Vista and usb flash booting

[TheAnimus]

Now i swear i heard roumers that Vista would install happily on a USB stick?

NT5 onwards has always rejected anything thats removeable as an installation source, because it can disapear at any time (roll on some transactional sata, that would be impressive!)

So how come i'm going to have to hack it? It dosen't see my USB stick in the drive list, its 16gig so should be enough, but i can play with it from the recovery console?

Is there anything i'm missing? Or is it hack the USB driver time?

Might try an XP upgrade!

(ps for the XP users check http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176)

[this_is_gav]

Vista cannot install on USB media, be that a flash disk or a USB hard drive. Whether it will work if you clone it onto one of those disks is another matter, but I seriously doubt it.

[kalniel]

Are you thinking of the offloading system files to USB stick to speed up boot time thing?

[x64united]

there was something called rapidboost or similar which meant your usb drive can work as 'RAM'

[TheAnimus]

readyboost will let you use the flash as pagefile, this is not RAM by any extent.

Kalniel. No.

this is gay. incorrect mate.

check out the link for the guide for XP.

Basically its about removing the driver ability to realise its a 'removeable' drive.
Windows (understandably?) won't let you install to a removeable drive, becuase you could remove it at any time (this would be bad for an OS drive).

What i'm talking about, you could say, is using a USB flash drive, as a HDD.

[Steve B]

this is gay.

would that be this_is_gav by any chance

[kidzer]

Easy mistake to make, I read it wrong all the time

[this_is_gav]

readyboost will let you use the flash as pagefile, this is not RAM by any extent.

Kalniel. No.

this is gay. incorrect mate.

check out the link for the guide for XP.

Basically its about removing the driver ability to realise its a 'removeable' drive.
Windows (understandably?) won't let you install to a removeable drive, becuase you could remove it at any time (this would be bad for an OS drive).

What i'm talking about, you could say, is using a USB flash drive, as a HDD.

SATA is also deemed removable and hot-swappable though (even the boot drive can supposedly be "safely removed" on some chipsets - my old nV based board did it)

As I said, I'm sure it can be done - I'm fairly certain I've seen it myself with XP, though the details are hazy - but it's hardly recommended, and in your own words, it certainly won't "happily install" on USB media. USB flash disks aren't even listed as drives available for selection when installing (only for retrieving drivers).

And yes, I take exception to the this_is_gay reference... that's the 2nd time you've mentioned it now. It does help wean out those who just skim and those who digest info though

[TheAnimus]

sorry i'm morbildy dislexic, so it sorta fits the shape, thats what i type!

erm i've flash booted XP before, its hacky (see link in post 0) but works fine.

Vista will not break me, i'm just disapointed its still so hard (rather than typing YES I KNOW a few times, having to make ur own botched USB driver is a pain).

The reason hot swap sata dosen't pose a problem is because the volume is not listed as removeable to the driver, so win will let you install on it!