Installation of Windows 8/8.1 to SD Card

Fahid

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Hello everyone, I have a question or a few questions on a subject. As hinted above from the title, I want to know more about installing Windows 8 to SD card and then use the SD card as boot device.


I know most computers in fact almost none natively supports booting from an SD card (unless use USB SD card reader maybe), maybe you guys know of some kind workaround.


In fact I would state my purpose and motivation so you guys can help me better. I have a Windows 8 laptop (No UEFI) for which I somehow managed to damage the LCD screen of, eventually battery and some keys on keyboard as well, basically this was carried out by children in home. So normally, getting it back on track as a laptop may cost something over 100 Euros; and despite all the problems stated, the laptop is in perfect working condition, can be used through HDMI display and USB keyboard/mouse as a desktop PC perhaps.


But what I did is that I installed pre-configured WAMP (Windows Apache MySQL PHP) package, FTP server on it started using it a NAS and cloud server. It is working fine right now, I have a 3TB USB 3.0 HD attached to it except its own 500GB HD, so it is serving me well. But since it remains always on HD spinning all the time, always on power input/ No battery, configured not to turn off HD or sleep or such. I have concern if will prove dangerous overtime and may damage the HD. A few days ago I found a very good offer on a 32GB SD card, so I bought it thinking that I may use it as OS/ Boot drive for my server pc stated above. it is SANDISK SDHC Speicherkarte Ultra 32 GB Class 10 UHS-I. 32GB space will not be an issue, as I will only install Windows 8, WAMP and FTP software nad perhaps a few tiny tidy utility softwares and nothing more. For storage the current internal 500GB HD and 3TB USB 3.0 HD will be used.


So, the questions
1. Is it possible to somehow boot from SD card?
2. Is it possible to use minimal initial boot operation from internal HD and shift the boot process to SD card and internal HD doesn't have to be spinning all the time?
3. Will in stated scenario, disabling the Page file will be a good idea? (system specs in attached photo)
4. Since SD cards have life expectancy based of Write Cycles, any idea how many life cycles will this one have?
5. How much (estimated) write cycles will be consumed in a normal run throughout the day or week in setup as explained above?

SD Card
SANDISK-SDHC-Speicherkarte-Ultra-32-GB-Class-10-UHS-I.png

System Specs
sysSpecspBell.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion g6-2300sg
    CPU
    Intel Core i3-3120M
    Memory
    8 GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 7670M (1 GB DDR3 dedicated)
    Screen Resolution
    1366 X 768
    Hard Drives
    SANDISK SanDisk Ultra® II Solid State Drive
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Panda Free Antivirus
Good luck with that, that's not meant to be sarcastic, just that it won't be easy if even doable. A better option may be to buy an SSD drive and use that as the laptops main drive. Windows To Go is the official way of running Windows from say a USB thumb drive. It's an option on Windows 8 Enterprise. There are guides for making your own unofficial version kicking around. Might even be one here some where. I'll have a look in a bit. Even so, as you mentioned, your laptop likely won't boot from a SD card. Mine won't, not without putting it in a USB card reader. All I wanted to do was install Windows from the SD card but it was a no go.
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5349-windows-8-go-setup-usb-flash-drive-usb-disk.html
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
Thanks for reply alphanumeric, yes SSD is the best option in situation but don't feel like spending money on buying SSD, maybe if get some deal on a used one or I will go for it but until that, why not explore around!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion g6-2300sg
    CPU
    Intel Core i3-3120M
    Memory
    8 GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 7670M (1 GB DDR3 dedicated)
    Screen Resolution
    1366 X 768
    Hard Drives
    SANDISK SanDisk Ultra® II Solid State Drive
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Panda Free Antivirus
One Possible answer for Question# 2. Is it possible to use minimal initial boot operation from internal HD and shift the boot process to SD card and internal HD doesn't have to be spinning all the time?

Yes in a way, by the use of VHD image file.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]Install the OS to VHD file, store the VHD file in SD card and configure it as (only or one more) boot option. Windows 7 and above support VHD boot. Since SD cards are not as fast as HD and are not very friendly when it come to multiple simultaneous Read/ Writes, some speed will be sacrificed but it should work theoretically.

