Trying to install Windows on SD Card

[HisDudeness]

First of all, hi everybody! As you'll probably see from my post count, I'm new to sevenforums.com. I need help about a totally crazy thing, but I'm pretty sure on doing it, already read some pros and cons and heard some people about it.

The action is already pretty explained in the title. Now I'm gonna tell you the reason. Windows isn't my principal operating system. I already have a Linux Mint install that fulfills all my needs. I'd want a Windows system too just for gaming, if I manage to do my way. Id est on a Secure Digital I bought for that exact reason. Why? I don't want Windows to occupy space on my HDD, which is barely big enough for my needs, and I don't want to carry around an external drive either. An SD is perfect for has all the space it needs on its own, is small and confortable to bring where I want and when it's plugged in completely disappears in my computer.

First overcame obstacle, my laptop is a pretty new semi-ultrabook one, which means in order to be more light and thin has got no optical drive. I managed to create a bootable USB install drive from another x64 system using Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool, downloading an official SP1 iso image to activate.

The problem is Windows does not want me to put it on an external USB drive, nor a pen, an hard disk or a Secure Digital, which is my case (my laptop's card reader seem to be connected via USB). That probably because it's a bad idea, but I made my decision, and I'm not going to get Windows either way. I will activate it buying a license only if it can fit to an SD, elseway I'm gonna resign myself not to have a gaming system on my laptop and stick with LMDE alone.

One idea I came with was temporarily install Win7 on a partition I difficultly manage to cut out of my HDD, and then copy the entire partition on my SD. Except I can't manage to boot from it. That maybe because some boot system options refer to absolute and not reltive paths, so that moving it elsewhere miserably fails, or due to the fact that my SD is seen as E: drive from my Windows install, but is the C: partition of the SD itself, creating a nice drive letter conflict.

What I tried to boot from it is: creating a custom option with EasyBCD, marking the partition as active with bcdboot from an elevated command prompt (bcdboot c:\windows /s e, and using bootsect this way:

bootsect /nt60 e: /mbr

Any help appreciated. Ask for any system detail needed or for any plan or legal soubt. Have a good day, everyone!

 

[bassfisher6522]

Heck...I would be interested in doing this my self just for the fun of it. Let me know how you fair on your project.

 

[HisDudeness]

Sorry about the simley, I hate them. What I tried to write was obviously e: ), without space, but I don't know how to accomplish that without the simley appearing. By the way, what may be not clear from my description, is the partition which fails to boot is the cloned one on the SD. The original temporary install on my internal HDD correctly works (I'm writng from it), and has just begun its 30 days trial period, which I hope will be enough to get it definitely fully working on the card. Once done, this partition and install will obviously be wiped out, re-merged to my general data partition and left like that forever.

 

[HisDudeness]

Anyone? More than one week has already passed, I feel like my time is running out...

I'll now try to clone the partition with a Windows tool instead of GParted and let you know.

 

[alphanumeric]

There is a "Disable smilies in text" option down in the Additional Options box under the Submit Reply button. Can't help you with your other problem but this post will at least bump your thread back to the top.

 

[AddRAM]

Not sure if anyone here has ever had success installing windows to an external drive, especially using an image.

 

[alphanumeric]

Have a look at this. Windows 8 To Go - Setup on a USB Flash Drive or USB Disk
The only other option I can think of is installing to a virtual drive. I think that would use emulated hardware so it wouldn't be very good for gaming.

 

[gregrocker]

I've seen no credible reports of installing Win7 to external HD or SD cards. MS works pretty had to keep it off of them.

 

[neo101]

This is the only information I know of

- that possibly does anything remotely like what you are after.

If you redirect to an SD card I would like to know too - Ciao

Microsoft Store Online

CAN I BACKUP TO AN IPOD,CAMERA,OR OTHER DEVICE WITH ENOUGH FREE DISK SPACE?

Yes, but this is not recommended.

 

[HisDudeness]

Thank you guys for all the answers. Sorry for the delay of my reply, but I had some exams in this period and I guess you know the rest, plus I'm gradually losing hope about my original project and I'm abandoning the idea.

There is a "Disable smilies in text" option down in the Additional Options box under the Submit Reply button. Can't help you with your other problem but this post will at least bump your thread back to the top.

To hell all the smileys! Thanks man, quite an out of the box feature in 100% forums but never had to use it before... feel like an idiot.

Not sure if anyone here has ever had success installing windows to an external drive, especially using an image.

D'oh! Some bad news here. Quite surprised no one experienced enough to manage doing it ever tried. It must really be an awful idea. But I hoped, like bassfisher said, just for the sake of doing it...
Up the Irons, by the way.

Have a look at this. Windows 8 To Go - Setup on a USB Flash Drive or USB Disk
The only other option I can think of is installing to a virtual drive. I think that would use emulated hardware so it wouldn't be very good for gaming.

That is quite interesting, man! Not that enthusiast about eight but, hey, if it offers the possibility...
Just a few things I didn't fully understand:
· Is it exactly like standard Windows 8, or is it some portable edition optimized for flash supports in any way?
· Can it be installed even on an SD read by an USB-attached internal card reader?
As for the virtual drive, yes, that is not something that I want to do.

I've seen no credible reports of installing Win7 to external HD or SD cards. MS works pretty had to keep it off of them.

So, I basically have to forget about seven and hope MS will do something about it with eight?

This is the only information I know of

- that possibly does anything remotely like what you are after.

If you redirect to an SD card I would like to know too - Ciao

Microsoft Store Online
Quote:
CAN I BACKUP TO AN IPOD,CAMERA,OR OTHER DEVICE WITH ENOUGH FREE DISK SPACE?

Yes, but this is not recommended.

If I got that right, the link is to USB/DVD download tool, which is for burning the installation drive to a flash storage device, thing I had to do in order to install Windows as I have got no optical reader. As for backupping, yeah, I managed to do that, but I wanted to boot the backup partition and there went the problems...

 

[alphanumeric]

Thank you guys for all the answers. Sorry for the delay of my reply, but I had some exams in this period and I guess you know the rest, plus I'm gradually losing hope about my original project and I'm abandoning the idea.

Quote: Originally Posted by alphanumeric
Have a look at this. Windows 8 To Go - Setup on a USB Flash Drive or USB Disk
The only other option I can think of is installing to a virtual drive. I think that would use emulated hardware so it wouldn't be very good for gaming.


That is quite interesting, man! Not that enthusiast about eight but, hey, if it offers the possibility...
Just a few things I didn't fully understand:
· Is it exactly like standard Windows 8, or is it some portable edition optimized for flash supports in any way?
· Can it be installed even on an SD read by an USB-attached internal card reader?
As for the virtual drive, yes, that is not something that I want to do. ...

The official Windows 8 To Go is optimized to run from a flash drive and be used on more than one PC. It will detect hardware and update drivers every time you connect it to a different PC. The official version is Windows 8 Enterprise and activates based on that companies license to use it.
The unofficial roll your own version may have issues, legal and or otherwise. If you use it on the PC you created it on it should activate OK. Use it on another PC and it may not. Use it on to many different PC's and you may find your product code black listed. To Microsoft it will look like you are trying to install the one copy of Windows on multiple PC's. It's meant for Enterprise customers that have a license to use it. That being said if you want to play around with it on that one PC it shouldn't be a problem. I posted the link for doing it in Windows 8 because that's all I could find. You may be able to do the same thing with Windows 7, they are very similar. Looking again at what you are trying to do, that may not be what you want. You'll likely have to alter your backup image to boot from it and that may not be a good thing to do.