Windows 8 To Go - Setup on a USB Flash Drive or USB Disk

How to Setup "Windows 8 To Go" on a USB Flash Drive or USB Disk in any Windows 7 and Windows 8​

information   Information
This tutorial will show you how to manually setup Windows 8 To Go from any Windows 7 or Windows 8 (except Windows 8 RT) to be able to install and run Windows 8 from a USB flash drive or external USB disk. The procedure for the USB stick is discussed in Chapter A, the procedure for the USB attached disk is shown in Chapter B.

You should expect the whole process to take about 3 hours elapsed time if you do not have the WAIK on your system and about 1 hour if the WAIK is installed on your system.

If you install on a stick, it is very important to choose a fast USB stick of at least 16GB size. For the USB attached disk it is preferable to use a USB3 attachment, but USB2 should also work. In addition, you need a program to create a virtual CD and the Windows 8 .iso. The rest is done in Command Prompt.

For more information and details about Windows To Go workspaces, see: Windows To Go: Feature Overview

Note   Note
Those of you who have an Enterprise edition of Windows 8, you can also explore this option which is built into the Enterprise edition.

How to Create a "Windows To Go" Workspace on a USB Flash Drive in Windows 8 Enterprise

Tip   Tip
It is highly recommended to use a USB 3.0 flash drive or disk. Otherwise it will run like a snail from it.






Chapter A - Installation on a stick


Step 1 - Check the speed of your USB stick


To measure the speed of your stick I recommend Atto Disk Benchmark. It will produce a benchmark result like this picture.

2012-03-28_1947.png


It is the example of a 32GB USB2 stick that is not very fast. Especially the 4K read/write speeds are pretty slow. It is important to focus on the 4K size because that is the blocksize that the system uses most of the time. The large blocksizes are unimportant.

Loading the system (appr. 600MB to 1GB) at boot time will take over 3 minutes at a read speed of 4.7MB/sec. But, since there are also other activities going on at this time, the boot is even longer.A stick with characteristics like this one is not recommended.


2012-03-28_1951.png


This is a USB3 stick which runs Windows 8 fluently. The initial system setup still takes a bit more time than on a fast disk, but it is not really out of the ordinary.

On this stick I have loaded the 64bit Windows 8 and I am very pleased with both the boot time and the execution of programs and system facilities.


Step 2 - Download the WAIK and extract the imagex file

If you do not have the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) on your system, then you have to download from this Microsoft site. This will be a bit lengthy because the WAIK is 1.7GB - figure a 2-hour download.

When you are done downloading the KB3AIK_EN.iso file, mount this .iso, open and run the StartCD.exe file to install WAIK on your system.

WAIK.jpg

Then you have to copy the imagex.exe. You find that in C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools. There is a 32bit version and a 64bit version.


2012-03-28_1953.png


You choose 32bit when you install a 32bit version of Windows 8 on your stick - 64bit when you install the 64bit version. Copy the one that corresponds to your Windows 8 .iso to the desktop. You can copy it to any other folder, but then you have to change the path in the installation command that we will run later in Command Prompt.

I have tried both the 32bit version (on the slow USB2 stick) and the 64bit version (on the fast USB3 stick). Both work as far as I can tell although there is a significant difference in performance.


Step 3 - Mount the Win8 .iso in a virtual BD ROM

We first have to create a virtual BD ROM with theVirtual Clone Drive Program. Download, install and run this program. It is very simple. When you start the program, you get this window. Just click OK and you are done.

You then go to Computer and you find your BD ROM.

Note: If you are working in Windows 8, you can mount the .iso directly from File Explorer. Just right click on the .iso and you will find a mount option. See: ISO Images - Mount or Unmount



2012-03-28_1955.png


To mount the .iso in the BD ROM, follow the instructions in the next picture. Make sure you remember the drive letter of the BD ROM (in my case 'H:') because you will need that later.


