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External USB Install Question - Printable Version

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External USB Install Question - sig8 - 12-29-2017

Does the external USB drive have to be completely empty and formatted in order to install Windows 10 on it?

I have a 4TB external USB drive with lot of music files on it. I intend to create a small partition on this drive and install Win 10 on that. Let me know how to do that. I can clone or use an iso for install. Thanks.


RE: External USB Install Question - admin - 12-29-2017

(12-29-2017, 05:05 AM)sig8 Wrote: Does the external USB drive have to be completely empty and formatted in order to install Windows 10 on it?

I have a 4TB external USB drive with lot of music files on it. I intend to create a small partition on this drive and install Win 10 on that. Let me know how to do that. I can clone or use an iso for install. Thanks.

A 4T disk typically use the GPT partitioning scheme, and the GPT disk can only boot UEFI-based computers, so please make sure your computer is a UEFI-based computer. When a UEFI-based computer is powered up, the UEFI firmware will launche the UEFI bootloader from the EFI system partition (ESP), the ESP must be a FAT32 partition, so you have to create a ESP on the GPT disk. WinToUSB does not require completely empty disk, but the partition layout on the disk must meet the requirements. Please refer to step 2 of the user's Guide for more information:
https://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/faq/en_US/How-to-use-WinToUSB-ISO-To-USB.html


RE: External USB Install Question - sig8 - 12-30-2017

(12-29-2017, 11:42 AM)admin Wrote:
(12-29-2017, 05:05 AM)sig8 Wrote: Does the external USB drive have to be completely empty and formatted in order to install Windows 10 on it?

I have a 4TB external USB drive with lot of music files on it. I intend to create a small partition on this drive and install Win 10 on that. Let me know how to do that. I can clone or use an iso for install. Thanks.

A 4T disk typically use the GPT partitioning scheme, and the GPT disk can only boot UEFI-based computers, so please make sure your computer is a UEFI-based computer. When a UEFI-based computer is powered up, the UEFI firmware will launche the UEFI bootloader from the EFI system partition (ESP), the ESP must be a FAT32 partition, so you have to create a ESP on the GPT disk. WinToUSB does not require completely empty disk, but the partition layout on the disk must meet the requirements. Please refer to step 2 of the user's Guide for more information:
https://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/faq/en_US/How-to-use-WinToUSB-ISO-To-USB.html

I was able to create the bootable external USB drive as suggested. The motherboard which had the WIndows install was a fairly new Gigabyte LGA1151 Intel Z170 ATX DDR4 Motherboards GA-Z170X-UD5 TH. I took the USB drive and connected it to an older computer with a motherboard Intel DN2800MT Marshalltown Mini-ITX, and it would not boot. Please let me know the reason. Thanks.


RE: External USB Install Question - admin - 01-02-2018

(12-30-2017, 11:16 AM)sig8 Wrote:
(12-29-2017, 11:42 AM)admin Wrote:
(12-29-2017, 05:05 AM)sig8 Wrote: Does the external USB drive have to be completely empty and formatted in order to install Windows 10 on it?

I have a 4TB external USB drive with lot of music files on it. I intend to create a small partition on this drive and install Win 10 on that. Let me know how to do that. I can clone or use an iso for install. Thanks.

A 4T disk typically use the GPT partitioning scheme, and the GPT disk can only boot UEFI-based computers, so please make sure your computer is a UEFI-based computer. When a UEFI-based computer is powered up, the UEFI firmware will launche the UEFI bootloader from the EFI system partition (ESP), the ESP must be a FAT32 partition, so you have to create a ESP on the GPT disk. WinToUSB does not require completely empty disk, but the partition layout on the disk must meet the requirements. Please refer to step 2 of the user's Guide for more information:
https://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/faq/en_US/How-to-use-WinToUSB-ISO-To-USB.html

I was able to create the bootable external USB drive as suggested. The motherboard which had the WIndows install was a fairly new Gigabyte LGA1151 Intel Z170 ATX DDR4 Motherboards GA-Z170X-UD5 TH. I took the USB drive and connected it to an older computer with a motherboard Intel DN2800MT Marshalltown Mini-ITX, and it would not boot. Please let me know the reason. Thanks.

Happy new year! As I have said above, the GPT disk can only boot UEFI-based computers, so please make sure the computer that you want to boot is a UEFI based computer.