[PCWorld]

Post your comments for How to Carry Any Operating System in Your Pocket here

[mjd420nova]

Too bad there's no guidelines or specs in this article. How big of a flash drive do I need?? If I look at my WIN7 kernel, it takes two DVDs (8 GB) to hold it unless I ZIP it, and then I need another utility added.

[xyberviri]

Uhm shouldn't you be calling Apple for help troubleshooting their favorite Mac notebook or desktop?

[NeilNicholas]

mjd420nova, on 18 April 2012 - 05:23 PM, said:

Too bad there's no guidelines or specs in this article. How big of a flash drive do I need?? If I look at my WIN7 kernel, it takes two DVDs (8 GB) to hold it unless I ZIP it, and then I need another utility added.

4GB on an empty flash drive

[YellowEagle]

mjd420nova, on 18 April 2012 - 05:23 PM, said:

Too bad there's no guidelines or specs in this article. How big of a flash drive do I need?? If I look at my WIN7 kernel, it takes two DVDs (8 GB) to hold it unless I ZIP it, and then I need another utility added.

Use a 16 GB flash drive.

This post has been edited by YellowEagle: 23 April 2012 - 04:33 AM

[YellowEagle]

YellowEagle, on 23 April 2012 - 04:30 AM, said:

mjd420nova, on 18 April 2012 - 05:23 PM, said:

Too bad there's no guidelines or specs in this article. How big of a flash drive do I need?? If I look at my WIN7 kernel, it takes two DVDs (8 GB) to hold it unless I ZIP it, and then I need another utility added.

Use a 16 GB flash drive.

First time i ever replied to my own comment hehehe

To get your key on your System use the free home version of Belarc. It will give you even the keys of all your Licensed software to. Business will need to buy a License. they even have a Mac version.

http://www.belarc.co...e_download.html

[RBouvet]

All these tips are nice, but I have a question.
Once any of these OS are on a flash drive, and a person is going to use it on a non-native machine, would
the bootable order have to be changed in the BIOS? Seems kind of
drastic to go into a person's PC and change their order, then leave.

[FishamanP]

Carrying a Windows 7 installer around is MUCH different from carrying the OS itself around.

[lepiane]

Does this mean I can try Mac OS X Lion on my Windows 7 PC?

[userrmvu]

Does the USB version of the Windows OS have to match the version you are trying to replace? What about the license?

[Nuke61]

lepiane, on 24 April 2012 - 04:44 AM, said:

Does this mean I can try Mac OS X Lion on my Windows 7 PC?

Probably not. Your Windows based PC needs drivers that support the specific hardware on your computer, and OS X is no different in that regard. It's unlikely that OS X will have drivers for your hardware, unless you specifically chose the hardware because it has drivers for OS X.

[LSupremo]

lepiane, on 24 April 2012 - 04:44 AM, said:

Does this mean I can try Mac OS X Lion on my Windows 7 PC?

There's a system called iPortable that allegedly works for that, to be honest I've never tried it.

This post has been edited by LSupremo: 24 April 2012 - 07:23 AM

[benedictlim]

RBouvet, on 23 April 2012 - 01:13 PM, said:

All these tips are nice, but I have a question.
Once any of these OS are on a flash drive, and a person is going to use it on a non-native machine, would
the bootable order have to be changed in the BIOS? Seems kind of
drastic to go into a person's PC and change their order, then leave.

On older machine the BIOS doesn't support boot from USB, if I am not mistaken. You can check it during the boot up by pressing either Esc , F2 or F12 , depends on the manufacturer to go into BIOS settings and boot sequence. You can change back to the original settings once you have done with the troubleshooting. My best bet is using System Rescue CD or HBCD(Hiren's Boot CD), you can google and it might have some tutorial on how to create bootable USB drive for it. Like I say older machine might night support to boot from USB flash drive.

[BobBrayyqhi]

mjd420nova, on 18 April 2012 - 05:23 PM, said:

Too bad there's no guidelines or specs in this article. How big of a flash drive do I need?? If I look at my WIN7 kernel, it takes two DVDs (8 GB) to hold it unless I ZIP it, and then I need another utility added.

microsoft says it will fit on an 8 gig stick,i would go to 16 gig just to be safe.

[MsAmber1010]

At the risk of sounding too old school--is there a way to put Windows XP or Windows XP Professional on a thumb drive?

[PASystems]

userrmvu, on 24 April 2012 - 06:15 AM, said:

Does the USB version of the Windows OS have to match the version you are trying to replace? What about the license?

