Solved Windows Embedded Standard 7 installation.

[Coke Robot]

Alright, so here's what's up, I downloaded the Windows Embedded Standard 7 .iso and I installed it into a VM to test it. Now, I want to install it onto a USB flash drive. The problem is that it doesn't detect the flash drive at all.

Do I need to actually burn off a DVD, boot from that, and install it onto the drive?

The USB drive is active in Windows, formatted to NTFS. What is going on here?! :huh:

Thanks!

 

[alphanumeric]

Windows, by default, won't let you install the OS to a removable drive like a thumb drive. Why are you trying to install it to a thumb drive? I don't believe you can make the install portable, if thats your intent.

 

[theog]

Are trying to reinstall a Windows Phone or handheld?

 

[Coke Robot]

What I'm trying to accomplish is yes, a portable Windows installation. I'm doing it for a couple of friends that want something like this and I also want to have the portability and convenience of having that.

I posted a thread in the virtualization forum here about doing something like this and I was recommended that I should use Windows Embedded for such a thing. It's interesting, I've never ever heard of such a thing and my mind was blown! :shock:

I've been looking around and Windows Embedded Standard is built for USB booting and installing, but it doesn't seem like so...

 

[alphanumeric]

I have no experience with windows embedded but I do know that the regular version of Windows 7 won't install to a USB external drive. Its not a valid install path. Are you sure you're not confusing "install from" with "install to"?

 

[Coke Robot]

Yeah, 7 won't install to any USB device.

I'm looking for install to...

 

[Brink]

Hello Andy,

I found this workaround that will let you install Windows 7 to a USB flash drive that may work for you.

How To Install Windows 7 On USB Flash Drive

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Kari]

According to Microsoft, it should be possible at least using SD cards:

Developing with Windows Embedded Standard 7 Service Pack 1

Windows Embedded Standard 7 delivers the power, familiarity, and reliability of the Windows 7 operating system in a componentized form for developers to create advanced commercial and consumer devices running thousands of existing Windows 7 applications and drivers.

NEW: Standard 7 Service Pack 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Embedded Standard SP 1 includes three new technologies:
1.Remote Desktop Protocol 7.1 (RDP7.1) includes RemoteFX, which is a set of technologies that includes USB Redirection, Multi-media redirection, Multi-monitor support.
2.SD Boot allows building and installation of Windows Embedded Standard 7 images on SD cards. Customers may boot a Windows Embedded Standard 7 image from an SD card (no roaming) as long as the SD card is in the device enclosure and not easily accessible to the end user.
3.SKU Compliance Package is added to the image after it is developed. This package deactivates features not in the designated SKU

Have you read the Embedded 7 pages through? (Commercial Devices | Windows Embedded Standard 7 for Developers)

Kari

 

[Coke Robot]

Hello Andy,

I found this workaround that will let you install Windows 7 to a USB flash drive that may work for you.

How To Install Windows 7 On USB Flash Drive

Hope this helps,
Shawn

That actually was the first thing I tried when attempting this, but thanks though!

I couldn't get portable VirtualBox to work correctly, it would give an error when I went to change the settings or when I wanted to make a virtual hard drive. Bugger!

 

[alphanumeric]

It would be interesting to see if you can do it, but I don't think its practical. Each PC would require different drivers, and what about activation? Its been done on windows XP but from what I remember its a fair bit of work to pull it off. You have to modify some files etc, and even when you get it to work, performance is really bad. I would think a thumb drive would be even worse than an external USB hard drive. I don't think thumb drives (flash memeory) like lots of writes so eventually your thumb drive will go bad.

 

[derekimo]

It would be interesting to see if you can do it, but I don't think its practical. Each PC would require different drivers, and what about activation? Its been done on windows XP but from what I remember its a fair bit of work to pull it off. You have to modify some files etc, and even when you get it to work, performance is really bad. I would think a thumb drive would be even worse than an external USB hard drive. I don't think thumb drives (flash memeory) like lots of writes so eventually your thumb drive will go bad.

