Some advice before I ruin it please?
Been running Bazzite HTPC for a couple weeks on newly built 7600x3d with a 7800xt. Having already played through Cyberpunk and Stalker 2 I would like to play some COD or Battlefield and know I would need to dual boot, but I see all the post about windows deleting peoples boot options and worse. Is there a better or best way to do this without risking the setup I love? Maybe putting the windows install on a removeable drive? I am sorry if these answers are already posted somewhere that I missed. I have only found a couple a couple Reddit threads that instructed seperate seperate physical drives and to install windows first, which in my case it is already too late for. (The windows first part. Im happy to buy more SSDs and have 2 more available slots on my MB.) Thank you for any and all advice and Merry Christmas to all.
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Try windows-to-go with Rufus on a fast external SSD (must be USB 3.2 or better) . Really saves a bunch of install headaches. Then set the default boot option to the external device. Whenever you want Windows plug in the external. When you don't unplug and you have Bazzite. If the Windows to go breaks, your Bazzite is still unaffected.
to add to this, you can do the whole windows to go install through a VM running windows, that way it will not even be aware of other EFI partitions during setup
works great on my travel dock with my legion go
Is there anywhere i could find a guide on this. Sorry, still new to this whole thing. Also, will an external drive be able to handle running windows and demanding games? Should i put the game files on a seperate internal?
If the external is an SSD or an external NVME you should be able to handle Windows 10, not sure about Windows 11. Here is a guide with doing it with Rufus https://www.intowindows.com/rufus-to-create-windows-to-go-usb-drive/. Just remember to use the Blue or Red USB ports else you might end up plugging into a USB 2.0 slot. Wouldn't be a bad idea putting the game files on a seperate internal drive if you have some huge games I guess but I'd only do that if you find that you have performance issues.
admin
Into Windows
Using Rufus To Create Windows To Go USB Drive
A complete guide to use the Rufus tool to create a Windows To Go USB drive running Windows 10 or the latest Windows 11.
Whenever an external SSD is involved your mileage may vary due to the difference in quality between products and revisions of them.
The biggest problem is when they rename stuff...e.g
So I decided to use my old laptop to create the windows drive. Its running windows 10 so no trouble using rufus on it. I have usb 3.2 2x2 enclosure and 1tb nvme coming tomorrow. I imagine creating the drive with the older laptop will take some time due to the slower usb speeds, but the motherboard on the deaktop it will be used on has 2 available 3.2 2x2 20gb/s ports.
Rufus has the options to:
1)Create windows to go
2)Remove the requirement for a microsoft account
3)Prevent the windows installation from accessing other internal drives
I figure it cant really hurt to give it a shot. Worst case scenario it doesnt work out as expected and I end up have to install the nvme in one of my open slots and setup a trafitional dual drive dual boot. Well, i supposed worst worst case would be i somehow lose all data on all drives, which would suck, but at the end of the day it just means a lot of time redownloading a few large games and reinstalling my OS.
Thanks for the tips. Ill post a follow up tommorrow evening and let you all know how it goes.
On a side note, i downloaded both the windows 10 and 11 isos. Any thoughts on which to choose, or opinions on where to purchase a product key?
windows 11
windows 10 is EOL in october 2025
One thing that I like to do is use this tool https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil and process the Windows 11 ISO with "MicroWin". You can strip out a bunch of the telemetry, the Microsoft account requirement (even pre-configure a username and password) and best of all it removes the installation ads. Takes like 20 minutes to process the ISO though. More in the docs https://christitustech.github.io/winutil/userguide/#microwin
and btw concerning 3) with Windows-to-go, internal drives are hidden from Windows by default iirc, you need to change settings to view the internal drives.
GitHub
GitHub - ChrisTitusTech/winutil: Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility...
Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility - Install Programs, Tweaks, Fixes, and Updates - ChrisTitusTech/winutil
Thanks for this. Reading through documentation now trying to get a handle on how to use.
Well, so far i dont know if ita a been a total failure, as i did get a functioning windows 11 working on the external nvme. Unfortunately i could not for the life of me get it to find my wifi adapter. I tried downloading the updated drivers direct from asus to a thumb drive and installing that way. No luck. After around 2 hours of tinkering i figured id try and start over. Waiting for the drive to format now.
You might find that there isn't a Windows 11 combatable driver for that wifi adapter so the full installation might give you the same issue. How old is the adapter?
I just built this system a month ago. Its an asus b650 tuff gaming motherboard with wifi built in.
Second try didnt work out either.
Im down to creating a regular instalation media, pulling my bazitte nvme out, putting in the one i want to install windows to. Then pulling it out and putting back in the enclosure after i go through the full installation process.
if you manually grab the drivers from their site? https://www.asus.com/supportonly/tuf%20gaming%20b650-plus%20wifi/helpdesk_download/
I mean the more i looked at it, the windows to go installation was missing a lot more then my wifi adapter. I could always attempt to run an ethernet cable and see if it fixes everything on ita own once it gets a connection.
First thing i tried was the drivers from the site
Oh yeah windows-to-go will have no drivers until you let windows download everything
Windows says they dont match anything
Thats what i figured.
It's weird that it didn't work, this driver was updated very recently
Might be less hassle to just buy a long ass cable and see if it fixes everything before i start swapping componenta in and out
I saw that too. Like a couple days ago
On the other hand they might have broke the wifi driver 4 days ago lol
I tried pount windows to the folder and nothing
Tried the install script too.
That thought did cross my mind as well
This is my first build. Installed bazzite and literally everything worked as it should. Not one driver headache or bit of unusable nonsense. Try installing windows and 5 houra later i want to jump out the window
The only issues i have had until today were a few stalker 2 crashes and getting my controller to work with that game early on. All things related to the game. The PC and OS have been painless, easy to use and navigate, fantastic image and framefrates. The more i struggle the more i just dont want to bother. Trouble is i really enjoy shooter campaigns and EA and Activision barred most of the good ones behind windows
When i creat the windows togo image in rufus and choose the selction to "prevent windows from accessing internal system drives" is there any way that could cause it not to see a wifi adapter? I know its probably a dumb question. Just trying to figure out why it seems blind
Worth a try. I know some USB wifi devices switch between a storage device (for it's drivers) and a actual Wifi device. Maybe by hiding the internal drives something weird is breaking. And since it's a built in device maybe it's getting seen as an internal disk drive that is hidden from the OS
Cheap ass douche bag jerks at asus. So i went to see maybe if an older driver would work and realized under the one we botg saw, only if you expand the selection, it tells you to download the correct driver for the chip on your motherboard. Its written anywhere easy to find on the board itself, but im a pack rat and still have the box...which actually listed 2 possibilities. The first was the first listed that we both saw on the website. The other is a different brand entirely and all the way at the end of the options list. Tossed it on the thumb drive and just like that we have wifi. Thanks for all the help. I will update after i get it up and running.
It's so strange seeing this the other way around. I'm so used to seeing "my wifi won't work on Linux" . Not my wifi won't work on Windows 11 😂
I am 1000% convinced that microsoft intentionally throws curveballs at AMD hardware.
In any case. Thank you for the help. I now have a functioning windows 11 system that does not have access to my internal drives. I need to do something aboutbthe obnoxious warnings every time i open any application, would love to set up exceptions per app but doesnt seem like windows allows that. I was concerned that running off an external might cause some performance degradation but it is running the new Call of Duty campaign at 1440, extreme settings, no upscaling and no frame gen at 140-170fps. So Im going to call this a win for now.
Glad to hear it. Windows to go does seem like a very viable option for installing Windows in it's own enclosed space.