Here’s how to do a clean install of Windows 11 on an External Hard Disk
So Windows 11 is out in beta. You want to try it but don’t want to risk your data or system stability because it’s your main computer, or maybe, like me, you want to stick to the current Insider Channel and don’t want to move to Dev Channel because it might entail buggy experience. Here’s a way to do a clean install on a different hard disk so you don’t lose your data. Plus, this will also ensure that you don’t carry over any problematic software/drivers and that’ll give you the cleanest, best case scenario of a Windows 11 experience. This will also allow you to check how well your hardware works with a clean Windows 11 install.
Here’s a couple of things to know first:
This does not guarantee a bug free experience, because these are still Insider builds from the Dev Channel. This means that these are just for testing and reporting bugs back to Microsoft. Doesn’t mean you can't use them on a daily basis, just means that you shouldn’t rely on the installation.
This is a guide for x86_64 (64 bit) computers. Windows 11 doesn’t support 32 bit computers anymore, and if your device runs Windows 10 well, there’s a 99.9% chance that it'll be 64bit.
You’ll need an additional Windows 10 Pro/Home License if you want to keep the installation for more than 30 Days, because that’s how long Windows’ trial period is. You’ll keep getting annoying notifications after this period to activate and you won’t be able to customize your PC without said activation, and you will have to keep reinstalling Windows to get the full experience every thirty days from scratch. This is a different license than your current Windows license, that won’t get affected by this installation.
Windows 11 requires UEFI to boot, so PCs or Laptops that don’t have UEFI will not be able to boot Windows 11 (maybe there’s a hacky way?). This shouldn’t be a problem on systems with motherboards from 2013 or later or laptops from this era.
As mentioned, these are Dev builds, and a new version of Windows. There have been no driver updates or releases for Windows 11 yet, so automatic installation of drivers might not work. Keep the offline installers for drivers downloaded.
If you have selected Windows 11 Home, you’ll most likely need an internet connection. This is a requirement officially but not sure if its implemented yet in Dev builds..
An SSD is really recommended. Running Windows 10 (or now 11)on spinning disks isn’t something you should do to yourselves because they’re are too slow to have a smooth experience on Windows 10.
Connect your SSD to a USB 3.0 or higher port. Stupid instruction but easy to miss. Even if you do this, the system won't run as fast as it would on your internal SSD because it’s on a USB port and this greatly reduces latency, so keep that in mind.
Don’t update your BIOS from Windows 11. This maybe an instruction for a very niche group of people but if for whatever reason there’s an update for your BIOS and you want to install it (some PCs and laptops can update their BIOSes from Windows itself instead of rebooting to BIOS), install it from Windows 10. Some users on reddit have reported Windows not being able to boot after this.
KEEP ONLY THE SSD/HARD DISK YOU WANT TO INSTALL WINDOWS 11 ON ATTACHED TO THE SYSTEM. IF YOU CONNECT MORE THAN ONE, IT MAYBE DIFFICULT TO IDENTIFY WHICH ONE IS WHICH WHEN SETTING UP THE VM AND YOU MAY END UP LOSING YOUR DATA IF YOU FORMAT THE DISK DURING INSTALLATION.
Let’s get started. To do this, you’ll need:
- VMWare Workstation (Pro Trial)
- Windows 11 ISO
Get VMWare Workstation Pro from here, open the installer and its mostly clicking next and accepting the UAC prompts till it’s installed. I’d recommend installing the Enhanced keyboard driver, but it’s not necessary. At the end of the install, click on Finish and not License, the License option is only there if you have a VMWare license. Reboot the PC after installation completes.
To get the Windows 11 ISO, go here, click on x64, click on Cumulative update for Windows 11 (whichever is the latest). Select language and click next, select your Windows 11 edition (select only one), click Next and click Create Download Package. This will start the download of a ZIP file, open this file and extract the contents to a folder. Navigate to the folder from file explorer, open uup_download_windows.cmd. Windows will show a security warning, this is just because it’s a cmd file, you can go ahead and click on more info, then on run anyway. After this, the command window will do everything itself. It downloads the required files from Microsoft CDN servers, checks the required files and compiles an ISO file from it which should be in the directory where you extracted the ZIP file. This may take time depending on your internet speed (the download is 3–4GB in size) and your processor speed because creating ISO files is like creating ZIP files-it depends on how fast your processor can compress and store data. After the file is created, we open VMWare. Remember to only attach that disk to your computer where you want to install Windows 11, disconnect any other drives before opening VMWare.
The first time VMWare Workstation Pro opens, it’ll ask you if you want to enter a license key or start a trial, click on the second option, then on Continue, then on Finish.
Next, click on create a new virtual machine, click on Custom (Advanced), Next, again Next, click on Installer Disk Image File (ISO), then browse. Navigate to where we just created our ISO. Double click on the file so it’s selected, then click next.
Here, select Microsoft Windows, then Windows 10 x64 from the dropdown list (this may be selected by default), then click next. Give your VM a name, click next, select UEFI, next, then from the dropdown for number of cores per processor, select 2 (should be the default selection).
Next, we have to assign RAM to our newly created Virtual Machine. Give 4GB (type 4096 in the text box) because that’s the minimum.
Click Next until you get to the Select a Disk dialog. Here, select Use an physical Disk, click Next (click Yes on UAC prompt), select PhysicalDrive1 from the drop down (make sure you’ve disconnected all other drives).
Then select Use Entire Disk if you want to use the entire disk space for Windows 11 or Use Individual Partitions if you have a partition ready for the installation- it doesn’t matter if you select the first or the second option, you have to configure the partitioning in the Windows installer itself. Click Next twice, then review the machine settings, and click finish.
We’re almost done! Now this is the last and very important step.
Click on Power on this Virtual Machine, click into the VM when the index finger appears, then tap on any key to “boot into CD or DVD”. This will take us to the Windows installer. Check everything on the initial screen, click next, click install now. If you have a product key, provide it now. If not, click on I don’t have a product key. Click on I accept, then next, then on Custom: Install Windows only. Partition your disk according to your preferences, or just do a clean install by deleting all partitions (backup data on the disk before this).
Then select the partition or unallocated space, click next and wait till Windows installation finishes till installing updates. THIS IS IMPORTANT: Next, the installer will show “rebooting in 10 seconds”.
At this step, click on the drop down in VMWare beside the Pause button, click on Power Off and then Power Off again on the next dialog box. At this point, we have installed Windows to the disk.
Next and Final step is booting into the disk on your machine and letting the installation continue. To do this, go to the BIOS and set the disk boot priority (different for different laptops and motherboards), OR, if your PC allows it, keep pressing F8 till a boot menu occurs (yours might have a different key for this), then select the external hard disk. If you boot into your current Windows install, you probably selected the wrong one, so repeat the above step. The Windows installation will now continue, so wait till you get to the setup.
And Done. You’ve now installed Windows 11 on a second hard disk. You still have your original Windows 10 install intact. Go through the setup and you’ll eventually get to the desktop. This setup very much looks like setting up an android if you ask me.
If this post helped, you can buy me a coffee on Paypal if you wish:-)