Carry out a little caretakingīefore you start, you should spend some time freeing up as much space as possible. Just make sure you read the rest of this article before you begin because there are a few more things you need to do first.

We show you how to use WinToUSB in our Mini Workshop on page 61. It also improved the cloning process and fixed a number of important bugs. The program was recently updated to make it possible to ‘hot clone’ your operating system, which means you can clone your OS while it is running. Ideally, you want your target drive to be around 20% bigger than your source partition.įinally, you’ll need the free WinToUSB software (bit.ly/wtu452), which creates the Windows To Go version of your OS on the USB drive. This means spending a little more money but the outlay will be well worth it. That not all USB 3.0 drives are equal – you should buy the fastest you can find. Use EaseUS Partition Master Free to convert a GPT USB drive to MBR You can support the site directly via Paypal donations ☕.

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The drive you use should ideally support USB 3.0 or later, otherwise loading and using the operating system on it will be very slow. Our Windows installation, for example, is about 530GB in size and even if yours is smaller, it’s still likely to be too large for a basic, cheap memory stick. If, however, you’re cloning your existing Windows 10 installation – the one that you are running on your PC with all its customisations and preferences – then you will need a much, much larger drive. If you’re simply creating a new Windows To Go installation – that is, a clean version of Windows 10 – the drive you choose will need at least 32GB of free space. The first thing you need is a spare USB drive – but not any drive will do because there are some requirements to be aware of.

You just plug the drive into any USB port on any PC and boot into it. Windows 10 (and Windows 8, for that matter) comes with a feature called Windows To Go, which lets you build a portable version of the operating system you can run directly from a USB drive.

MINI WORKSHOP | Clone your existing Windows installation to USB.

Create a new, portable Windows 10 installation.

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