2012-03-28_1959.png




Step 4 - Prepare your USB stick

We now have to define a primary active partition on the USB stick. For that we open an elevated Command Prompt (run as administrator). Type or paste each of the following commands (one by one) and hit Enter after each command.

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your stick in List disk)
Clean
Create partition primary
Format fs=ntfs quick
Assign
Active
Exit

Your stick is now ready for the installation of Windows 8.


Step 5 - Install Windows 8 on the stick

This is very easy now with a command in Command Prompt. It may take a little while to transfer the whole system, so be patient. The Command is:

"C:\Users\Your Name\Desktop\imagex.exe" /apply H:\sources\install.wim 1 F:\

Your Name is the name of your system. H: is the letter of my BD ROM (step 3). If your BD ROM has another letter, you have to change that accordingly. F: is the drive letter of my stick (step 4). Here you also have to replace it if your stick is on another letter.

As last step you have to run a command to install the boot files. If you are installing on a Windows 7 system, use this command. You have to be aware that this installs a Win7 BCD which works but is slower than the Win8 UEFI BCD.

bcdboot F:\windows /s F:

If you are installing on a Windows 8 system, use this command below. This is the preferred BCD because it is faster for boot and shutdown. You can rerun this command in a Win8 system even if you already installed the Win7 BCD in a Win7 system. It will 'upgrade' the BCD to the Win8 (UEFI) level.

bcdboot F:\windows /s F: /f ALL

Here again F: is the letter for my stick which you may have to adjust.


Step 6 - Run Windows 8 from your USB stick

You are done with the installation and can now run Windows 8 off your stick. For that you have to change the boot sequence in the BIOS pointing at the USB stick as first boot device.

I run the stick version on my laptop and have made the USB #1 in the boot sequence. That way it loads Windows 8 from the stick when the stick is plugged in and Windows 7 from the SSD when there is no Windows 8 stick.

As I said earlier, a USB stick is no SSD - although the technology is similar. So be patient, especially with the initial setup where the system has to do a lot of write operations which are slow on a stick. But once the system is in full swing, it is quite some fun.

Warning: In Windows 7, I usually keep my bootmgr on the C: partition. With that setup I had some problems running Windows 8 from the stick. Each time it would corrupt my bootmgr. I then created a separate 400MB partition and moved the bootmgr there. That seems to cure the problem.



Chapter B - Installation on a USB attached disk


The procedure is very similar to what I described for the USB stick with a few exceptions.

Step 1 - Check the speed of the USB attached disk

This is the HDD I run in a USB3 open enclosure. It is a 5400RPM disk that I had recovered from my laptop when I installed the SSD.

The R/W speeds at the 4K blocksize are very similar to my USB3 stick. The R/W speed at the bigger blocksizes is slower because the disk can only spin so fast.

Performance wise it felt slower than the performance on the USB3 stick but was still very acceptable.


2012-03-28_2002.png



Step 2 - Download the WAIK and extract the imagex file

This step is exactly the same as described for the stick.

Step 3 - Mount the Win8 .iso in a virtual BD ROM

This step is exactly the same as described for the stick. Make sure you apply the correct device letters for the BD ROM and the HDD.

Step 4 - Prepare your USB disk

Here I went a different route. I used Partition Wizardon my Windows 7 system to define a primary active partition on the HDD. That is easier than working with Command Prompt on a multi partition disk.

Note: There have been reports of problems when using Partition Wizard - although I did not encounter any problems myself. The report was that the final system did not boot. In such a case you might want to go back and use Command Prompt as the safer method.

Step 5 - Install Windows 8 on the disk

That is again the same procedure as for the stick. I did the installation step on my Windows 7 system but copied the BCD on my Windows 8 in Virtual Box.

Step 6 - Run Windows 8 from your USB disk

Change the boot sequence in the BIOS to boot from USB and off you go. The setup of Windows 8 took appr. 20 minutes (in the USB3 enclosure). During that setup, there is one reboot where you have to change the boot sequence again - else the system will boot into the first boot device it finds which is probably your default OS. When that was done, operation was as one would expect from a slow HDD.

