when i try to boot I get This error screen and unable to proceed:


I fear i may have incorrect BIOS settings as I've tried multiple solutions online which haven't solved it.

Help would be greatly appreciated

Win version: 1909

You can't do a normal install of Windows 10 to an external drive. You can't clone an internal drive to an external drive and then boot from the external drive. Was there some reason you did not buy an SSD to replace the HDD internally?

You can get Windows 10 booting from an external drive but you have to partition the drive manually and apply an image to the NTFS partition.

1) As NavyLCDR mentioned, you can't boot windows on an external drive, only internal.
2) For a strange reason, your external SSD drive can only be used if formatted as exFat. If you cloned the computer drive into the external SSD you have violate that rule as Windows has NTFS.

You have to format the external SSD back to exFat to be able to use it again.

In other words, your SSD external drive can only be used to store data and can only be formatted as exFat.
My suggestion is to make a system disk image using AOMEI or Macrium Reflect and save to the SSD external drive.

You actually can boot Windows 10 from an external drive. You just have to take special steps to do it - apply the image instead of using setup. I seriously doubt there is any physical limitation to formatting the SSD as NTFS. My guess is that it was sold as an SSD for Mac. Formatting it as NTFS would break it's use on a Mac, but would not physically harm the SSD.

Could either of you post how i would do either of your suggestions in a bit more detail. Just so i know its not me thats messing it up