Using external storage as primary partition

Question

My PC is a Laptab and hence has very low internal storage. i.e just 32 GB that is totally not suitable for a device running windows 10, cuz OS files itself are eating up more than half of the storage. So i wanna know that suppose I have a pendrive of 128 GB, then can i install windows 10 in that pendrive and use it like our internal hard disk. That is my pendrive becomes Local Disc C: (The primary partition containing the OS). If this is possible, can i put everything on my current hard drive into the pen drive is use it like nothing has changed.

Answer 1

According to FreeBooter-How to Create a Portable Windows USB Flash Drive http://geekpolice.forumotion.com/t30910-how-to-create-a-portable-windows-usb-flash-drive
You can refer to the following steps:

1. Open the Command Prompt by typing cmd.exe into Start Screen or Start Menu, right-click on Cmd.exe, and open it as an administrator.

2. Type diskpart and press Enter key.

3. Type list disk and press Enter key. This displays a list of disks in your PC. Make a note of the number for the USB flash drive (1, 2, etc.).

4. Type select disk n, where n represents the disk number for your USB flash drive.

5. Type clean and press Enter key to prepare the drive for formatting.

6. Type create partition primary and press Enter key.

7. Type format fs=ntfs quick and press Enter key.

8. Type active and press Enter key to make the newly created partition the active (bootable) partition.

   Enlarge image Show full size

9. Type assign letter=u and press Enter key, to temporarily assign a drive letter to the flash drive so you can install Windows onto it.

10. Type Exit and press Enter key to exit Diskpart.

    Enlarge image Show full size

11. Now place your Windows installation DVD into your DVD drive or mount your ISO image as a drive. You can mount ISO images natively in Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 by right-clicking them and selecting Mount from the options that appear. In Windows 7 you will need a third-party utility such as WinISO.

    Enlarge image Show full size

12. Back at the Command Prompt type dism /apply-image /imagefile=f:\sources\install.wim /index:1 /applydir:u:\ where f: is the location of your ISO file or DVD and u: is the USB flash drive. This will copy the Windows installer image to the flash drive and takes around 8GB of space, i recommend size of the USB Flash Drive to be at least 30GB. When you download a Windows 10 or 8 ISO file, by using the Media Creation tool, you will realize that there is an "install.esd" file under the "sources" folder (X:\Source\install.esd). If you have install.esd file instead of install.wim file in Source folder then execute dism /apply-image /imagefile=f:\sources\install.esd /index:1 /applydir:u:\ command.

    Enlarge image Show full size

13. Type bcdboot u:\Windows /s u: /f ALL and press Enter key, to set the USB flash drive as being bootable.

    Enlarge image Show full size

You can now boot your PC from the flash drive, but note that you may need to change the boot order setting in the BIOS/UEFI.

The initial setup process for the flash drive when you first start the PC from it can take some time, and it’s a good idea to do this on the PC you intend to repair, as moving the drive between different PCs especially with different BIOS/UEFI types can result in the flash drive not working on some machines or Windows believing the hardware it has been installed on has changed, and asking for a fresh product key.