USB SSD boot problem

[Catfish2]

Laptop is 14-af 112nr 32gb.  I cloned a USB Patriot Sata 3 120 M.B. SSD with with the  emmc 32 gb internal drive.  I wish to boot and use it as the 32gb drive doesn't have enough space left to even accept windows updates.  Disk management recognizes the drive and the partitions and data seem to be identical to the "C"  drive.   Drivers are up to date.  I have set the boot bios to try both Legacy Disabled and Legacy Enabled.  In "Disabled" my boot options are:  USB Diskette/ USB HDD, OS Boot Mgr, Internal CDR, USB CDROM.  Trying to boot from USB HDD takes me to the repair screen.  OS boot manager boots normally.   In "Legacy Enabled" secure boot is "disabled" and my options are:  USB Hard Drive (uefi) ASTM 2105  (this goes to repair),  OS Boot Mgr. (boots normally),  Boot from EFI, Notebook HDD, USB Hard Drive ASMT 2105 ( get a "no bootable device"  message)  USB HDD was moved to top in these settings.  Also tried booting using F9 options.  None of the BIOS settings that I can find will boot the USB  SSD.  OS is Windows home, Bios is F.13.  Any suggestions would be much appreciated.  

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

It takes more than simply cloning Windows to be able to boot it from a usb hdd. AS far as I know, only Windows to Go boots and runs from external drive.

https://superuser.com/questions/982577/how-to-run-windows-10-from-an-external-hard-drive

Best option is wipe the eMMC and start fresh. Your Windows 10 license key is embedded in BIOS and you can reinstall Windows 10 with the latest update included with ample space left over. You must use another machine with free space to make this installer.

Microsoft provides the free Media Creation Tool to download files and create a Windows 10 usb flash drive. At least 8gb flash drive required:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Select Download tool now, and select Run.
If you agree to the license terms, select Accept.
On the What do you want to do? page, select Create installation media for another PC, and then select Next.
Select the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10
The Guide here will make it less intimidating.Pay attention to Step 5 since you will be using another pc:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2376-create-bootable-usb-flash-drive-install-windows-10-a.html
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When your usb flash is prepared insert it in usb port of the laptop.Power on  and immediately start tapping Esc key. From the menu tap F9 key to boot from the flash drive- use the arrow keys to move to and select/highlight usb. Tap Enter key.
After starting the Install and you go through a couple of screens - choose Custom (not upgrade) and delete each partition (if you have more than 1) Select/highlight each and click the Delete icon. Click Next to continue with installation.It should pickup the key from BIOS but if it asks at any point just choose "I don't have a key". It will continue and should activate once you are online.

[Catfish2]

Thank you for your advice.  To try to get past the 32gb road block I am trying to  set up the USB SSD drive as windows to go using Hasleo Usb to go software.  Seems to be working initially but  I am having problems trying to run windows update.    If I can't make it work I will have to make the best of the 32mb ssd and decline updates.  This will be my last 32gb laptop.  Thanks very much for your help.

[CherylG]

Most people-myself included- use my second suggestion above of clean install on the 32gb eMMC-which frees up a lot of storage space. You can also then install an SD card and use Windows settings to direct to use it for files,photos,etc instead of the 32gb eMMC drive.