Win7 installed to SDHC how?

[TehMwak]

I have a question for you all on how to install win7 onto my 16GB class 6 SDHC card. I can install to my hard-drive fine. During install I'm told that installation to usb media isnt possible. (Onboard reader in eeepc900ha)

Please dont send me to EEE forums. They are little to no help.

 

[Night Hawk]

Oh you mean ran into....



while trying to install 7 on a reader. Sorry! The Windows installer simply looks for an internal hard drive by design to be setup as the main OS. First partition of the first hard drive is the default install until selecting another primary or drive/partition.

If you simply want an OS on it try a small Linux distro like ubuntu. That was installed rather easily on a usb flash drive here seeing that turned into a portable OS. Windows on the other hand... no go!

 

[darkassain]

actually i am think that you can do it this way...
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2953-virtual-hard-drive-vhd-file-create-start-boot.html
its not as good answer as you might have hoped but this way you should be able to bypass that error (and it should give you better performance..)
just change the location of the VHD file to where the SDHC card is and set the right size in mb...

and nighthawk
Backtrack is a linux OS used for penetration/protection testing (been using it for some time now that is hard to install to a HDD but not impossible..)

 

[TehMwak]

Thanks darkassain, I'll give that a go in about 10 min...

But before I give that a go, I've got the boot partition and installed partition to the SD card... But the bootloader is refusing to load from the SD card... Anyway of modifying the bootloader?

And I'll also try bypaassing the windows bootloader with grub... Possible fix?

--Edit-- VHD is no-go on my laptop. trying to install to a VHD caused bsod's...
--Edit again-- I cant bypass the windows bootloader either. It just refuses tro play nice. Maybe I should just give up on windows again.

**Ps. I found backtrack+ubuntu 9.04 much faster/usable/stable than then backtrack itself. And I got the startup to about 20sec to desktop, not including the time it takes to type in user/pass...

 

[limneos]

When I wanted to create multiple partitions on a USB stick, I found a way to make windows think it's local disk...

using with the cfadisk.inf driver

Perhaps if you chose "load driver" during windows setup and loaded this driver for your usb hard disk, it might work (I haven't tested it so far)

You need to edit cfadisk.inf and change the DEV/VEN lines beforehand according to your SDHC's hadrware ID.

Here's a detailed guide if you wanna give it a try:

MSFN Forums > A Multiple Partition USB Stick with Multi Boot OS

On the other hand, I think in some recent BIOSes there is an option to force the USB to fixed disk mode, floppy mode etc..If you have this option in your BIOS, give it a try.

I will try the first method when I have time and let you know how it goes.

 

[Night Hawk]

Blast! 9.03 is out and I just reinstalled 8.10 on the flash drive again on a 2+gb extended there. I don't think Windows would fit too well on the remaining 12.8gb ntfs partition.

Some have been running Windows on a virtula machine while the primary OS is Linux. Flash cards are not quite the same as any usb drive.

 

[TehMwak]

using with the cfadisk.inf driver

Way ahead of you. Needless to say it didnt work, I was quite dissapointed.

If you have this option in your BIOS, give it a try.

I've never seen that, Learn something new everyday. But alas my eeepc 900HA lacks that option.

**Am posting from a virtual XPsp3 inside linux... But my serial-port adapter does not function with VM-ware... (I need to use serial-rs232 connections at work...) Hence the need for a real windows install. But I refuse to have it installed on my hardddrive...

 

[dmex]

But I refuse to have it installed on my hardddrive...

Its a sad way to use Windows like that and a huge performance loss, use the VHD boot method

 

[TehMwak]

VHD is no-go on my laptop. trying to install to a VHD caused bsod's...

Sorry dmex... Tried it already.

I'll try again, however I don't like my chances.

 

[limneos]

ok then...try this other thing...

install normally on your laptop's build-in harddrive.
After installation, create a full drive backup to your SDHC disk, or make a ghost clone to that disk anyway.
After that, select that disk at bootup to boot your computer and see what happens...

Could work, not sure though.

 

[limneos]

Or then again, read this post where this guy gives a how-to about doing that on Vista..It should work just the same on 7.

Vista external USB boot | The Coffeehouse | Channel 9

 

[TehMwak]

I finally got it to boot from sd. But I cant keep it stable. (Using grub/modified sd driver)

However getting it to install to USB is quite simple and stable as far as I can tell. But that still doesnt help me.

Anyway, thanks for trying to help I guess I'll have to install it to a 5gig partition on my hard-drive...

