We have already seen, in another article, how to put Windows 8 / 8.1 on USB drive to use it in a portable version thanks to a simple program that uses the Windows To Go utility. With this system it is possible for anyone to install Windows on a USB drive in order to carry it with them and use it on any computer as if this were ours.
Simply attach the USB drive and start that PC, instead of from the internal hard disk, from the USB socket of the computer.
Now let's take another step forward and instead of doing a new installation of Windows on the USB stick, let's see how to bring your PC, in full, copying it to a USB drive, so you can always start it and take it with you to use it on any other computer .
To do this you must use the new version of a program, already known for some time, WinToUSB which in addition to working with Windows 10 and Windows 8 also allows you to install Windows 7 on a USB drive with ease.
In practice, the existing installation of Windows is cloned to a USB drive which is made bootable when the computer is booted, becoming its own portable operating system .
The function is really very useful not only to always keep your PC with all programs, settings and personal data, but also to test without risking to damage the main installation and to have a full backup.
The only requirement is that, of course, the USB drive must have as much free space as it does on the computer disk .
The process is quite simple and requires only to download, for free, the WinToUSB program (choose the Local Download ).
The installation is regular and without sponsors or crapware so you can always press forward until completion and until you start the program as an administrator.
WinToUSB therefore presents 3 possibilities: one to install Windows 10, 8 or Windows 7 on the USB stick from ISO files, one to install it from CD and one to clone the PC hard disk to the USB drive.
If you prefer to have a clean and scratch installation of Windows 7, 10 or 8 on the USB stick, 8 or, better, 16 GB of space and the ISO are enough.
See here how to download the ISO of Windows 7 and how to download the installation disc for Windows 8.
To clone the current installation of Windows to the USB drive and make it bootable, you will have to choose the third option.
Going forward, the space occupied on the disk will be calculated and the Windows PE image file will be created which will include all data and all programs.
Once the WinPE image is ready, you will be asked to select the destination USB drive.
In choosing the partitions to include, in addition to the C disk which is usually the one where Windows is installed, you must also select the system partition, which should be no larger than 100 or 200 MB.
Go next and restart your PC.
The cloning process could take up to two hours depending on the size of the data occupied on the disk, so you will have to wait a bit.
In the end, the drive or USB stick created will be a perfect clone of your PC that you can boot, even on a different PC (hoping there are no conflicts with the drivers), changing the boot order in the BIOS / UEFI to boot from USB.
