Windows 11 on Portable SSD – Dual Boot Without Touching Your NVMe

Описание: Ever wanted to run Windows 11 from an external SSD without messing up your existing Linux installation or bootloader? In this video, I’ll show you step-by-step how I installed Windows 11 onto a portable SSD using the DISM + bcdboot method — no dual-boot conflicts, no overwritten EFI, and full portability.

Here’s what I cover:
✅ Safely removing internal NVMe drives to protect Arch Linux
✅ Booting into Windows 11 LTSC setup with Ventoy
✅ Using diskpart to partition the external SSD (EFI + NTFS)
✅ Applying the Windows image manually with DISMs
✅ Writing boot files with bcdboot
✅ First boot into Windows 11 from USB SSD
✅ Reassembling NVMe drives and confirming Linux + Windows coexist peacefully

With this method, you can keep your Linux system completely untouched while having a fully portable Windows 11 installation on an external SSD. Boot Windows only when you need it — directly from your BIOS/UEFI boot menu.



🔧 Commands used in the video

diskpart
list disk
select disk X
clean
convert gpt
create partition efi size=300
format quick fs=fat32 label=EFI
assign letter=S
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label=Windows
assign letter=W
exit

dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:D:\sources\install.wim
dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:D:\sources\install.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:W:\

bcdboot W:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI



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