By AOMEI / Last update December 10, 2024

Pay attention to the creation process of making Windows To Go, just in case your important data will be erased.

Introduction:

AOMEI Partition Assistant allows you to create a Windows To Go USB with only a few setups. What's more, the storage medium could be USB flash drive or external hard drive no matter it is certified with Windows To Go or not.

Now, here comes the question (refer to the title) due to the difference between USB flash drive and external hard drive. Normally, USB flash drive can only be recognized as one partition and you are unable to partition it in Windows. But, this isn't a problem for external hard drive. On the other hand, the essence of making Windows To Go is to install Windows on the partition of USB drive. That is to say, you are able to select the partition on the USB drive as destination. However, because of the destination differences we mentioned before, when using the USB flash drive as destination, the whole flash drive will be erased, while using an external hard drive as destination, only the data on the selected partition will be overwritten.

In addition, there are some other conditions that you need to pay attention:

  1. You need to prepare a 13 GB or larger USB drive. Also, it could be external USB hard drive.

  2. You need to prepare a Windows 7/8/10 installation disc or ISO file. The program can handle the ISO file, but we suggest you may extract it to a proper place then navigate the program to locate Install.wim or Install.esd file in this place.

  3. The creation of Windows To Go is time-consuming. However, if both the USB port of your computer and the USB drive are the latest USB 3.0 interface firmware, it will save much time.