I'm curious about this too, maybe this poster could elaborate more on the subject.

http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/181807-create-vhd-flash-drive-2.html#post1553085

 

[Coke Robot]

It would be interesting to see if you can do it, but I don't think its practical. Each PC would require different drivers, and what about activation? Its been done on windows XP but from what I remember its a fair bit of work to pull it off. You have to modify some files etc, and even when you get it to work, performance is really bad. I would think a thumb drive would be even worse than an external USB hard drive. I don't think thumb drives (flash memeory) like lots of writes so eventually your thumb drive will go bad.

That is true about the drivers, I'll have to see if Windows can load up some generic working drivers. Hopefully it will.

It seems as though WES7 will allow usage on multiple puters because its license allows so. Actually, running Windows off a flash drive sounds atrocious, but one time, I put a VMware virtual hard drive file onto a flash drive and booted from that, it's not too shabby honestly. I think I set the system to use one processor core and I think either 256 or 512 MBs of RAM and it ran rather fine. Also, Windows Embedded is basically Windows 7 but stripped down, just think of it as a linux Windows.

 

[Coke Robot]

It would be interesting to see if you can do it, but I don't think its practical. Each PC would require different drivers, and what about activation? Its been done on windows XP but from what I remember its a fair bit of work to pull it off. You have to modify some files etc, and even when you get it to work, performance is really bad. I would think a thumb drive would be even worse than an external USB hard drive. I don't think thumb drives (flash memeory) like lots of writes so eventually your thumb drive will go bad.

I'm curious about this too, maybe this poster could elaborate more on the subject.

http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/181807-create-vhd-flash-drive-2.html#post1553085

What would you like to know?

 

[derekimo]

It would be interesting to see if you can do it, but I don't think its practical. Each PC would require different drivers, and what about activation? Its been done on windows XP but from what I remember its a fair bit of work to pull it off. You have to modify some files etc, and even when you get it to work, performance is really bad. I would think a thumb drive would be even worse than an external USB hard drive. I don't think thumb drives (flash memeory) like lots of writes so eventually your thumb drive will go bad.

I'm curious about this too, maybe this poster could elaborate more on the subject.

http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/181807-create-vhd-flash-drive-2.html#post1553085

What would you like to know?

I'm talking about the person who posted that it could be done in your other thread.

It would be nice to know more about how it is done.

 

[Coke Robot]

I'm curious about this too, maybe this poster could elaborate more on the subject.

http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/181807-create-vhd-flash-drive-2.html#post1553085

What would you like to know?

I'm talking about the person who posted that it could be done in your other thread.

It would be nice to know more about how it is done.

Oh OK! I see! Yeah, I PM'd the poster to find out more, but I was thinking someone else here might know.

 

[derekimo]

What would you like to know?

I'm talking about the person who posted that it could be done in your other thread.

It would be nice to know more about how it is done.

Oh OK! I see! Yeah, I PM'd the poster to find out more, but I was thinking someone else here might know.

Looks pretty cool, I'd like to see it if it can be done.

 

[alphanumeric]

It is going to be interesting to see how this pans out. I'd just like to state again that I don't have any experience with windows embedded so some of my assumptions may be way off base. YMMV

 

[Coke Robot]

UPDATE!!

Ok, I got an answer from the poster from the VHD on flash thread about installing Embedded, apparently you must have the USB as the root of a network shared drive and before installing Windows, you run a couple commands to start the network stack and THEN install on the drive.

But before I got that message, I found out about this software hacker cracker dude that has achieved the USB Windows 7 drive. I downloaded the VHD file and ran the installer file for that and it installed onto the USB flash drive, and yes, it's Windows 7 on a flash drive that you can run from the BIOS boot! YAY!!!

Also, for those curious about if it's possible and how it runs, it actually run surprisingly well. But due to USB 2.0's speed constraints, it's not as fast as an ATA hard drive, but when running some light tasks, like going through Windows Explorer, running a media player and doing some interwebbing, it runs quite well. It almost seems like you're running on a slightly fragmented hard drive actually. Office 2010 runs pretty well, except for Outlook, it's a little unstable, but oh well. I plan on doing some Remote Desktopping from my portable Windows 7 drive to my home puter for gaming, maybe Outlook 2010, accessing installation files and whatnot, and using its internet resource. Awesome!!

But in my opinion, having Windows 7, IE 9, and Office 2010 to-go is epic! I don't have a pocket full of sunshine, I have a pocket full of Windows 7 Ultimate thank you very much!