Windows 8 to go - on a USB stick

[whs]

Yes, but I was lucky it was only one day old with a 12 month warranty.
I am waiting for the replacement and this time I will leave it as an external drive.

But Win8 runs so nicely on the USB3. I have a lot of fun playing with it.

 

[Kodi]

I am going to put Windows 8 on it but leave it as a removable drive. All the computers I will use it on can boot to USB HDD.

 

[Coke Robot]

Just a word of warning.
Be very careful trying to make your USB Stick a local drive, I ruined one brand new USB3 stick and I am sure I followed the instructions correctly.

How so? I've had my USB drive last with Windows 7 though 8 since last October I believe and the USB was recognized as a local drive.

Does anybody understand what might have happened to that stick?

I think it might have been either a) a defective stick, or b) the flash was worn out prematurely.

 

[Coke Robot]

The Drivers did not install properly

I don't think a driver issue was present, as that wouldn't make the system run at all. The user posted that it was the flash drive that stopped working, so we should see if it was the flash drive that literally isn't working at ALL, or if the system wasn't booting.

 

[Kodi]

The Drivers did not install properly

I don't think a driver issue was present, as that wouldn't make the system run at all. The user posted that it was the flash drive that stopped working, so we should see if it was the flash drive that literally isn't working at ALL, or if the system wasn't booting.

The User (me) posted that the flash drive stopped working when the install of new drivers to the stick failed.

 

[pscowboy]

Windows-To-Go on a USB 2.0 key is NOT viable.

Put together the Wtogo on a new Corsair Voyager 32g key - USB 2.0.

I am with our esteemed WHS in declaring this system on a 2.0 stick AGONIZINGLY SLOW!!

First pc I popped this into took 1hour and 45 minutes to Metro screen. "Preparing", "Setting up Devices" (I saw internet activity), etc. No juice at all opening apps, especially IE10. Just disgaceful. My old 1981 Leading Edge XT would blow this away for responsiveness. Also took 5 minutes to shut down (hung up on some "Host" thing). Second try - same machine - 2 minutes to Metro (my one W8 pc on an 8 year old FIC K8M mobo, 2.4 Athlon takes me 30 seconds); and still 5 minutes to shut down.

Any IT pro worth his salt could not bear this.

Then plugged it into a second unit, totally different hardware: 13 minutes to Metro; 4 minutes to shutdown; sluggish responses.

Windows 8-To-Go needs to be on USB 3.0 hardware compliant systems and most probably in an Enterprise environment where virtually all the hundreds of pc's are the same.

This is my sad, but enlightening experience. What is yours?

 

[Coke Robot]

The Drivers did not install properly

I don't think a driver issue was present, as that wouldn't make the system run at all. The user posted that it was the flash drive that stopped working, so we should see if it was the flash drive that literally isn't working at ALL, or if the system wasn't booting.

The User (me) posted that the flash drive stopped working when the install of new drivers to the stick failed.

Oh ok!


So, after the driver was installed, Windows 8 failed to boot or did the flash drive altogether failed to read or write? Because if it's Windows 8 not booting, there was an obvious issue with the driver. The tutorial on how to install the new driver needs to have your USB drive's device ID copied into line 26 of the driver file.

 

[Coke Robot]

Put together the Wtogo on a new Corsair Voyager 32g key - USB 2.0.

I am with our esteemed WHS in declaring this system on a 2.0 stick AGONIZINGLY SLOW!!

First pc I popped this into took 1hour and 45 minutes to Metro screen. "Preparing", "Setting up Devices" (I saw internet activity), etc. No juice at all opening apps, especially IE10. Just disgaceful. My old 1981 Leading Edge XT would blow this away for responsiveness. Also took 5 minutes to shut down (hung up on some "Host" thing). Second try - same machine - 2 minutes to Metro (my one W8 pc on an 8 year old FIC K8M mobo, 2.4 Athlon takes me 30 seconds); and still 5 minutes to shut down.

Any IT pro worth his salt could not bear this.

Then plugged it into a second unit, totally different hardware: 13 minutes to Metro; 4 minutes to shutdown; sluggish responses.

