WinToGo Free Version for W10 Pro

Ken429 said:

I'm back! I guess I was successful at creating a WTG W8.1 USB bootable after increasing the Virtual Disk from 14GB to 30GB. However, it is sooooo slow that I would say it is not a viable alternative - at least for me. I finally gave up and used WinToGo free version to send the output to an old 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD connected to a USB external device. That worked and it was very fast. The only issue - I could not boot the SSD via the USB external device?! But when I connected the SSD to a SATA port it booted and ran like any other OS on an SSD. That will get my original job done. I'm curious, has anybody actually created a usable WTG on a USB stick? What kind of USB device did you use? I was using HP 702 USB 3.0 drives (32,64 and 128GB) and they are relative fast when connected to a USB 3.0 port but apparently not fast enough to make a usable WTG device.

Problem with legacy bios usb flash drives is they do not always use usb3. Not sure if this is bios related.

Even then, you still need a good flash drive (at least 30-40/MB/s). The san cruzer extreme which is as fast as a hdd for writing and a lower end sdd for reading easily beats this (max usb2 is 60 MB/sss but rarely achieved). The SCE is not bad buy a bit sluggish.

However a uefi based ssd will be much faster as it can uses usb3.

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

I've tried various methods of getting Windows to Go to work for W10 PRO -- the AOMEI partition manager even has an integrated "Windows to go" creator but at the stage "browse to Windows installation location" -- i.e my W10 ISO it gets about half way extracting the WIM and then fails with a message like not a Valid Windows installation media --which is obviously 100% B/S since that's the iso I used for a CLEAN W10 install.

The W10 Enterprise version seems also to be hobbled to only run on "Certified devices" -- there's also nowhere on the Ms sites that I can find where I can get the "Imaging" program - on W8 I used GIMAGEX and you could download the ADK -- can't locate the W10 version of these (assuming there is one).

For those who are interested Windows 8.1 could easily create a Windows to Go on any USB device certified or not

How to Create a Windows To Go USB Drive Without the Enterprise Edition

Anybody managed to get ANY version of W10 as a bootable Windows to Go product on a non certified device (Enterprise vesrion or not). Note - I want a stand alone bootable version - not one using VHD files since those require an initial partial boot up of the HDD to mount the virtual disk(s).

The Windows to go should boot even if there's no HDD at all in the computer !!!!.

If you need to recover data either create a Win 8.1 windows to go as above - or if you know Linux get a live CD and use that -- Linux can read and write NTFS files these days.

I'd still be interested though if anybody has got W10 to go working on an ordinary (not certified) external USB device.

Cheers
jimbo

The official Windows To Go can only be done from Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education. And it will only create an Enterprise Windows To Go. If you try to use any other ISO it will reject it. The certified drive issue is to do with the thumb drive showing up as removable or fixed. Certified drives show up as fixed disks. Windows has issues with removable drives with more than one partition on them. Fixed disks don't have those restrictions. It's very restrictive in what you can use. My USB 3.0 Kingston Hyper X is rejected, but my slow as molasses 5400 RPM spinner laptop drive in a USB2 enclosure is accepted.

wptski said:

Old thread but I've tried many of the things above on a non-compatible WTG drive but never had much luck till I used Rufus. Once it worked with W10 Pro 64-bit v1607 but was slow from my legacy BIOS USB 2.0 port. I got a SanDisk SDCZ880-128G-G46 Extreme PRO 128GB USB 3.1 Solid State Flash Drive and runs at a decent speed.

The one issue it has is that it crashes if pulled unlike the supposedly compatible drives!

Things have changed as version 1703 now reads multiple partitions on a standard recoverable flash drive.

It is easy to create a "windows to go drive" even in UEFI mode now. Forget Rufus - a better tool is wintousb (UEFI boot manager, Windows To Go Creator, Free Data Recovery, All-in-One Microsoft Windows Setup software).

Down load tool, run it, select mbr for legacy bios, or gpt for uefi for eufi,
and click selection legacy rather than vhdx or vhd (for uefi as well) and it will create a bootable usb flash drive.

Of course, these are not true "windows to go" installs on certified drives, so removing usb whilst still running WILL crash things and could corrupt usb flash drive.

cereberus said:

Wintousb using UEFI boot manager, Windows To Go Creator, All-in-One Microsoft Windows Setup software - The EasyUEFI Development Team works fine in EUFI installs but menus can be confusing.

Should be faster in EUFI as well as usb3 does not always work in legacy bios mode (I could never get it to work on a usb legacy bios flash drive but it worked in uefi hard drive).

I do not know of anway of making it dual 32/64 boot from external drive though (beyond my paygrade ).

With changes in 1703, you can now create a bootable usb3 with a 32 bit install and 64 bit install.

You basically create one usb3 drive first with a 32 bit install using winto usb (uefi or mbr - click legacy rather than vhd even if a uefi install).

Boot from it and shrink OS partition to be slightly less than half of usb3 capacity. Then backup that partition using Macrium Reflect to another drive.

Now install a 64 bit usb version using wintousb wiping old install. Shrink OS drive to slightly less than half. Also recommend you delete recovery partition.

Then install Macrium Reflect Free and create a boot entry.

Now restore the 32bit version backup to unallocated space with Macrium.

Now reboot and select Macrium, and click "fix windows boot problems" and it will list both. Select next, finish and reboot.

You now have a flash drive with a 32bit install and 64bit install, selectable at boot time. Finally run macrium again to restore boot entry from 32bit install (as that will run on either 32bit or 64 bit).