 

[Night Hawk]

You'll want to see a bit more then 5gb of hard drive space for 7. As far as keeping any version of Windows stable on an external drive or device?

Total waste of time! The boot configuration would be a constant hassle just to start with. 7 has been running stable here on a 200gb partition with XP on the first of two since it was first installed with the exception of a few minor 3rd party software problems seen at first.

 

[TehMwak]

You'll want to see a bit more then 5gb of hard drive space for 7.

Well. I dont need any more than 500mb free.

I have win7 just for the ability to upload pre-programmed rom files via serial rs232...

And I've been bored and decided to overclock my eeepc 900HA under win7... I got a 1186. I have the fastest eeepc 900HA running win7 in the world... *evil laugh*

ASUSTeK Computer INC. 900HA : Geekbench Result Browser

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
problem is actually quite easy . A USB drive can be selected as a bootable drive on most modern machines by the Boot menu in the BIOS. Just select the USB drive. (Of course you'll have to have a proper boot record etc on the USB stick but there are loads of posts on the internet saying how you can create a Bootable USB stick.

Now when it comes to a SDHC reader there isn't any option in the BIOS to boot from this.
The best you can do is actually use something like GRUB (Linux) which presents a boot menu from which you can then continue the boot from the card reader. The GRUB / other bootloader will have to be installed on a bootable device recognized by the BIOS.

Cheers

jimbo

 

[Night Hawk]

I presently had no problem seeing ubuntu install to a usb flash drive with all internal drives unplugged to avoid anything but the default boot entries in the Grub loader there. But a small distro is portable compared to Windows on anything other then an internal drive due to a Grub or Lilo boot loader used there.

As far as only 500mb extra drive space needed that is still far from enough.

Getting ready to install the Beta

What you'll need

• A blank DVD
• A PC with a DVD burner
• 
  A test PC for the Windows 7 Beta that meets these minimum hardware recommendations (specific to the Beta and subject to change in the final version of Windows 7). Please do not use a PC you rely on for your work or daily use:
  • 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
  • 1 GB of system memory
  • 16 GB of available disk space
  • Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (in order to enable Aero theme)
  • DVD-R/W Drive
  • Internet access (to download the Beta and get updates) How to install the Windows 7 Beta

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

Perhaps I've missed the point but I assumed the OP was talking about a SDHC Card read directly from a built in card reader on the computer. This is not a USB flash drive.

(An SDHC card in a USB reader however is a USB device BTW -- I'm talking specifically about those built in card readers on laptops / desktops where you insert the card directly).

As I pointed out in the post there's not much problem in booting from USB's if the BIOS allows you to do it and even using GRUB is OK since the USB can be accessed via a BIOS call anyway.

The problem with SDHC cards and the like is that the READER software driver has to be loaded first before the card can be accessed -- and there isn't any BIOS call to these devices as yet (unless you have a really new machine with SDHC bootable options in the media.

For instance a lot of the built in multi card readers on laptope etc use the O2Micro driver to access the cards --this is only loaded when the main OS kernel (whether Windows or Linux) starts.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[TehMwak]

The problem with SDHC cards and the like is that the READER software driver has to be loaded first before the card can be accessed -- and there isn't any BIOS call to these devices as yet (unless you have a really new machine with SDHC bootable options in the media.

I have an EEEpc 900HA which does support SDHC media boots.

And to quote myself;

I finally got it to boot from sd. But I cant keep it stable. (Using grub/modified sd driver)

However getting it to install to USB is quite simple and stable as far as I can tell. But that still doesnt help me.

Anyway, thanks for trying to help I guess I'll have to install it to a 5gig partition on my hard-drive...

I found it wasn't impossible, just not worth the effort. Windows is fine with just over 500mb free space... sitting... Rarely used for anything other than beating other peoples benchmarks when they complain about how xp is faster than win7...

And the occasional work-related use... Which I installed it for originally...

That's for the tips...

**PS nighthawk, I really dont need more than 500mb of free space after a win7 install. It only takes up 4.5gig on my hard-drive -without- being vlited. Perfect.

 

[Night Hawk]

For a quikc basic install the MS info there more or less climbs over a bit allowing for the paging file and some basic softwares along with the video and sound drivers/softwares there. It stands to reason you would be able cut that amount down considerably. They looked at there as long term and adding new programs as you go along.

 

[Novim]

Looking at this discussion which ends in confusion, I'd like just to put again the question in simple way:

Is is possible to install Wndows 7 onto a SDHC card and boot it from it (it seems not, but let us confirm it once for all)?