Windows 8-To-Go needs to be on USB 3.0 hardware compliant systems and most probably in an Enterprise environment where virtually all the hundreds of pc's are the same.

This is my sad, but enlightening experience. What is yours?

Wow.....

My experience was rather delightful on USB 2.0., as was with Windows 7. It took me about an hour and 10 minutes for it be installed. Then I rebooted off that flash drive on my main puter and it took about five minutes to prepare Windows. After that, it was fairly smooth sailing, with the slow down from time to time. Windows 7 and 8 work fine on USB 2.0 AS LONG AS you're not using that drive for massive read/write operations. I'm able to play pinball in 8 and use Outlook 2010 and have a word document going and a few apps running.

Going to different hardware is also a smooth experience for me. I took it to a laptop, and it took about three minutes to get the devices ready. To another, it took about two. Then to a different desktop, it took a few minutes as well. And every time I did such, Windows 8 was smooth, fast, fluid, and in motion.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
actually if you want a super dooper system why not install it to one of the cheaper 80GB SSD's -- will be lightning fast too.

You'll need the SATA ===> USB cable but this beats any USB by a Universe. Also no probs with read / writes.

My SSD based Windows to go running on a work supplied PC (decent one with Intel I5 / 4GB RAM -- but XP !!!!!!!!!) beats the XP system loaded from an HDD by so much it's incredible -- normally I've time to go to the coffee machine when booting up the PC in the morning.

With a bit more work in it Windows to go could become a REALLY useful feature -- I just hope it's not restricted to "Corporates" only as this could be a 100% winner for travelling consultants.

My only problem is that if I want to use OFFICE -- and my version was a MAK (Multiple activation Enterprise version) it detects the new hardware and requests activation over the internet or it will fail in 21 days.

I don't want to keep activating it -- Ms might start geting "Antsy" about activations --judging how they are clamping down on Technet keys etc.


My temporary work around would be that as I have an image I can just keep restoring it if I want to use the system on different hardware.

I hope when the Windows to Go feature is officially released MS can sort this problem out since the whole usefulness of this product is to be able to run REAL applications at different sites etc --particularly for external consultants etc.


For instance you might want to work with an English version of Office instead of a Korean, Fench, Dutch one etc.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Hopachi]

Just a word of warning.
Be very careful trying to make your USB Stick a local drive, I ruined one brand new USB3 stick and I am sure I followed the instructions correctly.

Good to know this.

I'm gonna keep it a removable drive too, just in case, you never know. Updates on usb are not that important for me.

Thanks for sharing this

Hopachi

 

[Hopachi]

The funny thing is that there is no 'All' parameter in the bcdboot command description. It is amazing that it worked for you. cmd is usually very fussy with invalid parameters.

Sorry for the late reply.

If you run it in VBox in a Win8 VM it should work without problems (worked here). My Win7 host didn't got it right neither.

It's something that works ONLY in Win8. (As GMan talks about it in this posts here: http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/5258-windows-go-wont-go-me.html)

Cheers
Hopachi

 

[whs]

The funny thing is that there is no 'All' parameter in the bcdboot command description. It is amazing that it worked for you. cmd is usually very fussy with invalid parameters.

Sorry for the late reply.

If you run it in VBox in a Win8 VM it should work without problems (worked here). My Win7 host didn't got it right neither.

It's something that works ONLY in Win8. (As GMan talks about it in this posts here: http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/5258-windows-go-wont-go-me.html)

Cheers
Hopachi

You are right indeed. /f All does pertain to the FW level. Looks like they introduced that in Win8 to differentiate between BIOS and UEFI - or like in this case to include All.

 

[whs]

RE: Performance discussion of Windows 8 on a stick.

I can imagine that Win8 will perform reasonably well on a fast USB2 stick. But there is such a wide spread of USB2 performance capability that one has to really look how the measurements are. I used a relatively slow USB2 stick and the 'performance' was grinding me down. On the fast USB3 stick it was a real pleasure and the performance is comparable to a 5400RPM HDD. So there is a range.

