Setup Installation :: Booting And Running Windows 8 From USB Drive Via GRUB
Mar 4, 2013
As Windows to Go is only available for ENTERPRISE versions and booting from a VHD requires there to be an OS already installed on the physical machine I was wondering if we could "Borrow" a trick from Linux.
Is it possible to install a Mini GRUB boot loader on a partition on an external HDD and on a second partition boot a Windows system.
Note here -- I want a RUNNING WINDOWS SYSTEM -- not an install / recovery / "Win PE" type system -- but a full Windows system that will work even if there is NO usable INTERNAL HDD drive in the computer.
Googling shows quite a few ways of either creating an INSTALL disk (HDD) or booting a VHD neither of which are what I want.
Using GRUB and booting an external HDD in theory should work -- and this should "almost replicate" a Windows to Go system.
(I've had an external USB Linux system with VMware player installed -- that method works but the Windows system is quite slow even on an external USB3 drive -- running a Windows system natively should be a lot better).
I've actually got a spare SSD which I want to use for this -- I replace a 128 GB drive with a new Samsung 256 GB drive as I got a great bargain on it -- 99 GBP LESS 20% VAT which I got back at customs at the airport.
I'll use the SATA==>USB3 connector for connecting to the PC.
(Another possibility might be to get the Linux boot loader to load a Windows VHD from the external drive as well -- but I want the Windows system to work even if there is NO INTERNAL HDD in the computer).
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Sep 15, 2014
Computer specs, GeForce GTX 760 and i5-4670k CPU. MSI Z97-G45 Gaming Series motherboard. bought this from somebody with no windows installed on it. computer came with no cd's. bought a new copy of windows 8.1. i have the computer hooked up to a 720p hdtv with an hdmi cord. everytime i am hitting enter to boot from the device options it just keeps blinking but it wont boot from device. i think since i am using a tv and not a monitor it may be cutting off some other options on the screen on the bottom that i cant see? or is there something wrong with the computer. i believe the person used the computer before me for about 6 months or so and deleted what ever operating system he had on it before giving it to me. read some stuff about possible uefi bios legacy boot but not sure?
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Feb 19, 2014
This is a brand new windows 8 system that was sold to a customer. He brought it in for being unable to boot into windows after having used it for a couple of weeks, and he demonstrated the issue to me. It literally just boots to grub. This customer is a basic windows user. No experience with linux or dual booting. He uses it for email. I have never come across this particular problem before, so I ran the normal partition tools to see if the table looked proper for a windows 8 machine. Everything checks out ok, however it is still booting to a grub prompt!!
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Sep 15, 2014
After sorting out my problem installing multiple Hard Drives and getting past that I am now faced with another problem, which is that no screen is displayed on start-up to allow selecting other drives to boot from.
I can select other drives to boot from if I boot up into the default drive and select "Change PC Settings" but that is very slow and allows mistakes if one is tired.
I think the reason for the problem is because I installed all the drives on their own separately (took out the other drives) and they are now all installed properly except for this problem.
I only need to boot from the default drive when I need to do something with that particular drive or to boot from "Windows 7 Ultimate" I tried to fix the problem with Drive Freshen (I think its called) but that didn't work.
Is there a way to fix this problem and have the screen that offers to allow booting from another drive added to the default drive, without doing a total re-install?
On a multi boot system it is the first screen to display before booting the OS, and shows all the installed Drives in boxes with their names (labels) on, so that you can choose which Drive to boot from..
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May 23, 2014
I got an old computer, and my sister still is using it, it had XP but since support ended I decided to go for another system, unfortunetly there were no drivers for Vista and up, so I went for a USB boot - Linux Mint Maya 13 installation. The PC ended up being even slower and a friend just recently showed me how to install the drivers for Windows 8. I decided to go with a USB installation but when I restart and boot from the USB to install Windows 8 Pro, it says: Disk Read Error. I tested the USB on my new PC that I use and it did boot, but it won't boot from the old one.
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Nov 16, 2013
I have a Sony vaio VGX-TP20E. I put the win 8 disk into the computer and setup up the startup to boot from optical drive. But it skips it and starts up win 7 like it normally does. How can I install windows 8?
The first time I did that win7 had some kind of virus in it so I went to the recovery partition and restored the computer to factory settings.
So my other question is if I do somehow get it to work, do I have to delete the recovery partition or do I leave it alone. Logically it would only be able to recover for windows 7 right?
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Aug 31, 2013
Im trying to install Windows 8 (Not 8.1) but it gets stuck at the booting screen (Where setup shuold load files)
My system specs are on my profile.
