So I'm trying to find a method to install win 7 to USB 3 SSD. All "tutorials" online are from companies trying to sell their product Exhibit 1: easyuefi.com/wintousb/resource/create-windows-7-to-go.html Exhibit 2: diskpart.com/win2go/windows-7-windows-to-go-1004.html Is there a proper way to do it without 3rd party software? Or at least open source one? Spoiler I'm just too lazy to disassemble the laptop to install a drive.
Rufus (which is free) makes bootable windows USB drives, but they can also make windows-to-go media i.e external HDD/SSD of course you'll need to mod the ISO to accept USB 3.0 (If your laptop has that), an ISO of the version of windows 7 you want to install, a valid product key, and of course Rufus. It's really easy/straightforward. I've done it before it's really nice if you want a portable install of windows 7/8.1/10. you can also choose MBR or GPT depending on how old the computer is.
Personally I have used WinNTSetup to set up Windows 7 on external HDD in the past. But I haven't tried bootable external Windows 7 USB HDD with a UEFI Class 3 laptop (only tried an older desktop and laptop that still had XHCI - both were 4th gen/8 series chipset/Haswell). I have slipstreamed both the official Intel/AMD USB XHCI drivers and generic USB XHCI drivers before. I believe that you can replace the install.wim of the Windows 10 install USB with Windows 7 install.wim and installer will install Windows 7 properly (but again this is in theory only). Then you would need to use UEFISeven to patch the boot files (and make sure you slipstream all chipset/graphics drivers). I have tried and failed to get Windows 7 installed on a local partition on Microsoft Surface Pro 6, Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 and Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 (20T7) as they were all UEFI Class 3 despite having UEFISeven patch due to lack of functioning graphics driver for Windows 7 (that is signed and could be installed automatically by OOBE).
I guess I'll do it manually and post the working ISO for people to try out if I get it working. I have Ryzen 2500U which also have driver issues I believe.
Oh yeah, they had influx of users from reddit and tumblr bans. The issue is sorting out s**t from that cesspool. I stick to /g/. Filters also help