A couple of years ago I used to run a qemu Linux-host/Windows-guest with PCI pass-through for GPU/SSD/etc.
I could either boot the Windows install directly from the SSD, or I could boot Linux and then run the same install in qemu, without issue.
I think there used to be more problems if you changed the hardware too much from the original install. Like, if you changed your motherboard (which the above would do of course), then you couldn't run the same install. But I don't think that's as much of a problem anymore?
This was of course not an external SSD, so I don't know how that changes things, if at all.
Cool! I used to run a similar setup, when I started out I passed through the hardware. But when things were running smoothly I never booted back into windows natively (Wasn't planning on this use-case).
Nice to hear that it is possible. I feel like MS essentially gave everyone the wrong idea about OSes dealing with hardware changes.
I could either boot the Windows install directly from the SSD, or I could boot Linux and then run the same install in qemu, without issue.
I think there used to be more problems if you changed the hardware too much from the original install. Like, if you changed your motherboard (which the above would do of course), then you couldn't run the same install. But I don't think that's as much of a problem anymore?
This was of course not an external SSD, so I don't know how that changes things, if at all.