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Jul 15, 2013
I have a Lenovo S10-3t convertible touch tablet/netbook that I am creating a multiboot scenario for.
To cover all the details, here are my disks and my partition setup.
640GB HDD as the primary drive
32GB SDCard as the secondary drive.
Primary HDD has these partitions:
MBR PARTITION SCHEME
Partition 1: Windows 8 Pro 64-bit (492.33GB) NTFS, with Win 8 bootloader
Partition 2: Mac OS X Snow Leopard (79.28GB) HFS+ Journaled, with standalone mini-chameleon bootloader
Partition 3: Linux Mint 15 64-bit (23.28GB) EXT4 Journaled, with GRUB2 on this same partition
Partition 4 (in extended partition): Linux Swap (1.27GB) ...swap space
The SDCard has these partitions:
MBR PARTITION SCHEME
Partition 1: Dedicated to ReadyBoost (5GB) FAT32
Partition 2: Android x86 4.2.2 (24.84GB) EXT3, legacy GRUB SHOULD be in the MBR of this disk
I am using the Windows 8 graphical bootloader to manage everything, as it is a touch-screen tablet, and I like having the touch support for the bootloader. So I would PREFER to use it if possible.
I have currently added entries for OSX Snow Leopard and Linux Mint Olivia to the Windows 8 boot manager, and all three OSes chainload properly to their respective bootloaders and are happy with each other.
Is it possible to chainload the Legacy GRUB bootloader in the EXT3 partition on the SD Card that has Android on it with the Windows 8 Bootloader? And, if so, will you walk me through this process?
There's a couple of reasons...as this is a touch screen tablet I would prefer the convenience of having an option to boot Android from the touch-enabled Windows 8 Boot Manager instead of having to fold the screen away from the keyboard, press FN+F11 and selecting the SD Card as the primary boot device every time I want to go into Android. I could have android on a fifth partition on my HDD, but one of the reasons for having Android on flash memory is BECAUSE I have a mechanical HDD, and I use Android if I'm actively moving the laptop around in a rough environment (say, walking or in a moving vehicle for example, and the HDD would be off since it isn't needed). I know I could use an SSD, but I prefer having a mechanical HDD in my laptop for my own reasons.
I am using a combination of VisualBCDEditor and EasyBCD, and I cannot get either to see or acknowledge the existence of the EXT3 partition on the SDCard (though they all see the EXT4 and HFS+ volumes on the primary HDD, and the FAT32 partition on the SDCard...)
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Dec 23, 2012
I wanted to ask a couple of things about installing Windows XP Home SP2 Upgrade (not full) on a partition (I'll get a cheap old Windows copy for the upgrade to work), with a pre-installed Windows 8 in the other partition.
1) How to do it, found how to install XP on Windows 7. Is it the same procedure?
2) I have heard that installing an XP Upgrade will wipe/reformat an entire HD, both partitions as if they were not partitioned/united. Is that true?
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Feb 8, 2013
I have upgraded my windows 7 ultimate to windows 8 pro a month ago and activated accordingly.
3 Days ago I tried to install Linux OS on XP partition ( earlier I had a XP+ Windows 7 dual boot and I upgraded windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro).
Unfortunately installation of linux failed and Windows 8 Pro is not booting now
How can I restore/re install windows 8 pro??
I tried by inserting repair DVD , but getting message of " repair could not possible".
Actually windows 8 Pro partition is not formatted, only the partition of XP got formatted ( earlier I had a XP+ Windows 7 dual boot and I upgraded on windows 7) .
Right now PC showing some message regarding Intel/processor/..etc.. on a black screen.
Actually I am least bothered about my personal files.
My ultimate concern is regarding activation of windows 8 pro with same product key.
Is there could be any problem with activation of windows 8 PRO?? and what procedure I have to follow?
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May 8, 2014
I am trying to dual boot Kali with Windows 8.1 and I keep getting three errors at the installation menu. I also carefully checked that I have followed the installation instructions correctly and I have. Here are the three errors:
1.) "Empty Security Header"
2.) "error:/live/vmlinuz has invalid signature" (I double checked other sources and the grub.cfg file I have saved was/is written correctly)
3.) "error: you need to load the kernel first"
My OS is Windows 8.1 ....
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Sep 13, 2013
I have a big problem since 9/9 and I just can`t fix it.
I have a dual boot system and use Windows 8 as my main OS and on the other ssd I have ubuntu 12.10 installed.
