Booting W10 from a USB ext (SSD/NVMe) drive?...keeps starting and then failing...?

[jmc111]

Two ext M.2 NVMe USB enclosures with my 1809 W10 boot drive and one SSD USB with a "clean 20H2 install" boot drive fail to boot.
They all try a bit then hang.

There must be something I'm missing? (they all boot completely as internal drives)
My M.2 drive is below my graphic card so a real pain to test booting/installing from various M.2s etc.

Would be wonderful to be able to just plug in my W10 test installs with USB.

Thoughts Welcome.

[LogicalDrm]

Windows doesn't support external devices as boot. The feature was supported for awhile with Windows To Go, but support for that has been removed https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/planning/windows-to-go-overview

[jmc111]

Thank you so much!
I can quit beating my head against a brick wall. :)

Hmm, I'll see If an adapter card will boot.

[Tan3l6]

There are options to boot from USB drive to 10 ... but it takes a bit of time.

https://www.techspot.com/article/1751-windows-to-go/

 

By the way Rufus has an option to "Create Windows To Go USB Drive"

 

  

5 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

The feature was supported for awhile with Windows To Go, but support for that has been removed

Hm, I had an official install on an external SSD. Should check if it works anymore.

[LogicalDrm]

57 minutes ago, Tan3l6 said:

Hm, I had an official install on an external SSD. Should check if it works anymore.

According to that linked article, as long as its older than 2004 patch, it will still work. I haven't read it further though so maybe there's something else said further down.