Installing Windows 7 onto a 16gb USB stick

Ste · 30 Mar 2012 at 19:32

I know you can install Windows 7 from a USB stick, but can you install it onto a USB stick instead of a hard drive? I want to make an audio server inside a drawer and need to keep heat and noise down to a minimum!

Would CloneZilla or similar work?

HecFam · 30 Mar 2012 at 19:44

I know you can boot windows from a usb device, but im not 100% sure you can Clone it from another hard drive. You might need to do a clean install.

Ste · 30 Mar 2012 at 19:51

Apparently though Windows wont give the drive as an option when you try and install it (will only show IDE/SATA drives)...

theheyes · 30 Mar 2012 at 20:05

It's definitely not supported out of the box. You can pick up a solid state drive for £50-£60 these days.

Ste · 30 Mar 2012 at 20:11

I can get a 16gb USB stick for £7 and I already have all of the other bits. I'm going to make an audio server that sits in a drawer

Also that's boring... it must be doable!

Semple · 30 Mar 2012 at 20:11

Does it have to be a windows O/S? You can install Linux onto a flash stick.

Ste · 31 Mar 2012 at 11:03

Ideally yeah. I think it may be possible but unacceptably slow...

HecFam · 31 Mar 2012 at 11:12

I know you can get windows xp on bootable flash drives.

paradigm · 31 Mar 2012 at 11:18

The only real way is booting from a vhd on the usb drive. It will be slow though.

FatRakoon · 5 Apr 2012 at 00:46

I installed Windows XP onto mine for a kick only a few months ago.
If you set the USB drive to be a HD instead of AUTO then depending on both teh USB Drive and the Mobo, it might go.

The snag with Win7 is that it needs to setup ( Not entirely true ) an extra little partition and most flash drives dont do partitioning.

Idleman · 5 Apr 2012 at 01:10

http://www.intowindows.com/install-windows-7-on-usb/

Found this. Says you can do it using Virtualbox portable. Have done it so, can`t confirm. Might be worth trying.

paradigm · 5 Apr 2012 at 10:45

Idleman said:
http://www.intowindows.com/install-windows-7-on-usb/

Found this. Says you can do it using Virtualbox portable. Have done it so, can`t confirm. Might be worth trying.

All that does is let you run Windows 7 in a VM on another machine already running Windows.

paradigm · 5 Apr 2012 at 10:46

FatRakoon said:
I installed Windows XP onto mine for a kick only a few months ago.
If you set the USB drive to be a HD instead of AUTO then depending on both teh USB Drive and the Mobo, it might go.

The snag with Win7 is that it needs to setup ( Not entirely true ) an extra little partition and most flash drives dont do partitioning.

That's not the problem at all. The problem is that Windows 7 won't load the USB drivers until far later in the boot process.

I've never come across a USB drive that I can't partition.