Loading w7 on to a USB

[Lioninstreet]

I'm trying to load a 6.1 os onto a 256gb thumb drive (a pny usb 3.0). The goal being having a USB as the systems boot drive.

I have a disk with sp1 included, I'm using a external USB DVD drive to load in the OS, and the hardware I'm using is circa 2009 (a e5200 processor and only USB 2.0 ports). It also has SATAII but no hard drives are installed.

Once the system boots past bios, the OS begins to load, and will continue installing up until the Installing Windows screen.

But then it seems that the install is not recognizing the USB drive as the load drivers windows states: The installation cannot proceed because a primary hard drive is not detected. To install the storage drivers for the primary hard drive click load drivers.

I've tried using Rufus to make the USB drive bootable (MS DOS as the partition scheme w/MBR) but the drive is still not detected.

I know that the thumb drive is USB 3.0, but it is seen on another working system thru a USB 2.0 port so it would seem it should be backwards compatible with the OS install as well. Anyone care to chime in with some guidance on how to get the thumb drive recognized?

Maybe load in a generic USB driver? But shouldn't the OS have installed that as part of the initial install routine already, not to mention the hardware is already recognizing the USB DVD drive...

 

[z3r010]

I've not tried, but there are a few videos on youtube that show you how to do this.

Best Free Windows To Go Creator Wizard Helps Create Portable Windows 10/8/7!

 

[Snick]

Lioninstreet,
Here you go! I"ve used the free version for years. Program seems to hang right on the end but it will complete. Disabling you Anti-Virus etc removes the hang but I don't do that unless I disconnect from Net.
WinToUSB - EasyUEFI
Direct Download WinToUSB
How to create Windows To Go using WinToUSB? - EasyUEFI

Enjoy

Snick

 

[SIW2]

Aomei partition assistant also does it. usb2 is too slow, use usb3.

Free Partition Manager Software for Windows - AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard

Click Tools>windows to go creator

 

[SIW2]

Then integrate usb3 drivers.

Simplest way is to use dism++.

Click File>Add PATH and browse to the usb stick.




Then click "open session"

Then click Updates in the left pane, click ADD and browse to windows6.1-kb2864202-x64.msu

Then click Drivers in the left pane, click ADD and browse to XHCI\x64 folder.

Optionally, also click ADD and browse to UASPSTOR\x64 folder.


View attachment Dism++10.1.1000.100.zip

View attachment kb2864202-x64-x86.zip

View attachment XHCI-UASP.zip

That is the 6.2.9200 usb3 stack -works fine on win7

 

[SIW2]

I haven't used aomei for win7 to go since I explained to them how to do it - that is quite a while ago. , so I am assuming they haven't changed it.

Whichever tool you use to create the to go usb stick, I strongly recommend integrating the usb3 stack or it will be too slow to bother with.

 

[Snick]

 

[Lioninstreet]

Whichever tool you use to create the to go usb stick, I strongly recommend integrating the usb3 stack or it will be too slow to bother with.

Thanks to everyone who replied, gotta love this forum!

[EDIT} Sounds like your suggesting I need USB 3.0 drivers even though the hardware only has usb 2.0. That doesn't make sense, but I'll integrate them in none the less.

Purpose of this exercise is to load WHS11 onto USB using the MBR format and use it to drive HP Mediasmart Server hardware. This will leave all 4 of the drive bays free for GPT storage, permit a massive storage array with the functionality of WHS11, and keep everything in a super compact package.

This should be a fun test.

 

[Lioninstreet]

I had a AOMEI PM on my computer already so I first went with their Windows to Go app.

Question or two for @SIW2:

I ran the install on a w7 computer with usb 3.0 the OS transfer took prolly 4-5 hours. Then I transferred the USB stick over to the destination computer (USB 2.0 only) and booted up. That was yesterday. The system started to install but for about the last 20 hours it's been hanging on "Setup is Installing Devices"


Since I'm starting from a system disk, I'm choosing the install.wim file to install when using the WtG app. That is the correct file, yes? Or are there additional files I should be adding as well?

Also, would I necessarily still need to use DISM++ to add the USB 3.0 drivers in considering the destination computer only has USB 2.0 ports?

