Booting windows from USB / Pen Drive
@rohit999999999 (96)
India
August 22, 2011 2:40am CST
HI FRIENZ,
I was wondering if it is possible to boot windows in computer with the help of pen drive. I tried once with 2 GB pen drive but didn't succeed.
Is there is any chance to do that?
Have any one idea or experience with that.
Plz guys tell me.
6 responses
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
22 Aug 11
I don't have personal experience of doing this (though I have used Linux from a flash drive).
These two pages will probably be helpful but be aware that not all PCs may be capable of booting from a USB device and that you may find the experience VERY slow even if you can do it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463427
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/solutionbase-boot-windows-xp-from-a-usb-flash-drive/5928902
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
22 Aug 11
The first link is to Microsoft's own information on the subject. Several times in the article it says that it is (a) not possible and (b) a much-asked for feature!
The second link gives detailed instructions on how to do it BUT says that it may not always work ... and sometimes for no obvious reason!
It is certainly worth trying, if you have the time, patience and know-how, but don't stake your life or reputation on it working!
@lovedude (4447)
• India
22 Aug 11
you can definitely make your system boot with using USB.. for that first of all you need to set boot device priority from BIOS or by pressing F10 at the time of boot select your boot device.
now you need to have bootable pendrive.. so to make your pen drive bootable you need some utilities and commands to be executed..
you can read article with screenshots from :
http://mytechquest.com/windows/how-to-make-usb-pen-drive-bootable/
or
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/creating-windows-7-install-media-on-flash-drive/5eb58e71-52e6-47c8-91a0-a795a7d49356
or
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766092%28WS.10%29.aspx
or
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/12/-the-usb-flash-drive.ars
Good Luck..
cannot copy and paste all those explanations from all the sites.. all articles are useful.. just view it once.. :-)
@hora_fugit (5862)
• India
22 Aug 11
You mean, as in bootable CD? I tried once to install XP in my computer as my CD Drive doesn't work anymore. It was successful act though installing got TOO MUCH slow. I forfeited. Later I added some other software to my pendrive and tried again. This time it was quite successful :)
Once again, I tried to restore my Windows 7 with the help of USB drive. It was just corrupt Bootloader. I didn't need the aforesaid software and my work was done perfectly.
@RamRes (1723)
• Argentina
26 Aug 11
Yes, definitely it IS possible, but it's not easy to achieve.
First you need to enable boot from USB in the BIOS for the computer to even consider it. The exact procedure depends on your particular PC hardware but you should look for the "boot" option.
Then you need a bootable pendrive. Using a newly formated drive you can use the "bootsect" commandline utility to make it bootable. This tool is found on the boot folder of the Windows installation disk.
Last you can copy an entire fresh Windows installation into the pendrive, for example taken from recently installed copy (just copy almost everything on your root of the C drive) and it should boot your portable Windows copy from there.