Here are the Atto measurements of my 32GB USB2 stick and my 16GB USB3 stick to show you what the range is. The focus should be on the 4K numbers because that is the predominant system blocksize. For further performance discussions it would be useful if you posted your Atto measurements along with your comments.

 

[NiFu]

I also found this VERY helpful to counteract the fact that Windows 8 To Go will not let you install Windows updates or some software.
How to Make Flash Drive a Local Disk | eHow.com
This turns the flash drive from being detected by Windows as a removable drive into a local disk.

But was this driver not only a 32 bit driver ? Have you tested it with Windows 8 To Go 64 bit ?

I am with our esteemed WHS in declaring this system on a 2.0 stick AGONIZINGLY SLOW!!

But I also have a USB 3.0 stick which is pretty slow.

The focus should be on the 4K numbers because that is the predominant system blocksize.

See my post from here - I have a USB 3.0 stick with a dramatically gap in 4 K blocks.

 

[pscowboy]

That E-How tutorial by Ramya Hariharan works fine for changing the W8toGo key from removable to a local disk.
But how does this help you to get updates into the key itself?

What you've changed is the Disk Management setup in the pc the key is plugged into. You haven't changed the key to boot up as a local disk on the next go around.

How do you get the tutorial driver changes into the key?

 

[whs]

See my post from here - I have a USB 3.0 stick with a dramatically gap in 4 K blocks.

Right, those second Atto measurements sure look strange. I wonder what happened. The first measurements may be OK - although they are a bit slow for a USB3 stick. They are also strange at the bigger blocks.

 

[whs]

I have 'upgraded' my Win8 on the stick with the UEFI BCD.

Originally I used bcdboot F:\windows /s F: command to install the BCD because I was installing Win8 on the stick from a Windows 7 system. It installed the Windows 7 BCD. That worked, but I was a bit annoyed because it took 60 seconds to boot and the shutdown was also slow. I also noticed an error flag in the Event Viewer - Event 100.

I then decided to 'upgrade' my BCD in my Windows 8 system that runs in Virtual Box. I used this command: bcdboot F:\windows /s F: /f ALL - Note that the last 2 parameters (/f ALL) do not work in Windows 7 cmd. The upgrade went without a glitch and my boot time is now 38 seconds and the shutdown time (Event 200) is 14 seconds. That is more like it.

If you want to know more about all that, read my little tut here:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5349-windows-8-go-setup-usb-flash-drive-usb-disk.html

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

Anybody got round the "Office Activation" problem when using Wintogo on a computer with different hardware. Windows itself is fine but Office detects new hardware and requests activation.

I NEED office to run on this type of product. I have a MAK activation but it's a pain activating several times a week -- I'm sure MS might also query why I have used 30 activations or so even though its a MAK enterprise license.

Adobe have a decent idea --you can temporarily TRANSFER license between computers while using another machine -- just start the application and say transfer license.

Office should be able to work like that too.

Not 100% foolproof but most people having a use for the Wintogo will certainly log on to the internet where Office can then check the licence and whether the machine its running on is the one transferred to.

This should stop the multiple activation problem.

Other products could have this problem too --enormously reducing the value of this product --if it's reduced to just a recovery tool then it doesn't buy me anything over what I already have.



Cheers
jimbo

 

[whs]

After installing Windows 8 on a USB2 and a USB3 stick, I also installed it on a USB attached disk. I thought I write this all up - for those of you who like an easy method to install Windows on a USB device.

The description in a PDF document is stored on my Skydrive from where you can read it directly if you have a PDF add-in your browser or if you use Chrome. You can also download the PDF which is only 9 pages. Just click on it. For the rest see here:

https://skydrive.live.com/?provision=1&ref=3&wa=wsignin1.0&sa=412485191\?cid=475a0a48ca6d4035#cid=475A0A48CA6D4035&id=475A0A48CA6D4035%211779

OR

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5349-windows-8-go-setup-usb-flash-drive-usb-disk.html

 

[NiFu]

Anybody got round the "Office Activation" problem when using Wintogo on a computer with different hardware.

I don't know if this helps - but give it a try with "NoRereg" registry key:
Office 2003 & 2007 continually configure and set-up