A very good question considering that if one has an OEM version of Windows 7 it is impossible to reinstall that on any other machine other than the one you bought it with. I resent deeply the fact tha Microsoft can continue to make money off me even when my Windows OS is still on an operational disk but my current machine has died. One needs to have a RETAIL version of Windows in order to reinstall that licensed version on any machine. Thus this idea of putting Win7 on a flash drive would only apply to those products. How many average users have the retail version as opposed to the OEM that came with our prebuilt systems?

[MeGustaTacosYBurritos]

PASystems, on 23 June 2012 - 03:16 AM, said:

userrmvu, on 24 April 2012 - 06:15 AM, said:

Does the USB version of the Windows OS have to match the version you are trying to replace? What about the license?

A very good question considering that if one has an OEM version of Windows 7 it is impossible to reinstall that on any other machine other than the one you bought it with. I resent deeply the fact tha Microsoft can continue to make money off me even when my Windows OS is still on an operational disk but my current machine has died. One needs to have a RETAIL version of Windows in order to reinstall that licensed version on any machine. Thus this idea of putting Win7 on a flash drive would only apply to those products. How many average users have the retail version as opposed to the OEM that came with our prebuilt systems?

I would think that the PC manufacturer would be to blame here since Microsoft is not the one choosing what to put into the package provided to you by the manufacturer (although I'm not sure whether M$ restricts the manufacturer from giving you the retail disc).

I sincerely hope you didn't already purchase another copy of Windows tho! Then M$ surely did make more money off of you, but only because you didn't do your research. M$ provides the retail disc online as a free download! Download the ISO, create a bootable flash drive using the USB/DVD Creator tool linked to in the article, and simply install the OS using the license key that should be on a sticker on your computer. Here is the download link for Win7 Home Premium x64 with Service Pack 1 (the version on most personal PCs these days): http://msft.digitalr...n/X17-58997.iso Feel free to validate using Google. Digital River Content does host legitimate versions of software for M$.

You already paid for one copy of Windows when you bought your old computer! You shouldn't have to buy another one if that computer breaks. Apparently M$ agrees as they have been hosting their retail discs online for years now.

PS - Just a heads up, I used this recently in a similar situation and had to activate the OS over the telephone bc of the way the M$ validation software works.

[JohnShepherd]

PASystems, on 23 June 2012 - 03:16 AM, said:

userrmvu, on 24 April 2012 - 06:15 AM, said:

Does the USB version of the Windows OS have to match the version you are trying to replace? What about the license?

...How many average users have the retail version as opposed to the OEM that came with our prebuilt systems?

I would hope the answer would be "everyone". Even if they purchased a pre-built system, this would mean that they never bother upgrading the OS the machine came with, and that's a disturbing thought. People like that probably aren't going to want to be carrying around install images in their pocket anyway.

[JohnShepherd]

MsAmber1010, on 05 May 2012 - 10:57 AM, said:

At the risk of sounding too old school--is there a way to put Windows XP or Windows XP Professional on a thumb drive?

Try this guide:
http://www.tomshardw...ocket,1113.html

[brainout]

I really wish I knew about how to create USB flash boot devices, when this article was written. That week, my machine's memory had gone wonky, so I couldn't use Windows. I did have a CD Linux boot disc, so could back up the drive prior to getting the memory repaired.

Then again in May, the registry crashed. By this point I had synched the programs on my other machines, but again the Linux CD came in handy, as Windows wouldn't run. GET THAT: if Windows won't run due to a registry crash, you can't recover. So still need Linux to at least back up the missed interim.

BEST CHOICE is to CLONE YOUR ROOT DRIVE regularly. For this, Macrium Reflect 5 Pro was the easiest, fastest, best of all the seven or so backup/recovery programs I tried during May-July.

Advantage: you just take the clone drive with you. Plug it into any computer, boot: in minutes, you're effectively on the computer you cloned. Presumably this same function is available for MAC and Linux, but I didn't test it. For only Windows is insanely wildly, arcanely, unstable.

Cloning 70GB or so, takes me about an hour on Macrium Reflect 5 Pro. It's not automated, but you can program your computer to remind you. (Their other backup/recovery programs are all easily automated, easily accessed on the fly through Scheduled Tasks in Windows.)

If you still prefer a smaller pen drive or flash drive, and want to make them bootable, the usual instructions are to limit the stick's size to 4GB. I have these, too. But I've also done it with larger drives (i.e., Cruzer 64GB and Patriot 32GB). Apparently you can also make SSD cards bootable, but I wonder if the hardware recognition at boot, is stable enough?