My issue started because I completely forgot that I had ubuntu installed on the other ssd (didn`t use it anyway) and tried to raid the ssd...so now I can`t boot anything and I do need to restore my Windows 8.
I have a usb recovery disk which allows me to use cmd but I don`t know how to use to recover my Windows 8 so that`s why I am here.
I ran diskpart on cmd it it shows both disks and both are ONLINE.
Ran chkdsk /f but i keep getting an error and chkdsk does not run
I have asus P8Z77-V LX UEFI Mobo
Intel rapid Smart technology (RST), Intel Smart Connect Technoly is disabled.
CSM is ENABLED ( it was AUTO) and boot device control to UEFI and LEGACY OpROM.
Secure Boot is disabled and I changed the OS type to OTHER OS and also tried WINDOWS UEFI MODE. The setup mode is EZ MODE.
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Jul 27, 2014
i installed windows 8.1 using pendrive after shuting down that laptop is not starting. During boot it is not showing anything.Nothing is happening even after i press f2 or f10 or f12.my laptop is lenovo g570
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Aug 6, 2014
attempting to setup a dual boot with Win 8.1 and Win XP.
Just a quick break down of my current setup:
a) Win 8.1 x64 is currently installed on my SSD on C: drive partition b) On a different SATA hdd I have an old Win 7 x64 installation that I'm not using any more on one partition
I simply want to replace my old Win 7 x64 installation with Win XP. Why do I want to install Win XP you may ask ? The answer is simple, I want to play some older games that aren't fully compatible with Win 8.1 x64 and neither run good in a virtual machine environment on Win 8.1.
The only thing that is stopping me from attempting this is, has to do with the Win 8.1 bootloader. I simply don't want to lose my bootloader, and I'm afraid that when I install Win XP it might overwrite my Win 8.1 bootloader which will most likely leave me without gaining access to Win 8.1. At the moment the Win 8.1 bootloader lists along with Win 8.1 my old Win 7 x64 installation.
Given my setup of hdd's up top, what would be the easiest way for me to load Win XP on my old Win 7 partition that will still allow me to have the Win 8.1 bootloader with a Win XP boot option on the bootloader menu ?
Should I disconnect my SSD and then proceed to install Win XP on the Win 7 partition and then afterward reconnect my SSD and then using EasyBCD add an entry for Win XP to the bootloader? Or will I run into an issue along the way?
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Feb 6, 2013
i have purchased windows8 to upgrade windows 7, install helper confirmed virtually all was ok to do it , windows 8 would not install over windows7 so after talking to microsoft i made a partition and dual booted to see if windows 8 worked, it does. Now i would like to upgrade my existing 7 or migrate all the emails programmes etc to windows8. what is the way to do this do i just try and upgrade windows 7 with 8 or is there a better way.
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Aug 11, 2013
I created USB Drive by Rufus to install UEFI Win 8 x64 Pro, but when I boot by USB, I have this error PC need to be repaired. My mainboard is Gigabyte B75 D3H
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Jun 1, 2014
Seen as my Windows 8.1 installation may be completely useless, I am going to booting up from BIOS. I have been putting Windows 7 (32-bit) on my USB drive and when I boot it with my laptop it shows up and says "Reboot and select proper device or insert boot media and press key". I have some important exams coming up and I need to do some revision - plus this is my only laptop!
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Nov 17, 2013
Currently I have a machine with Windows 8 pre-installed already. But now I don't like Windows 8 as much because certain programs I want to use requires Windows 7. Though I would still like to keep Windows 8 because it's licensed. I have an extra hard drive lying around with Windows 7 loaded in it already. Now I would like to dual boot between these two drives. Do I have to turn off Secure Boot and change the boot orders around to boot the Windows 7 hard drive?
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Jan 2, 2013
I am trying to add a Kingston SSD to my DV7T running windows 8.
I cloned the drive that's in the computer with Acronis. I switched the drives the SSD as the primary drive and the old HD as secondary. When I booted the system it booted from the old drive. In windows the system sees the ssd as the D: drive and the old drive as C:
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Feb 8, 2013
When Windows 8 menu appears on start and I choose W7 - instead of loading W7directly , the computer is new-starting again and only than starts w7. That's a funny "behaviour"....
Also, after starting the computer, the menu is not directly shown up, first is this turning wi8 circle (like in the setup) and only about 30 sec. later comes the menu. I am using windows 8 enterprise, test version.
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Jan 4, 2013
I have a few questions about dual booting windows 7 and windows 8 preinstalled (UEFI) on my Dell laptop.
