By Sophia | Last Updated
External hard drive is not only a simple storage device, but also can be a bootable media. A bootable Windows external hard drive generally enables you to access your own operating system in any Windows computer by booting the Windows computer from the external hard drive. So, how to make a bootable Windows external hard drive? Here are 4 ways for you to make an external hard drive bootable in Windows.
Command Prompt(CMD) is a useful and free tool to make a bootable Windows external hard drive, but it's complex to run it in some way. It's suggested to try this way if you are familiar with operating CMD.
Step 1: Connect the external hard drive to your Windows computer.
Step 2: Type CMD in the start menu and run it as admin.
Step 3: In the open CMD, execute the following commands.
Step 4: Insert the DVD with the Windows installation files into the computer and then run CMD again.
Step 5: Burn the installation files into the external hard drive with the commands here.
If your Windows OS's version is Windows 10 Enterprise/Education/Pro or Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, you can also apply this way.
Preparations:
Step 1: Connect the certified external hard drive to the Windows computer.
Step 2: Open Control Panel and view the options by Small icons. Then click Windows To Go.
Step 3: Select the certified external hard drive and click Next.
Step 4: Click Add search location to search for the Windows installation ISO file and choose it.
Step 5: Set a BitLocker password for the external hard drive or not.
Step 6: Hit Create to begin making the bootable Windows drive.
If your computer does not have the built-in Windows To Go feature, you can use iSunshare WinToGo Genius to make an external hard drive bootable. This software is the powerful Windows To Go alternative to create the portable Windows on USB drive and external hard drive. It can easily create a bootable Windows external hard drive with your current Windows operating system.
Step 1: Install iSunshare WinToGo Genius on your Windows computer and then launch it. Connect the external hard drive with enough space to your computer. You should back up the data in external hard drive in advance.
Step 2: Select the target external hard drive and then check the current system information. You can see that the default option to create portable Windows on external hard drive is set as Use the PE file on your computer.
Step 3: Click on the Start button and the software will tell you that this operation will format the target drive. Make sure you have created a backup file of the data in target drive. After that, click the Yes button to proceed.
Step 4: Then iSunshare WinToGo Genius will start creating the PE on your external hard drive. When the progress bar reaches 100%, you will get a prompt with the successful message.
Step 5: Shutdown your computer and then start the computer from your external hard drive. You need to enter the BIOS settings and then set the external hard drive as the first boot option. After that, press Enter on your keyboard.
Step 6: When your computer successfully boot from the external hard drive, you just need to wait for the portable Windows to be created on the external hard drive. It may take a long time in this process.
Step 7: You will get the successful prompt which tells you the portable system is made on the target drive. Now you get a windows system which is the same as your computer OS at the external hard drive. What's more, you can directly boot the computer from the external hard drive without installing.
Instead of burning the Windows installation ISO file into the external hard drive, this way makes the external hard drive bootable by directly copying the current Windows OS to the hard drive. It is much easier than the above two methods and everyone can make it done.
This way can be used in the following situations.
Step 1: In the Windows computer, download and install the software-iSunshare CloneGo which can clone Windows OS and partition completely and easily.
Step 2: Connect the external hard drive with enough storage to the Windows computer.
Step 3: Launch CloneGo and click the Copy option in the left pane.
Step 4: Choose the system partition(usually the C drive) as the source partition and select the external hard drive to be the target partition.
Tips: As the target disk will be formatted, please backup the important data in the external hard drive in advance.
Step 5: To make the external hard drive bootable, make sure that the option Set the target partition as the boot disk is checked.
Step 6: Execute the copy operation by hitting the Start button.
To use the bootable Windows external hard drive, you can restart the Windows computer and set the boot menu to boot the computer from the external hard drive.
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