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#1
Booting Windows 7 FROM a USB stick!
I've been trying to boot windows from a USB stick for several weeks now and I finally got it to work. There is a lot of information on how to INSTALL windows from a bootable USB stick...WinToFlash is a great program...but little info on installing Win 7 ONTO a USB drive and then booting from it. The methods that I did find didn't seem to work for me. I always got the BSOD...usually the dreaded "Unmountable_boot_volume" 0000000ED error. I used a mixture of the various methods to finally get it to work. First, I created a 16GB VHD on my main HD, an 80GB Intel SSD. I then used GImagex GImageX - AutoItScript to install an image from a .wim I had created from an install of Windows 7 complete with all updates (yes, even service pack 1, that had killed previous attempts at a bootability), Office and some other progams. I then used EasyBCD EasyBCD - Take control of your boot loader | NeoSmart Technologies to add the VHD to my boot list. Next, I booted to the VHD and installed PWBoot [project] PWBoot <Latest version: 3.0.2> - Project forge - reboot.pro and used the "Patch existing system" option. I then restarted my system, booted normally (not to the VHD), and copied the .vhd file to my freshly formatted 32GB USB stick (Patriot Rage XT). After the VHD was copied, I went back to EasyBCD and used the BCD deployment tab and created bootable external media and installed the win7 bootloader to the MBR. Next, I selected the newly created BCD store using the file menu, then used the Add New Entry to add the VHD using the Disk Image tab under Portable/External Media. To boot, I selected the USB drive in the start up BIOS settings. It works great. Yes, its a little slow but not too bad.