I then tried it on my desktop in an eSata enclosure. The system first made some automatic adjustments for the different hardware. Then it ran flawlessly. The performance was about the same as from the USB3 enclosure. But both are slower than my USB3 stick.

If you have a USB disk with 20 to 25GB of free space lying around, it is certainly an alternative to run the Windows 8 CP from that. If nothing else, it is a lot of fun making the installation and seeing that it works.



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Click to expand...
pparks1 said:
Is my understanding correct, that Windows To Go is ONLY going to be available in the Enterprise version of Windows 8 when released? Thus, the consumer market won't have any access to any of this stuff?
Click to expand...
That is what I understand too. But in the meantime it is fun.
 
I just wanted to mention it here, so that people who spend a lot of time trying to get this working aren't disappointed when its no longer available when this product actually releases.
 
I don't know how the Enterprise EULA regarding Windows to Go will be worded, but there will probably be a limit on the numbers of WTG installations for a single license.

If not, it would be rather a spoiler for Microsoft if someone built a Windows To Go .VHD which could run on anything, and released it as a torrent.

However, the experience I have had where WTG can be installed on removable media and be immune to Windows Updates, could lead to a lot of these little devices on the streets, immune to online revocation of their licenses.

Anyway, we may still be able to play with it in Windows Embedded Standard 8 :)
 
One of the main reasons you wouldn't find that option for other then the Enterprise edition is that each portable would fall under one volume license as compared to the single user license the average user sees. The only other option would fall under the family value pack if 8 sees that like 7 did. 3 pcs on one license.
 
I have a question for the audience, has someone used a USB 3.0 flash drive on a USB 2.0 port? And if so, is that acceptably fast?
 
Coke Robot said:
I have a question for the audience, has someone used a USB 3.0 flash drive on a USB 2.0 port? And if so, is that acceptably fast?
Click to expand...

Good question:
Yse I guess you get the maximum speed of USB 2.0 (practically around 40 mb/s max more or less).

Don't have any USB 3.0 devices yet since I don't have USB 3.0 ports (better to run at optimal speeds).
 
Anything that does heavy read/write to the stick of course will be slower, but anything else (basically anything that isn't booting the OS or loading large programs) should be fairly imperceptible from a SATA install. USB3 is really required for a "comparable" experience to an installed OS on a hard disk, though, that is for sure.
 
Hopachi said:
Coke Robot said:
I have a question for the audience, has someone used a USB 3.0 flash drive on a USB 2.0 port? And if so, is that acceptably fast?
Click to expand...

Good question:
Yse I guess you get the maximum speed of USB 2.0 (practically around 40 mb/s max more or less).

Don't have any USB 3.0 devices yet since I don't have USB 3.0 ports (better to run at optimal speeds).
Click to expand...

That would be 30mb per second not 40 as far as 2.0 is concerned. And even that is never maintained steadily! People goof themselves thinking that each bus will alsways see the "maximum" speed at all times? Not so! Under "ideal" conditions you will simply peak at the maximum speed. As far as plugging a 3.0 device into a 2.0 port the obvious would be plugging a device designed to run on a faster bus being into the slower and not able to run any faster then the slower bus's speed if reaching peak.

Bench testing two identical installs on the same brand and same flash drives only one being the 3.0 stick and the other a 2.0 stick would be interesting. The only difference for the exact same model as well as size and brand would then be the results from each bus when comparing boot times and other things.
 
Night Hawk said:
Hopachi said:
Coke Robot said:
I have a question for the audience, has someone used a USB 3.0 flash drive on a USB 2.0 port? And if so, is that acceptably fast?
Click to expand...

Good question:
Yse I guess you get the maximum speed of USB 2.0 (practically around 40 mb/s max more or less).

Don't have any USB 3.0 devices yet since I don't have USB 3.0 ports (better to run at optimal speeds).
Click to expand...

