Microsoft: "Install Damn Small Linux to your flash drive"

[3rdalbum]

I was looking online to see if you could install Vista onto a flash drive, and I came across this question on Microsoft Technet. The Microsoft guy doesn't really answer the question, but he does link the asker to an article about installing DSL to a flash drive.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...5-f709f16341f1

Can anyone actually tell me if Vista can be installed to a flash drive?

[murderslastcrow]

I believe it's too resource intensive to do so. Even with Windows XP, the best you can do is create a BartPE or other PE environment and burn it to a CD or build it with isolinux on a USB, and even then it runs quite slowly. And again, that's XP.

So, short answer? No. Long answer? Definitely not. The closest you could get is running a LiveUSB of a distro with Wine with Windows Vista compatibility mode enabled by default.

Of course, if you mean running the installation disc from USB, that's a different story.

[ronnielsen1]

Even with Windows XP, the best you can do is create a BartPE or other PE environment and burn it to a CD or build it with isolinux on a USB, and even then it runs quite slowly.

While I agree with that (I have a xp media live cd that runs as fast as kde with 64M Ram) I believe that flash is quicker. I have not tried either one of these methods below

I just did this method on one of my friends machine and installed the new Windows 7 BETA. The main advantage is that by using USB drive you will be able to install Windows 7/Vista in just 15 minutes. You can also use this bootable USB drive on friend’s computer who doesn’t have a DVD optical drive.

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-in...working-guide/

Requirements to install Windows 7 on USB:
# An USB flash drive with a minimum of 6 GB disk space to install Windows 7 or Vista. You can use a 4 GB drive to install XP.
# Bootable Windows 7 USB or DVD.
# Free time

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

[CharlesA]

If you are thinking of installing the entire OS onto a thumb drive, good luck.

The second link that ronnielsen1 posted would be the best bet. That way you would't have to deal with a gigantic USB thumb drive (needing space for the boot partition and the normal file system).

Only downside is that you need a machine capable of running virtualbox.

[pwnst*r]

You're thread title should have been:

"Some guy that mods an MS forum..."