Vista - boot from USB

[-1]

Is there a way to install Vista on a USB hard drive and be able to boot off
and use an external drive rather then an internal IDE or SATA drive?

My motherboard does support booting from USB drive.

I work in an environment where there are a number of workstations, all the
same make and model. It would be ideal for me to be able to move from one
machine to another with an external USB drive.

Thank you

 

[...winston]

No.

: Is there a way to install Vista on a USB hard drive and be able to boot off
: and use an external drive rather then an internal IDE or SATA drive?
:
: My motherboard does support booting from USB drive.
:
: I work in an environment where there are a number of workstations, all the
: same make and model. It would be ideal for me to be able to move from one
: machine to another with an external USB drive.
:
: Thank you
:
:

 

[Jabez Gan [MVP]]

Hey,

No this is not a supported scenario.

 

[Rock]

Is there a way to install Vista on a USB hard drive and be able to boot
off and use an external drive rather then an internal IDE or SATA drive?

My motherboard does support booting from USB drive.

I work in an environment where there are a number of workstations, all the
same make and model. It would be ideal for me to be able to move from one
machine to another with an external USB drive.

Nope. What you can do, if the workstations have a free 5 1/4" drive bay is
install a removable drive tray. Then take out the drive from one computer
and put it in another.

 

[Richard Urban]

Can't be done! It would fly against everything in the Microsoft EULA (one
license per computer).

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Doris Day - MFB]

This reply is not coming from Outhouse Express, hence not top posted ...

Can't be done! It would fly against everything in the Microsoft EULA (one
license per computer).

Oh, so it's a marketing problem, not a technical problem? I guess that's
always MickeyMouse's main motivation.

Love and Kisses,
Doris

PS. Thanks for top posting. A real newsreader drops out everything below a
sig line, hence I'm not able to quote what you apparently replied to. Learn
how to ****ing post on Usenet!

--
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BallmerBumBois: Frank, Julian, Richard Urban, Jupiter Jones, Harry Krause,
Feliks Dzerzhinsky
Sorry if I missed anyone, place your name here _________________.

 

[Alun Harford]

Can't be done! It would fly against everything in the Microsoft EULA
(one license per computer).

By removing the hard drive from the computer and only having one copy of
Windows going between the computers, I don't see how that would possibly
break the retail EULA.

Alun Harford

 

[Alun Harford]

Is there a way to install Vista on a USB hard drive and be able to boot off
and use an external drive rather then an internal IDE or SATA drive?

My motherboard does support booting from USB drive.

I work in an environment where there are a number of workstations, all the
same make and model. It would be ideal for me to be able to move from one
machine to another with an external USB drive.

I'm not sure why all these people are saying it's not possible - you
won't get full functionality (only WinPE 2.0 - see
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa905120.aspx) but the
only huge limitation there is that you can't use 16-bit applications.

Download and install the Windows Automated Installation Kit. That
contains Win PE 2.0
Create a FAT32 partition on the USB drive to hold the installation.
Manually set the partition active with diskpart.
Run "Windows PE Tools Command Prompt" from the AIK
Type: Copype.cmd x86 c:\winpe_x86
Then type: xcopy c:\winpe_x86\iso\*.* /s /e /f x:\ (where x is the
drive letter of the USB drive).

Alun Harford

 

[-1]

I'm not sure why all these people are saying it's not possible - you won't
get full functionality (only WinPE 2.0 - see
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa905120.aspx) but the
only huge limitation there is that you can't use 16-bit applications.

Thank you for the link. I'm looking for something that will give you full
features, the link is more for diagnostic purposes ("Windows PE is not a
general-purpose operating system")

I can understand why Microsoft wouldn't want full Vista OS booting from USB,
but as a consumer, I can't tell you how beneficial this would be. There
used to be a website ( http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 ) that
detailed the steps for XP boot from USB. I was curious if anyone took this
a step further and was able to get Vista to do the same.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Is there a way to install Vista on a USB hard drive and be able to boot off
and use an external drive rather then an internal IDE or SATA drive?

No.

My motherboard does support booting from USB drive.

I work in an environment where there are a number of workstations, all the
same make and model. It would be ideal for me to be able to move from one
machine to another with an external USB drive.

Which is exactly why Microsoft specifically designs their operating
systems *not* to boot from an external drive: so you can't use a single
license on multiple computers.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Bruce Chambers]

By removing the hard drive from the computer and only having one copy of
Windows going between the computers, I don't see how that would possibly
break the retail EULA.

This wouldn't violate the EULA, as the retail license is transferable.
All one would have to do is run a repair installation and activate the
OS each and every time one moved that removable drive from one computer
to another.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[The poster formerly known as Nina DiBoy]

Which is exactly why Microsoft specifically designs their operating
systems *not* to boot from an external drive: so you can't use a single
license on multiple computers.

But XP boots off of a USB thumb drive, so either you are wrong or MS did
a poor job.

--
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- T. S. Eliot

 

[Guest]

XP or the PE environment? Many of the links I found said XP, but they were
all PE.