"It's very useful to be able to seperate data from the hardware."
I have been doing this for decades, but I do it with USB sticks, not SSDs, with NetBSD, not Windows. After boot I can pull out the stick, freeing up the USB port for something else.
I would be interested if I coul do the same with Windows but it does not seem as straightforward. I know it is possible but I also know there is a good chance I would never get it to work.
For example, the EasyUEFI link you provided suggests I need to purchase software, the software only runs on Windows, Windows 7 is not truly portable and the authors are not clued in to the idea of separating data from hardware:
"We recommend that you use Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere to encrypt Windows To Go drive to keep your data safe. If you want to upgrade Windows To Go to Windows 10 October 2020 Update (Windows 10 20H2), please go to Windows To Go Upgrader."
If only there was a way I could buy Windows on a stick instead of having to buy a computer with pre-installed.
A "miniroot" is stored in the kernel, indeed the entire OS is loaded into memory. Other BSDs and Linux have used, and may still use, similar approaches in some cases. (For example, BSD install media.) This is old hat but reliable. What is amazing is that you still see people in 2021, when most computers have ample amounts of memory, complaning about "disk" issues, e.g., people try to use SD cards as a "hard drive" for RPis.
The Raspberry Pi foundation wants you to use Visual Studio Code, which means you want to free up RAM. A file system on SD that's mounted read only on boot might be a good call, with /home on an external USB.
It can be done with Linux or any OS that has a RAM-based file system. And with machines coming with gigabytes of memory, the installation supported by a RAM FS can be very complete indeed. See Puppy Linux as an example of a distro that can run from RAM.
I have been doing this for decades, but I do it with USB sticks, not SSDs, with NetBSD, not Windows. After boot I can pull out the stick, freeing up the USB port for something else.
I would be interested if I coul do the same with Windows but it does not seem as straightforward. I know it is possible but I also know there is a good chance I would never get it to work.
For example, the EasyUEFI link you provided suggests I need to purchase software, the software only runs on Windows, Windows 7 is not truly portable and the authors are not clued in to the idea of separating data from hardware:
"We recommend that you use Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere to encrypt Windows To Go drive to keep your data safe. If you want to upgrade Windows To Go to Windows 10 October 2020 Update (Windows 10 20H2), please go to Windows To Go Upgrader."
If only there was a way I could buy Windows on a stick instead of having to buy a computer with pre-installed.