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Possible Duplicate:
Installing Windows XP from USB pen drive
How can I Install a fresh copy of Windows XP or windows 7 into USB flash

I'm thinking of changing to a new laptop that only comes with a 256gb SSD. It's not tons of room, but not inadequate either. One thing I have on my HD at the moment that takes up a lot of room but is rarely used is a partition with a bootable version of Windows 7 (I'm on a mac).

Would it be possible to install a bootable copy of Windows 7 onto a flash drive?

I was thinking of using a 64gb Sandisk Cruzer USB 2.0, so that when I need to dip into Windows every now and again I could just plug in the flash drive.

Community
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sam
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3 Answers3

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You haven't said how much space you need on your SSD?

Assuming that you are not too squeezed for space, I'd get rid of the Windows partition and install Oracle VirtualBox. Then create a Windows virtual machine. The virtual disk for this will expand itself as needed so it takes up the minimum amount of space. You also get the ability to run Windows without rebooting. The only real disadvantage is that Windows would not be quite as quick but really, as long as you have a reasonable amount of RAM on the host, you will not notice for most general use.

Julian Knight
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Provided your motherboard allows booting from flash disks, i think it should be possible although i have never tried it myself. Your flash disk would have to have an Master Boot Record which points to the location on the flash disk where Windows is installed.

LatishS
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It can be done.
I would recommend to search for an online guide.
what you need to do is to format the USB, create primary partition and make that partition as active. then that partition can be used to boot from.
once it can be booted from, you can install windows 7/XP on it.
You can try to boot from CD and run windows 7 installation, when installation asks for path, choose the USB.
On this point, I am not sure he would allow you to do it, maybe the USB stick will not appear on the list of disks. so you need to bypass it.
anyway, for what you use it, It will be slow and uncomfortable to work from USB.

i done this with WinPE.

Please dont forget that Windows7 installation takes your disk (USB) and create 2 partition, one partition is 100MB and used for booting and another app, and the other partition is for the windows itself. you need to avoid this.

ilansch
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