How to install multiple Windows to the same USB drive as portable multiboot Windows USB drive?

I have an external hard drive that current has Windows 10 installed on it. Can I create a 2nd partition on the drive and install Windows 11 on it using Hasleo WinToUSB? Thanks.

In some cases we may want to install multiple Windows operating systems to the same USB drive as a portable Windows USB drive for our work needs. Unfortunately, WinToUSB does not support directly installing multiple Windows to the same USB drive, but you can do it manually with the help of Hasleo WinToUSB. Hasleo WinToUSB provides a "Keep the existing partition scheme" feature that allows you to create Windows To Go using a custom partition layout, through which we can install multiple Windows to the same USB drive.

This tutorial will step by step introduce how to install multiple Windows operating systems to the same USB drive with the help of Hasleo WinToUSB. Please note that you must install the highest version of Windows last, for example you want to install Windows 8, 10 and 11 to the same USB drive, then you should install Windows 8, 10 first, and finally install Windows 11.

 

Tutorial to install multiple Windows to the same USB drive as a portable multiboot Windows USB drive with Hasleo WinToUSB.

Step 1. Connect the USB drive to the computer, create a small FAT32 partition (must be primary partition) as the only system partition on the USB drive and create a separate NTFS partition (must be primary partition) for each Windows operating system you want to install. In this tutorial we will install Windows 8, 10 and 11 to the same USB drive, as shown in the picture below.

Windows operating system can only be installed to the primary partition, we know that an MBR disk can only have up to 4 primary partitions, and one of the primary partitions will be used as the system partition, so we can only install up to 3 Windows operating systems to a MBR USB drive. If you want to install more than 3 Windows operating systems to the same USB drive, you should use the GPT disk format, but please note that you will only be able to boot Windows on UEFI computers if you use the GPT disk format.

Step 2. Run WinToUSB and install Windows 8 to F: and G: (select F: as system partition and G: as boot partition) by selecting the "Keep the existing partition scheme" option.

Step 3. Please manually format the system partition (F: drive) to the FAT32 file system format.

Step 4. Run WinToUSB and install Windows 10 to F: and H: (select F: as system partition and H: as boot partition) by selecting the "Keep the existing partition scheme" option.

Step 5. Please manually format the system partition (F: drive) to the FAT32 file system format.

Step 6. Run WinToUSB and install Windows 11 to F: and I: (select F: as system partition and I: as boot partition) by selecting the "Keep the existing partition scheme" option.

Step 7. After installation restart the computer and change BIOS to boot from the USB drive.

Step 8. Since Windows 11 is the last Windows operating system installed, Windows 11 normal installation starts up and you have to complete all the Windows 11 installation steps.

Step 9. After the installation is complete, boot Windows from the USB drive. Assign drive letters to the system partition and other partitions on which Windows is installed, as shown in the picture below.

If the USB drive is in the GPT disk format, you will not be able to assign a drive letter to the system partition using Windows Disk Manager, please use diskpart to assign a drive letter to the partition.

Step 10. Run cmd.exe as a administrator, then run "bcdboot.exe D:\Windows /s J: /f all" (D: is the the drive letter for Windows 8 partition, J: is the the drive letter for system partition) in cmd.exe to add Windows 8 to the Windows boot menu.

Step 11. Run "bcdboot.exe E:\Windows /s J: /f all" in cmd.exe (E: is the the drive letter for Windows 10 partition, J: is the the drive letter for system partition) to add Windows 10 to the Windows boot menu.

Step 12. Restart the computer and choose to boot from a USB drive, you can now choose to boot different operating systems from this USB drive.

 

Follow these simple steps, you can install multiple Windows to the same USB drive as portable multiboot Windows USB drive with the help of Hasleo WinToUSB. After that, you can choose to boot different Windows operating systems from this USB drive to meet your different working environment requirements.