1. Can I install a non-UEFI version of Windows 7 on my laptop, if so how?
2. Will installing a non-UEFI version of Windows 7 on my laptop break it?
3. Can I use EasyBCD for UEFI?
4. How do I create a UEFI windows 7?
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Dec 29, 2013
My girlfriend has recently got a new laptop and unfortunately she doesn't like it, despite me loving Windows 8.1.
She would like to try Windows 8 but is going back to Uni soon so would like Windows 7 as a back-up dual booted.
I've shrunk the partition and created a simple partition for Windows 7 but really unsure about Installing Windows 7 on a Windows 8 Laptop, it's an ASUS X550CA-XX417H. I've checked power shell with SecureBootUEFI and result is True.
What would be the best way to dual boot?
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Jul 21, 2013
Does not show up anywhere, device mgr etc. The only way I can see it is to adapt it to a usb connection.
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Sep 15, 2014
I have a HP Envy 4 Ultrabook and I want to install Windows 8 from scratch, I put the installation files on a flash drive from a DVD of Win 8 I had, but when I go to install it, it says the "We couldn't find any drives". I have tried using DiskPart within the CMD as well, but it only finds my flash drive when I run list disk. Also, my drives are completely formatted, and I accidentally wiped the recovery partition. I tried with a USB of Win 8 Pro, and it was fine, showing all of my drives correctly, but that version is linked to another PC, so I can't install it. Also, I booted into a Linux Mint live CD and tried to install it, it sees my hard drive correctly, but the Windows install does not, I can't figure this out, never encountered it before. Is Linux my only option at this point?
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Oct 18, 2013
I am trying to upgrade from windows 8 pro to windows 8.1 on a samsung laptop. The download completes and installation starts.
After a while the following message appears "you cant install windows on a usb flash drive with setup"
I am not actually trying to install to a flash drive. I contacted Microsoft and after 5 hours they said that I should connect to the internet with a cable and not by wireless in order to solve the problem (this didn't work of course and I had told them that it was an install problem and not a download problem).
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Aug 13, 2014
I have just bought an AIO Asus desktop with 1 Tb of storage. The c: (Windows)drive is allocated 100gb and the d: drive 931gb. I just want to transfer all the data from my old computer. This was pretty much all in the folder c:>Users>Myname, but when I try to transfer it all into the same folder on the new computer, obviously with 100gb there is not enough space.
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Jul 16, 2014
I just purchased an Asus R510CC notebook with windows 8 and I bought a SSD drive to replace the current one.
I used Recovery Drive in Windows to create an USB boot drive with the recovery partition on it. I then installed the SSD and booted from the USB. When I get to the option to reset my computer I encounter an error with the following message: "Unable to reset PC. A required drive partition is missing". I already did a bit of research and BIOS tweaking but I can't install Windows onto my SSD.
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Jan 11, 2013
Alright, I just installed my Windows 8 Pro from a USB drive as I was installing it I was installing Windows 8 on the W:/ drive but once it was installed I came to found out that that My C:/ drive which was originally Windows 7's drive letter now belongs to Windows 8, and now the drive that is now Windows 7's is D:/ is is possible to change it back a W: drive or something? and yes, Windows 7 is the main partition on the system, I'm not sure why it changed but it's actually the first time this has happened.
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Jan 7, 2014
I want to install windows 8.
currently i am using windows xp on C Drive.
I want to install Windows 8 or windows 8.1 on D Drive.
When i boot the pc will it prompt me to go to Windows xp or Windows 8.
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Aug 21, 2013
I had windows 7 installed on [C:] I then split [C:] into two renaming the other half to [F:] I then installed Windows 8 on [F:] and removed C: and gave the free space back to [F:] Now I just have [F:] and I want to rename it to [C:] but I have been told that you cannot with a system boot partition. Is there any way that I could manipulate the drive.
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Nov 28, 2012
I just bought a lenovo Z580 with windows 8 and I also have a new hard drive coming. The first thing I tried to do was create factory restore disks so that when the new hard drive gets here I can remove the old hard drive and replace it with the new one and put the pre-installed windows 8 that came with the laptop on it. I can't however find a way to create factory restore disks. Is this still possible and if not what are my options for replacing a hard drive for this laptop and using the same windows install that originally came with it? I would prefer to not have to clone the hard drive because the new hard drive is an SSD so I will want to install windows with AHCI mode on.
Ultimately, I want to do a clean install of windows 8 on the new laptop using the existing pre-installed windows 8 key. I imagine this would be pretty simple if I had windows 8 install discs but I don't have those either as they didn't come with the laptop. what my options are to make this work?
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