 

[SIW2]

I wouldn't use usb2. If that is all you have, then don't use win to go.

As I stated in an earlier post.

usb2 is too slow

I have nothing more to add.

 

[Lioninstreet]

Thanks anyhow for the arrow pointing SIW2. Couldn't have gotten this far without your suggestions.

I'm stuck with legacy USB 2.0 hardware even though the thumb drive is USB 3.0. But at least the result will be faster than when running nt6.1 on PATA... The issue isn't necessarily that the OS loads slowly, but now not only is it hanging, but its also throwing an unknown install error message. So something is wrong at the install level.

But before abandoning win 2 go, I just wanted to make sure I was using it with the correct .wim file... May have to try the Win to USB and see if that gets me any further.

As I stated in the OP, it's no worries to begin loading in the OS using an external DVD drive plugged into another USB 2.0 port (and it even works thru the process fairly quickly). OS install chugs right along right up to the point where I'm supposed to choose the destination drive. The thumb drive is not seen and the install asks me for a storage driver.

Since BIOS does see the thumb drive, maybe the answer is as simple as trying a few storage divers to see what happens.

If anyone is interested, I'll keep posting results as I go.

 

[Lioninstreet]

Win to USB isn't a solution for this application, the free version wont run put a server based OS onto a memory stick. The software author wants me to pony up $200 for that functionality.

[EDIT] my bad, they want $300 for server functionality...


So I'm back to looking for a storage driver that will detect the USB thumb drive during the OS install.

 

[Laith]

You can try imaging install.wim to the USB using GImageX. Keep in mind that you have to make the USB active and bootable manually.

 

[Lioninstreet]

Thanks for the suggestion Laith,

I'll give it a shot.

 

[Lioninstreet]

Following SIW2's contention that this install issue is caused by hardware limitation (server box only having USB 2.0, I've done a clean install of the OS again to the stick. Will load the USB3.0 drivers on it and then using hardware with USB 3.0, see if as suggested, the problem is being caused by a 2.0 limitation.

I haven't gotten to @Laith's suggestion quite yet, but I have compared the AOMEI USB install against a bare metal install (from OS DVD to hardware's internal hard disk). This to see if there is any difference between the partition setups.

There is. The USB stick only shows one NTFS partition.

The install made to the internal hard disk shows what I am used to seeing with this OS (WHS11), a 100mb system partition, a second OS partition and a third storage partition.

Maybe as the AOMEI install does it's first setup run, the OS creates the other two partitions? Hope to find SIW2 is correct about the USB 3.0 issue and find out.

 

[Lioninstreet]

Then integrate usb3 drivers. Simplest way is to use dism++

Then click Updates in the left pane, click ADD and browse to windows6.1-kb2864202-x64.msu

Then click Drivers in the left pane, click ADD and browse to XHCI\x64 folder. Optionally, also click ADD and browse to UASPSTOR\x64 folder.

That is the 6.2.9200 usb3 stack -works fine on win7

Update kb2864202 installed no worry, but the two drivers failed to integrate. SIW2, Are you open to offer any suggestions on different USB drivers to work with?

 

[SIW2]

usb3 5.05 drivers from Canonkong at win raid
View attachment iusb3-5.05x64-nosigned.zip

 

[Lioninstreet]

Appreciate the assist, will be working with this again today.

 

[Lioninstreet]

Tried all four of the unsigned drivers you linked to. None would integrate using DISM++.

I dropped the driver package onto the desktop and unzipped them. then in the app on the left side of the screen, selected Control Panel/Drivers, navigated to the driver folder and select.

A pop up window appears saying met problem during processing success 0 failure 1 not applicable 0 some of the error: access denied 0x00000005.


This is the same error as with the original drivers.

Maybe I should try to create a disk with the drivers slipstreamed in using something like the Gigabyte or Asrock USB utility and then use with AOMEI? Or is there something with DISM++ that I'm failing to do?

 

[SIW2]

Not sure why you are getting those errors. I have done it several times with dism++.

Unless there is something worng with your installation media.

Maybe you should get a fresh win7 installation media to work with.