Clone Windows external SSD onto internal Steam Deck SSD partition?

[mapeno59]

I have Windows 11 running on an external SSD on my Deck. It does what I want to do with Windows well enough.

Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering if this would work.

Suppose that, using the Steam OS's own partition manager app, I reduce the size of the SteamOS partition and make new partition for the extra space. Then, I clone the external SSD Windows installation (making sure it is not larger than my internal partition!) and then install it on that new internal partition. Could that be done, or is that too problematic to be worthwhile?

[Jake Sully]

That won't work since Windows need boot partition. So cloning it to your steam internal drive would only boot steam os still since device follows current boot partition. If you want Windows you would need to install fresh copy of Windows 11 onto your steam deck and follow a guide on YouTube that will show how to make dual boot menu. But I wouldn't recommend this since it isn't good for SSD. Either run Windows on it or just steam os

[Man's Best Friend]

Windows has gotten somewhat better about not completely breaking when moving an existing installation between computers, but you're still much better off just doing a clean install unless you have absolutely no choice but to copy an existing install.