I have a computer that comes with Windows 10 preinstalled, and I have installed some prerequisite applications. My laptop recently broke and I had to buy a new one. But Before that, I want to clone my Windows 10 computer mentioned above to a an external hard drive as a protable Windows, then I can take the Windows 10 external hard drive to my workplace to replace the damaged laptop. Is there any safe and efficient way to clone Windows 10 to an external hard drive as portable Windows 10?
The answer is yes, a powerful and reliable Portable Windows 10 Creator software WinToUSB has been developed by Hasleo Software. With the help of proprietary file system technology, WinToUSB can accurately copy Windows 10 from an internal hard disk to an external hard disk, and ensure that the cloned Windows 10 system can boot from USB on any computer that is compatible with Windows To Go.
WinToUSB is the world's first software that can clone Windows 10 to an external hard disk, with the help of it you can easily clone Windows 10 installation on an internal hard drive to an external hard drive as portalbe Windows 10. Please download and install the software first before heading to the next steps.
Tutorial to clone Windows 10 to an external hard drive as portable Windows 10 with WinToUSB.
Connect A Hard Drive Externally
The Best External Hard Drives and SSDs for Mac in 2020 About Whitson Gordon Whitson Gordon is a writer, gamer, and tech nerd who has been building PCs for 10 years. Out of the box, external hard drives are regularly formatted for a specific operating system. For instance, an external drive formatted for Windows 10 may have problems working with MacOS,. Installing an External Hard Drive on Windows 1. Find your computer's USB port. You'll usually find your computer's USB 3.0 or USB-C on one of the sides of the. Plug one end of the external hard drive's cable into the USB port. If the cable uses a USB 3.0 connection, it should. The external hard drive is the best way to transfer your data and keep your data secured. In this article, our editors have explained the best ways for using an external hard drive on your laptop. When you have a lot of data to be stored on your computer or laptop you will be confused whether you have to store it on your USB or you need to.
Step 1. Connect the external hard drive to the computer, then run WinToUSB.
Step 2. Click the button, then click 'Next'.
Step 3. Select the external hard drive in the drop-down list. If your external hard drive is not correctly recognized by WinToUSB, you need to click the button for the program to recognize the external hard drive.
Step 4. A pop-up will appear asking you if you want to format it to continue, select the partition scheme you want to use and click 'Yes' to format it. If you choose 'Keep the existing partition scheme', you need to manually prepare the partitions on the external hard drive before this step, and here is the user guide on how to manually prepare partitions for Windows To Go. Please note that the 'Keep the existing partition scheme' option is valid only for an external disk.
Step 5. Select the boot partition and system partition from the partition list, the selected partitions will be marked as red, then click 'Next'.
Step 6. After clicking 'Next', WinToUSB begins cloning Windows to the external hard drive.
Tips:- Please note that in some cases WinToUSB may need to create a WinPE and then reboot into the WinPE environment to complete the Windows cloning operation.
Step 7. It takes some time to clone. After the clone is successfully completed, restart the computer and change BIOS to boot from your external hard drive.
Follow these simple steps, you can easily clone Windows 10 to an external hard drive as portable Windows 10, including operating system, installed applications and system settings. In addition, you can also use WinToUSB to create portable Windows 8.
Related Guides
If you read my previous post about how to format an external drive for Mac, you know that I bought a 2TB Seagate Expansion external hard drive and managed to create two partitions on the disk — one for Mac backup purposes, and the other for personal use.
In this article, I'm going to show you how to back up your Mac data to an external drive. You should back up your Mac on a regular basis, especially if you're planning to perform macOS updates.
I did this several weeks ago while preparing my MacBook Pro for a system update. You may also be interested in taking a look at the macOS Catalina slow issues we encountered during that process just in case you also want to upgrade your Mac to the latest operating system.
Please note that the backup tool that I used is Time Machine, a built-in app provided by Apple. If you want to back up your Mac data without using Time Machine, there are also other third-party Mac backup software worth considering.
Where is Time Machine on Mac?
Time Machine is a built-in app within macOS ever since OS X 10.5. To find it, click on the Apple logo on the top left corner of your screen, then select System Preferences.
In the Preferences Pane, you'll see the app located between 'Date & Time' and 'Accessibility'.
What does Time Machine Backup?
Time Machine is the easiest way to back up Mac. And the app is created and recommended by Apple. Once you have a timely backup, it's incredibly easy to restore all or part of your data in case of accidental deletion or a hard drive crash.
So, what kind of data does Time Machine backup? Everything!
Photos, videos, documents, applications, system files, accounts, preferences, messages, you name it. They all can be backed up by Time Machine. You can then restore your data from a Time Machine snapshot. To do so, first open Finder, then Applications, and click on Time Machine to continue.
Be aware that the recovery process can be only be conducted when your Mac can start up normally.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Backing up Mac to an External Hard Drive
Note: the screenshots below are taken based on an older macOS. If your Mac is running Mojave or Catalina, they will look slightly different but the process should be similar.
Step 1: Connect your external hard drive.
First, use the USB cable (or USB-C cable if you're on the newest Mac model with Thunderbolt 3 ports) that comes with your external drive to connect that drive to your Mac.
Once the disk icon shows up on your desktop (if it doesn't, open Finder > Preferences > General, and here make sure you've checked 'External disks' to let them show on the desktop), move on to Step 2.
Step 2: Select the disk for backup.
Now open Time Machine (I tell you how above) and select the disk you want to use. I have partitioned my Seagate drive into two new volumes, 'Backup' and 'Personal Use', as you see from the screenshot. I chose 'Backup'.
Step 3: Confirm backup (optional).
If you have used another disk for backup before, Time Machine will ask you whether you want to stop backing up to the previous disk and use the new one instead. It's up to you. I selected 'Replace'.
Step 4: Wait until the process is complete.
Now Time Machine will start to backup all your data. The progress bar gives you an estimate of how much time is left before the backup is complete. I found it a bit inaccurate: Initially, it said 'About 5 hours remaining', but it only took two hours to finish. It's worth noting that the remaining time may vary from case to case depending on the write speed of your external hard drive.
After about an hour and a half, it says only 15 minutes remaining
Step 5: Eject your external drive and unplug it.
When the backup procedure is completed, don't rush to disconnect your device as this could cause potential disk problems. Instead, go back to the main desktop, locate the volume that your external hard drive represents, right-click and select Eject. Then, you can safely unplug the device and put it in a safe place.
Final Words
Like any other hardware device, an external hard drive will fail sooner or later. It's best to make a copy of the data on your external drive — as they say, a 'backup of your backups'!
One good option is to use cloud storage services like iDrive which I've been using and I really like the app because it's super easy to use, and it also allows me to download Facebook photos automatically. Backblaze and Carbonite are also popular options in the market, though I am yet to give them a try.
External Hard Drive Buying Guide
I hope you find this tutorial helpful. I can't emphasize enough the importance of data backup these days, especially when my mid-2012 MacBook hard drive died all of a sudden. I've also seen cases where my friend's computer and hard drive failed. You can imagine their desperation. Without a proper backup, it's really hard to restore data. Although you could try a third-party data recovery program, chances are they won't get all your lost data back.
How To External Hard Drives Work
Anyway, the main takeaway I want you to have from this article is this: back up your Mac with Time Machine or another app, and create a second or third copy of those backups if you can.
