And then it will be possible to boot from this USB disk as from the most ordinary disk on a real (physical) computer. In this state, we will install Windows 10. In VirtualBox, a USB flash drive or USB drive can be connected in such a way that for a virtual computer it would seem like a regular SATA drive. Therefore, we will use one interesting loophole. At the same time, there are no obstacles for booting an already installed system from a USB disk. If you try to install Windows on USB, the system will inform you that USB drives are not supported. The system boots more slowly than with an SSD inside a computer, but the speed of the disk almost does not affect the subsequent work - everything is quite comfortable, just like on a regular computer with an HDD. In this manual I use HDD from an old laptop placed in a SATA-USB 2.0 adapter. USB 2.0 will do, although USB 3.0 is also better. An HDD is suitable, although it would be better with an SSD. In my opinion, the speed of the flash drive is not enough, although I did not check it - I simply do not have a flash drive of sufficient size.

If you are not sure to choose a USB flash drive or an external USB HDD/SSD drive, then I recommend an HDD/SSD drive. On a USB drive we will install Windows 10. The main thing that it should be not quite an old machine (EFI support is needed - this is the firmware, which now (the last 7+ years already) is replacing the BIOS). This drive is not tied to a computer and should boot on any other laptop or desktop PC. In this manual, I will show a trick with which you can get a portable Windows on an external USB drive.

Windows onto usb