Windows 10 is an operating system for personal computers manufactured by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It is the successor to Windows 8.1 and was released on July 15, 2015. For retail sale July 29, 2015. Windows 10 receives updates on an ongoing basis that are available to all users at no additional cost.
Windows 10 can be installed from a Microsoft licensed disc or through their official website. The operating system is supported via USB, DVD or CD. But installing Windows 10 to an external hard drive can be tricky. We have prepared for you some of the easiest ways to install the Windows 10 operating system on an external hard drive.
How do I install Windows 10 to an external hard drive?
If you try to use the media tool to create a bootable external hard drive, then you might get an error. Therefore, during the installation process, we will make sure that no errors occur and that the bootable hard disk has been successfully created.
- Connect an external hard drive via USB port.
- Enter “This PC” in the search bar on the taskbar.
- Right-click the This PC icon and select Manage.
- In the Computer Management window, double-click on Disk Management under the Storage heading on the left side.
- It takes a few minutes to recognize the hard drives connected to your computer.
- After all hard drives connected to your computer are displayed, right-click on the name of your external hard drive and click “Format”.
- Select “File Type” as “NTFS” and check the “Quick Format” box before clicking OK.
- A warning will appear stating that all files on the hard drive will be lost, select OK if you want to continue.
- It only takes a few seconds and your hard drive will be NTFS formatted.
- Now that your drive is in NTFS format, download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft.
- After the tool has finished downloading, run it.
- The preparation will take a few minutes, after which you will be prompted to “update your computer” or “Create installation media” – select “Create installation media”.
- You will now be prompted to select your language, architecture, and Windows version.
- Select the option “use recommended settings” or edit it to suit your parameters and click “Next”.
- After that, you need to choose which medium you want to use, select the ISO option and click “Next”.
- Now select the ISO download path and click Save. This will download the Windows 10 ISO to the location you specified.
- Now download the WindowsToUSB program.
- Once fully downloaded, run the program and install it.
- After the program is installed, open it and click OK on the window.
- Click on “Browse For Folder” in the upper right corner and select the path where you downloaded the Windows 10 ISO.
- Select the version of Windows 10 you want to install and click Next.
- Select your external hard drive from the list that appears.
- Select your hard drive in the System Partition and Boot Partition options, make sure Legacy is selected, and click Next.
- Now wait while Windows installs to your external hard drive. In the meantime, there is no need to worry about it. ”
- Once the program is installed, restart your computer and press F2, Del or F12 to enter BIOS.
- From the BIOS menu, select Boot Options and then Boot Mode for Legacy Support and Boot Priority for Legacy First.
- Now save all your changes and restart your computer.
- After all the manipulations, Windows 10 must be installed on the “External Hard Drive”. You will be able to use your system remotely, on any computer that supports this feature.