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How to make a blank laptop SATA hard disk to Windows to Go as external drive?
#1
I have a blank SATA laptop hard drive and I want to make it Windows to Go. I have made it external USB drive by using a hard drive USB enclosure/caddy. I have tried all methods to make it Windows to Go but after everything (installation/making phase) completed, it failed to boot/run windows. I have already tried "USB Flash Drive" method and "External Drive" method and "Internal Drive" method (after creating System and Boot partitions) 100 times but nothing worked. Installation got completed 100% but unable to boot/run windows from same drive.

Please note, its a SATA 2.5 inch laptop internal hard drive which is converted to an external hard drive through a USB enclosure/caddy.

Please guide step-by-step..i.e..how to format..how to install..how to run. Thanks in advance.
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#2
Please convert the external hard drive to MBR partition scheme and create two or more patitions (one small FAT32 partition for the system partition, one NTFS partition for the boot partition, and other partitions for data partition), then use WinToUSB to create Windows To Go following the guide below:
http://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/faq/en_...ToUSB.html

The best partition layout is as follow:
Partition 1 FAT32 500M System partition
Partition 2 NTFS ...G Boot partition
Partition 3 ... ...G Other partition
... Other partition



In particular, both the system partition and boot partition must be primary partition, and we recommend using built-in Disk Management int Windows to partition and format the disk. This type of Windows To Go drive can boot both BIOS-based and UEFI-based computers.

Reference:
What are system partitions and boot partitions:
http://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/faq/en_...tions.html
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#3
The situation is:

>I have a UEFI tablet (Dell Venue 11 Pro) with no hard drive installed.
>I have created Windows To Go drive on "Sandisk Cruzer 16GB USB Flash" through Win-To-USB and its working fine on same system.
>I have created Windows To Go drive on "WD Passport 1TB HDD" through Win-To-USB and its also working fine on same system.

With above 2 drives, tablet boot and run Windows 10 from USB connection automatically and smoothly. But I need both drives for some other work. I have another spare Laptop Internal SATA 160GB HDD and I have converted it to external drive by using Orico USB 3.0 hard drive enclosure. When I created Windows To Go on this SATA, its not working on same tablet and said no bootable drive detected.

In my thinking, the hard drive I am using is not "external" hard drive. Its laptop internal SATA drive with USB enclosure. So you can say its external but technically is not actually external drive. The system is reading the actual thing and its need some extra file to get it worked.
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#4
Whether you purchased an external disk from vendor or converted a SATA drive with USB enclosure, they should be able to start Windows normally. Dell Venue One Pro is a BIOS based computer, GPT disk can not be started from this computer, do you confirm that you have converted this disk to MBR disk?
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#5
But the Windows To Go drive I have created on "Sandisk Cruzer 16GB USB Flash" through Win-To-USB and its working fine on same system, is formatted with option "GPT for UEFI", when 3 options provided during creation process in WinToUSB software.

So, if a GPT disk cannot be started with this tablet, how the GPT USB Flash drive is working smoothly?

[PS. I have just double checked and confirm that the USB Flash discussed above, is a GPT drive. Further to this, I have 3 more Dell Venue 11 Pro tablets and just checked that their bulit-in drives are GPT drives.]

And.....This is what I found on Dell website:
The Dell Venue 11 Pro will only boot UEFI mode. The USB flash drive used to install the OS must be configured to boot UEFI. First, create a UEFI bootable USB flash drive that can boot and run the Windows OS installer.
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#6
I'm sorry, I made a mistake, it's a UEFI based computer. You said 'When I created Windows To Go on this SATA, its not working on same tablet and said no bootable drive detected.', it seems that you started the external hard drive in the BIOS mode, you should start it in UEFI mode if it is a GPT disk.

We recommend that you prepare the partitions on the target disk as we said earlier and then create W2G, which ensures that the disk can work in BIOS and UEFI mode. Did you try it?
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#7
Yes. I tried it and it was not working at first. Below is what happened:

1.) I have converted the disk to MBR as you said and made total 3 partitions. System 500MB, Boot 40GB and Data 100+GB.
2.) Than I run WinToGo and created a drive successfully with same Windows 10 ISO file downloaded earlier.
3.) I connected the disk to the targeted tablet and switch it on. Its straightaway get to black screen with following message:
---------------------------------------------
No bootable devices found.
Press F1/VolumeUp key to retry boot.
Press F2/VolumeDown key for setup utility.
Press F5/Home key to run onboard diagnostics.
-------------------------------------------------------------
4.) Try to reboot many times (via first F1/Voume-Up option and power switch on-off) but ended up on same result.
5.) Than I restart and tried second option (F2/VolumeDown) and went to boot setup but there was no disk detected or boot options in list.
6.) Than I again restart and tried third option (F5/Home key) to run onboard diagnostics. But I didn't run any tests and just abort and exit.

Upon exit, tablet get auto restart and suddenly the Windows To Go disk got detected and start Windows loading/booting process with "Getting started" screen and its ended up on blue error screen (BSoD) with "Your PC ran into problem" message with following STOP CODE:

DRIVER UPLOADING WITHOUT CANCELLING PENDING OPERATIONS.

I repeat the above process many time. Every time, Windows To Go disk only detects/works after running (F5/Home key) onboard diagnostics and ended up on same BSoD i.e. DRIVER UPLOADING WITHOUT CANCELLING PENDING OPERATIONS.

[Note: The USB flash windows to go drive, which was created by same ISO and same process, still working smoothly.]
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#8
Is the Windows ISO a Windows 10 1809 installation ISO?
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