Question answered but new questions arise
2.1. Will HD stop spinning after handing over the boot process to VHD file on SD card?
2.2. When OS is running from SD card, will it let the internal HD sleep (stop spinning) when inactive for a while?
2.3. Since the server will be used (through HTTP/ FTP) by only me and perhaps a few family members and mostly remain idle, OS running from SD card, will it take much longer to respond to a sudden HTTP/ FTP query or will that be mostly dependent on RAM?
2.4. Letting Windows have a page file on SD card will make Windows even slower as page file will constantly be in use (read/ write). Letting Windows make a page file on HD will again keep the HD spinning. so Should I disable the page file at all?
[/FONT]
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion g6-2300sg
    CPU
    Intel Core i3-3120M
    Memory
    8 GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 7670M (1 GB DDR3 dedicated)
    Screen Resolution
    1366 X 768
    Hard Drives
    SANDISK SanDisk Ultra® II Solid State Drive
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Panda Free Antivirus
If you want to know if your laptop will boot from the SD card do option two here, http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html Just do it to the SD card instead of a thumb drive. Then plug it, reboot, and see if its listed as a boot option in your BIOS. I've done it. My SD card doesn't show up as a boot option when in the SD card slot on my laptop, but does when in a USB card reader. I know my card is bootable, my laptop just won't boot from it in the SD card slot. It's a BIOS limitation.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
In fact I would state my purpose and motivation so you guys can help me better. I have a Windows 8 laptop (No UEFI) for which I somehow managed to damage the LCD screen of, eventually battery and some keys on keyboard as well, basically this was carried out by children in home. So normally, getting it back on track as a laptop may cost something over 100 Euros; and despite all the problems stated, the laptop is in perfect working condition, can be used through HDMI display and USB keyboard/mouse as a desktop PC perhaps.
Yes I know it may sound strange, Windows 8 laptop without UEFI support!
but yes, that the case ;)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion g6-2300sg
    CPU
    Intel Core i3-3120M
    Memory
    8 GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 7670M (1 GB DDR3 dedicated)
    Screen Resolution
    1366 X 768
    Hard Drives
    SANDISK SanDisk Ultra® II Solid State Drive
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Panda Free Antivirus
you should be setup with you new installation.
Thanks David for trying to help but I am not asking about where and how to get my installation media or how to perform a basic USB/ DVD install. My question concentrates very specifically about installation on to an SD card memory and booting from it while trying to keep the minimal side effects from it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion g6-2300sg
    CPU
    Intel Core i3-3120M
    Memory
    8 GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 7670M (1 GB DDR3 dedicated)
    Screen Resolution
    1366 X 768
    Hard Drives
    SANDISK SanDisk Ultra® II Solid State Drive
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Panda Free Antivirus
So, the questions
1. Is it possible to somehow boot from SD card?
2. Is it possible to use minimal initial boot operation from internal HD and shift the boot process to SD card and internal HD doesn't have to be spinning all the time?
3. Will in stated scenario, disabling the Page file will be a good idea? (system specs in attached photo)
4. Since SD cards have life expectancy based of Write Cycles, any idea how many life cycles will this one have?
5. How much (estimated) write cycles will be consumed in a normal run throughout the day or week in setup as explained above?
I installed Windows 10 Server on the exact same SD card using the steps in @whs tutorial link in post 2 and it booted fine (It was a little slow but quite usable). I left the pagefile on the card. I've since replaced Windows with Linux and it works also. For your requirement (powering down the internal drive) you need everything on the SD card as otherwise the drive will be in use and will not power down. I don't think native booting a VHD on the SD card would allow the internal drive to power down as the boot code used would still be on the HDD. I can't test that theory though as my internal drives are SSD so obviously don't power down like a HDD.

Your real question is whether your computer can boot from SD card or not. Some can (my Lenovo X201 and my MacBook Pro both can), some however can't. You can test this by putting any old ISO on the card using Rufus and then see if you can boot it before going through all the installing windows steps which take a few hours.

