Windows Upgrade Help and more

My new Windows To Go installation, made with Rufus, is constantly freezing and forcing restarts. Everything was set up correctly on a fast USB drive, but it's completely unstable. What could be causing these repeated crashes on a system that should be clean?

Yeah, that's super frustrating. Tbh, it's often the USB drive itself, even if it's fast—some just don't handle Windows To Go well.

Agreed. Also, try disabling fast startup in Windows power options—it can cause weird issues on portable drives.

That sounds incredibly frustrating, especially after setting everything up on a fast drive. Windows To Go can be finicky, but let's troubleshoot a few common culprits.

First, the most likely issue is driver conflicts, especially with storage and chipset drivers from your host machine. Try booting into **Safe Mode** (press Shift+F8 during boot if you can, or from the Advanced Startup menu). If it's stable there, a driver is the problem. You can then boot normally, open Device Manager, and look for warning icons, particularly under "Storage controllers" or "System devices."

Second, double-check your Rufus settings. For Windows To Go, you must use **Windows To Go** as the partition scheme (not MBR or GPT for BIOS/UEFI) and an **ISO from the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center**. A retail ISO can cause instability.

Third, test the USB drive's health with a tool like **CrystalDiskInfo**. Also, try a different USB port, preferably a USB 3.0 (blue) port directly on the motherboard, not a hub.

If this is a **Windows 11** installation on unsupported hardware, the compatibility checks bypass can sometimes lead to instability. Free methods involve manual registry edits, but if you've exhausted those, a tool like the one at **kianbotsoft.com** ($39) can handle the bypass more cleanly.

Don't get discouraged! This is often a process of elimination. Let us know what you find, and we can dig deeper.

Can confirm. I had the same problem. For me, it turned out my USB port wasn't supplying enough stable power, even with a fast drive.

This happened to me. Switching to a USB-C port with a proper power delivery rating finally made it run smoothly. Let me know if that works.

Yeah, that fixed it for me too. Also, try disabling fast startup in Windows power options—sometimes that helps with weird freezes.

This happened to me. My issue was the USB port itself; switching to a USB 3.0 port directly on the motherboard stopped the freezes. Good luck!

Same here. I had the same problem. For me, it was a driver conflict with the host computer's chipset that only showed up on the portable install.

Agreed. Yeah, that driver issue is a common culprit. Try disabling the host's chipset drivers in Device Manager before booting the USB. Let me know if that works.