That would be 30mb per second not 40 as far as 2.0 is concerned. And even that is never maintained steadily! People goof themselves thinking that each bus will alsways see the "maximum" speed at all times? Not so! Under "ideal" conditions you will simply peak at the maximum speed. As far as plugging a 3.0 device into a 2.0 port the obvious would be plugging a device designed to run on a faster bus being into the slower and not able to run any faster then the slower bus's speed if reaching peak.

Bench testing two identical installs on the same brand and same flash drives only one being the 3.0 stick and the other a 2.0 stick would be interesting. The only difference for the exact same model as well as size and brand would then be the results from each bus when comparing boot times and other things.
Click to expand...

Good.
I never reached 40mb/s myself with a USB stick but I saw that number somewere...
People goof themselves thinking that each bus will alsways see the "maximum" speed at all times
Click to expand...
... it was just a peak speed.
 
The thing is even in every day use the peaks you do see may only come close but reach the maximum speeds with any bus.

One question I could ask here however would be if anyone managed to get the RP on a flash drive?
 
whs said:
Hopachi said:
Night Hawk said:
One question I could ask here however would be if anyone managed to get the RP on a flash drive?
Click to expand...

What type of flash drive?
I got RP on my USB 2.0 stick as usual and it's working just fine.
Click to expand...

I am curious how well it works with a USB2 stick. Which stick are you using.

I am asking because at the location I am right now I have no USB3 ports.
Click to expand...

It's the same that i benchmarked a while ago (http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/5103-windows-8-go-usb-stick-2.html at #14) and where DP & CP were also installed, but this time x64.

Boots in around 1min and 30sec on the best machine. It's a pretty clean install with only a few programs added.
 
My first attempt in Florida was also on a USB2 stick. But that thing ran like molasses. It was practically unuseable although I had a super fast desktop and laptop. Maybe my stick was just too slow as you can see from the data in my tutorial. That's why I used that fast USB3 stick.

Here in Germany I have only 2 older systems and no USB3 port. So I have to find a fast USB2 stick. The other option I could try is my USB2 enclosure - I have an extra 60GB SSD lying around. That is probably my fastest combination I have around here.
 
I had the CP on a Kingston 32GB DataTraveler Hi-Speed 160 model where you couldn't right click on too much however.

Kingston 32GB DataTraveler Hi-Speed 160.jpg
I've been staying with those model line for some time now for any live stick projects. Before I can create 8 stick however I will need to reinstall the RP once again since the first dual boot with 7 as well as changing from ide to AHCI proved to be more then 8 could handle! :(

7 booted up find prompting to restart while the RP simply refused to boot up even in safe mode. Before the next install however I wanted to try out some 7 and 8 VM on another OS presently on the other drive to check out how well the other side of VBox works.
 
Great tutorial, thanks very much. First really good argument for USB 3 I've come across, aside from the usual impulse to go "Faster, FASTER!" in today's world. I'm thinking long and hard about adding USB 3 to my Lenovo notebooks (X220 Tablet and T520) via the regular (X220 Tablet) and half-size (T520) PCIe card mounts in those devices. I can pick up 2 or 3 ports' worth of USB 3 for around $35-40. Anybody have any recommendations for such devices? Horror stories? I'm as happy to be steered away from the bad stuff as I am to learn about the good stuff, so please share. From what I see on Newegg, the Startech device looks pretty good. And thanks again,
--Ed--
 
The main board here has a pair of 3.0 ports still unused! The photo there is of a 32gb 2.0 flash drive that saw no issues running the 8 CP at the time. Being the newer and supposedly faster also means the newer price tags! For a 16gb 3.0 flash drive I can easily grab a 64gb 2.0 model instead by the same brand.

Brand wise as far as addon cards I might tend to favor US Robotics, Newegg.com - USRobotics USR8401 USB ExpressCard 2 x USB 3.0 or go with the Silverstone seen at Newegg.com - Silverstone EC02 Slim ExpressCard/34 USB 3.0 ExpressCard Adapter
 
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