As for write cycles I've no idea. I bought my card in January and is guaranteed for a year so if it fails I'll take it back to the shop (I got it in a supermarket and I'm sure they'll exchange it). It was cheap anyway.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro Prieview x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MacBook Pro Core2Duo
    CPU
    T7600
    Memory
    3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon X1600
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Internal
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 800
    Hard Drives
    40GB
    Keyboard
    Apple
    Mouse
    Apple
    Internet Speed
    Varies
    Browser
    Various
    Antivirus
    Defender
Thanks Adam for the informative answer.
Linux is also a good choice for a cloud/ NAS server, but I keep Windows as it is easier and quicker to configure again and again. Plus native and full support for my 3TB NTFS drive. Ubuntu Server is a reasonable alternative but support for NTFS is just OK and no GUI, no easy management interface for Apache, PHP, FTP, MySQL etc.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion g6-2300sg
    CPU
    Intel Core i3-3120M
    Memory
    8 GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 7670M (1 GB DDR3 dedicated)
    Screen Resolution
    1366 X 768
    Hard Drives
    SANDISK SanDisk Ultra® II Solid State Drive
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Panda Free Antivirus
I will eventually try VHD install to SD card. as I can make a base VHD copy, if I mess it up then I can just replace the VHD file.

and one silly idea could be to boot through USB flash and then shift the control to SD/ VHD
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion g6-2300sg
    CPU
    Intel Core i3-3120M
    Memory
    8 GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 7670M (1 GB DDR3 dedicated)
    Screen Resolution
    1366 X 768
    Hard Drives
    SANDISK SanDisk Ultra® II Solid State Drive
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Panda Free Antivirus
In fact I would state my purpose and motivation so you guys can help me better. I have a Windows 8 laptop (No UEFI) for which I somehow managed to damage the LCD screen of, eventually battery and some keys on keyboard as well, basically this was carried out by children in home. So normally, getting it back on track as a laptop may cost something over 100 Euros; and despite all the problems stated, the laptop is in perfect working condition, can be used through HDMI display and USB keyboard/mouse as a desktop PC perhaps.
Yes I know it may sound strange, Windows 8 laptop without UEFI support!
but yes, that the case ;)

Option two in the link I posted will work with legacy BIOS installs also. It's the way I create my bootable thumb drives. All you want to do is see if your laptop will boot from the SD card. If it will, then see about creating the Windows to go drive. If it won't you'll need a USB card reader or a big thumb drive to go any further.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
I installed Windows 10 Server on the exact same SD card using the steps in @whs tutorial link in post 2
I meant @alphanumeric 's link in post 2, sorry.

I wasn't recommending Linux over Windows - just that I've wiped my SD card and put something else on it now so I can't really test anything for you. Windows did work for me though so just see if you can boot something (anything) off it. It will either let you boot from it or not.

Having said all that, I have an old dell laptop which has been running (almost) 24*7 for 10+ years on HDD (it runs my Logitech media server) so even if SD boot doesn't work you might get lucky.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro Prieview x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MacBook Pro Core2Duo
    CPU
    T7600
    Memory
    3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon X1600
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Internal
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 800
    Hard Drives
    40GB
    Keyboard
    Apple
    Mouse
    Apple
    Internet Speed
    Varies
    Browser
    Various
    Antivirus
    Defender
and one silly idea could be to boot through USB flash and then shift the control to SD/ VHD
That isn't a silly idea at all.

If you can only boot from USB and not your SD card reader you could then certainly run a VM off your SD card using VMware or VBox or something while booting from a USB key. You could put some Linux on the USB to run the virtualisation software if you don't have another Widows license.

I've also run Windows VMs on the same SanDisk 32GB card using VirtualBox and that works fine (again with the pagefile on the card). I didn't notice it being either faster or slower than booting direct from the card (I'm still looking for a real use for this card as you can see, a bit like you :) but it is quite fun playing around I think)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro Prieview x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MacBook Pro Core2Duo
    CPU
    T7600
    Memory
    3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon X1600
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Internal
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 800
    Hard Drives
    40GB
    Keyboard
    Apple
    Mouse
    Apple
    Internet Speed
    Varies
    Browser
    Various
    Antivirus
    Defender
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