Running Windows from an external USB drive with Windows To Go

Discussion in 'Windows 8' started by 100, Sep 16, 2011.

  1. 100

    100 MDL Expert

    May 17, 2011
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  2. MrG

    MrG MDL Expert

    May 31, 2010
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    I created a Windows To Go OS on a My Passport external USB 3.0 drive & it works in 3 of my PC's.
    The pwcreator.exe (Portable Workspace Creator) file I ran in Build 7989 w/ the DP x86 DVD on the drive did the job.

    Now I am wanting to copy the unlabeled partition files to a smaller flash drive, atm there are 2 unlabeled partitions a 350MB restore (I think) & a 12.5 GB OS partition. I added letters to the partition in Win7 Disk Mgmt. but I cannot create partitions on a flash drive as Windows only recognizes it as a removable drive.

    SOoo I googled & found a lot of old info, some suggest using the BootIt utility others suggest a registry tweak & others are using Acronis disk director suite or Diskpart. Several people said these failed, may be that they messed-it-up somehow.

    Can anyone here offer some good advice on partitioning a flash drive?
     
  3. 100

    100 MDL Expert

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    #3 100, Oct 2, 2011
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2011
    (OP)

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  4. venu

    venu MDL Addicted

    Oct 16, 2009
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    #4 venu, Oct 2, 2011
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2011
    Thanks for that 64 bit microdriver. I moved mountains sometime ago trying to find a copy in vain. BootIT apparently does work on some flash drives, somebody's even made a list of those. But none of my transcend, hp flash drives were compatible.

    Just a word of caution since I played around with it. Its possible to identify the chip in the usb with chipgenius or just by taking the cover off and maybe reading with a magnifying glass. With that data you can identify the production tool used and try hunt it down to flip the switch. But there are many many versions of each tool and most are hosted on Chinese sites so it'll help if you know chinese. I fooled around with this for a while but couldnt get it to work.
     
  5. coleoptere2007

    coleoptere2007 MDL Guru

    Apr 8, 2008
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    Hello all,
    I can't find the feature in the latest build Windows Devloper Preview x64. Could someone help ?
    Thanks and have a nice day.
     
  6. TulTang

    TulTang MDL Novice

    Jul 31, 2011
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    The matter of LUN. Go to...flashboot.ru and try google translate...;)
     
  7. ODY123

    ODY123 MDL Expert

    Apr 20, 2011
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    Build 7955 also has pwcreator.exe, so we maybe able to do Windows To Go from 7955 too.
     
  8. ODY123

    ODY123 MDL Expert

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    Do you need to set USB as your first boot device?
     
  9. MrG

    MrG MDL Expert

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    #12 MrG, Oct 3, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 3, 2011
  10. ODY123

    ODY123 MDL Expert

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    Did you use a usb 3.0 hub? What's your recommendation for the usb 3.0 hub? I guess I also need a usb 3.0 portable HDD, my present one seems to be slow.
     
  11. TFN

    TFN MDL Member

    Apr 27, 2011
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    #15 TFN, Oct 4, 2011
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2011
    I put WDP on my USB 3.0 64GB Pendrive using Pwcreator.exe, I had to use Hitachi Microdrive driver filter. Everything went fine, but when I tried to boot from the pendrive I had Blue screen which was saying something like "can't read from hard disk".
    To solve the problem i Deleted the "System reserved" partition and I rebuilt BCD store using bcdboot.exe on the 2nd partition on the pendrive (the one where install.wim has been expanded), Problem solved.

    So, that's my question: is there any difference between expanding .wim using imagex and installing WDP with pwcreator?

    P.S. I've successfully run Windows To Go running from Kingston DT G2 Ultimate 64 GB on:
    Dell Dimension 4700 (2005)
    Dell XPS M1530 (late 2008)
    Acer Aspire 5670 (2009)
    Samsung NP-R510 (late 2009)
    (Netbook) Acer One (can't run metro style apps due to low screen resolution 1024x600)
     
  12. thals1992

    thals1992 MDL Novice

    May 28, 2011
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    #16 thals1992, Oct 8, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    I found that it was easier to work with Disk Management and ImageX. I find that slightly more convenient than mucking in diskpart and digging to find a copy of pwcreator.exe. To obtain ImageX, one must download Windows AIK. I managed to early on partition a portion as 64GB FAT32 for my Xbox to read and the rest as NTFS. I pressed (Win) + "r" and typed in "diskmgmt.msc" pressed enter, right clicked on the second partition and clicked on "Mark partition as Active." After that I opened cmd as administrator (after mounting the win8 image) typed
    Code:
    imagex /apply [the disc]\sources\install.wim 1 [the USB harddrive] 
    After that I typed in cmd,
    Code:
    bootsect /nt60 [the usb hard drive] /force /mbr
    Ever since its been installed its worked better than I thought it would compared to my experience installing it to a virtual machine. My only issue with it is when the BIOS on the wide variety of computers I tested it on, failed to recognize my WD My Passport USB 3.0. hard drive. :mad:

    BTW: On all the pcs available, no USB 3.0 ports were offered. But I decided to run the assessment test on it and my drive was rated a 3.5. :rolleyes:
     
  13. Stannieman

    Stannieman MDL Guru

    Sep 4, 2009
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    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  14. MrG

    MrG MDL Expert

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    #19 MrG, Oct 8, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 8, 2011
    Yep, way to big though @ 500 GB :p
    But I wanted the USB 3.0
     
  15. evilvoice

    evilvoice MDL Novice

    Apr 25, 2011
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    Nice photo near the Frys receipt.