This, however, should be considered as a last resort as the drive can only factory reset Windows itself hence, your data and applications that reside on the PC will be wiped clean. For Windows 10 and 11, it comes down to two out-of-the-box options: Recovery from a USB drive and System Image Backup.įor the first method, you first go through a wizard in Windows to set up a USB drive, which can later boot up the system on its own to begin the recovery process. When catastrophe strikes and it is no longer feasible to find a solution in a timely manner, it’s crucial to have a fail-safe. System Recovery on a Flash DriveĪt some point, you might come across issues when Windows is damaged beyond repair. Try this only on a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (or faster) SSD with UASP and TRIM support especially if there are some heavy-duty apps that also run off the same drive as the operating system.

Lastly, we don’t recommend installing Windows on thumb drives given out at trade shows.

It’s fair considering Microsoft sees the change of hardware configuration upon detection by Windows as a license transfer between systems. Note you will consistently run into licensing issues as an MS account verification process is required every time you move your bootable Windows USB stick from one machine to another. The workaround makes it possible for users to do a clean install of Windows 11 on a flash drive or to simply prepare a USB install drive. Recently, these utilities are now updated with the ability to bypass Windows 11’s TPM 2.0 requirement on a PC. While both software has a pretty good track record for performing a clean installation of Windows on external storage, WinToUSB also allows for cloning an existing system to another drive. The former provides a free version for non-commercial use whereas the latter is an open-source app. Luckily, we have no shortage of tools for that, with WinToUSB and Rufus immediately coming to mind. Microsoft nixing support for Windows To Go has left users with only third-party tools to create a bootable Windows on a USB Drive.

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