Is This Possible ?

[DnFx91]

So, i've not got round to trying this yet as its too much work for it to go wrong, but here is what i want to do.

 

I have a windows installation on my work PC which i would rather not have to rebuild, i would rather shit in my hand and clap to be completely honest. This Installation is going to be nuked so i can fall in line with bullshit company procedure and run a domain OS on my machine, but i want to keep my OS and boot it from an external USB drive using windows-to-go.

 

I am aware that this OS will not boot through USB under normal circumstances as it was installed over SATA, however i am wondering if i can make a fresh bootable windows-to-go workspace on an external drive, and then replace it's NTFS partition with the NTFS partition from my beloved OS, and then have it be bootable through USB. Is this possible ?

 

As a further note this would make it really easy for people trying to clone their OS onto a new drive without having to deal with drive size issues and shit, as long as this is actually possible.....

[ProjectBox153]

I've never had any issue booting any machine from USB from a drive with Windows installed, even through SATA. Just try to boot it from USB and see if it works. You don't have to mess with Windows-To-Go. 

[DnFx91]

Just now, Jamiec1130 said:

I've never had any issue booting any machine from USB from a drive with Windows installed, even through SATA. Just try to boot it from USB and see if it works. You don't have to mess with Windows-To-Go. 

ah that's odd as i've always found the opposite, i have gotten as far before as to put a windows drive into a USB adapter and try boot it, it shows the bootloader from boot select menu but it can never make it into desktop, always the same bluescreen "inaccessible boot device"

 

what in particular do you do to make it work ?

[ProjectBox153]

Just now, DnFx91 said:

ah that's odd as i've always found the opposite, i have gotten as far before as to put a windows drive into a USB adapter and try boot it, it shows the bootloader from boot select menu but it can never make it into desktop, always the same bluescreen "inaccessible boot device"

 

what in particular do you do to make it work ?

I've never had to do anything. Occasionally i'll run into an issue if I move from AMD to Intel, but I don't do that much. Try the Work PC drive and see. 

[DnFx91]

6 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

I've never had to do anything. Occasionally i'll run into an issue if I move from AMD to Intel, but I don't do that much. Try the Work PC drive and see. 

yep, same thing. just tried to boot my work PC's SSD over USB on a dell precision, it can see the bootloader but cant get to desktop, same bluescreen. is it a UEFI/Legacy thing ? 99% of what i have at my disposal is UEFI

[mikat]

If you're dealing with partitions and such, try using a linux live usb stick  just use rufus to put ubuntu on a usb key and copy your partitions with gparted

[DnFx91]

2 minutes ago, mikat said:

If you're dealing with partitions and such, try using a linux live usb stick  just use rufus to put ubuntu on a usb key and copy your partitions with gparted

yeah man i'm fully aware i can do that, im asking if it will work, before i waste a few hours fiddling with partedmagic and clonezilla. Dont really want to just clone the NTFS partition over and find out that it won't boot on the other side.