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I recently upgraded my HDD to an SSD. I would prefer for my work to have Linux on my SSD. However, I need to be able to boot windows as well. I already had a windows Installation on my HDD which I converted into a USB HDD via a HDD enclosure case. Is there any way to keep using the already Installed Windows that was on my HDD to boot via USB? I do not want to reinstall Windows since the licensed OS which came bundled with my laptop is already installed on the HDD.

tldr; Upgraded Laptop HDD to SSD. Now want to Boot Windows 8.1 OS on replaced HDD via USB.

Any help will be appreciated.

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Windows PE, Windows To Go, and Windows Embedded can be setup to boot from USB drives via a special pre-included driver. Other editions of Windows DO NOT support booting from usb.

Long story short you cannot boot your copy of Windows, because it doesn't have the required driver, the driver it uses intentionally makes booting from USB not work.

My suggestion would be keep the hard drive in your laptop for booting Windows, and use the ssd as an external usb drive for booting Linux. You don't need to do anything, just press the appropriate F# key to access your BIOS's quick-booting menu, from there you can choose to boot from the external usb drive or your internal drive.

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  • While searching for my answer, I did come across the editions you mentioned. I understand now why it wont boot from the replaced HDD (Drivers issue). Just one more follow-up, Can I Install the drivers somehow and make the existing one work? I am keen on making it work so that I do not need to purchase another edition of Windows.
    – Aamir Mushtaq
    Commented Nov 18, 2014 at 14:07

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