Windows 10: Boot from internal SD card to load Windows OS on to SSD

Hi there.

I'm sure it can be done - I'm sure there are some discussions on the Forums over this but I can't find them or the topic is quite old.

I've got a Micro server with 4 HDD bays and the ability also to boot from an internal USB slot or micro SD card.

What I've done is added an SSD where I want my OS - there's a spare SATA connector so the SSD can be fitted in the space which was intended for a slimline DVD drive - and these days who needs a DVD on a SERVER !!!.

I saw somewhere that VHD's can be loaded at boot time and then you can run from the VHD. Is there a mechanism for getting the bootloader on to say the micro sd card which would then load the VHD on to the SSD which would run my OS.That way I can use all 4 HDD bays as data drives. The Microserver can only boot from internal (and 4 external) USB 2 ports, the micro SD card or the internal HDD bay1 or Bay 2. Can't boot from Bay 3 / 4, USB 3 ports or the internal spare SATA device if you run in AHCI mode - don't want RAID on this box.

Perhaps something like the old Grub4dos might do it -- anybody got an idea of how to get the boot to load the Windows OS on the VHD. I've no problem in creating the VHD to go on to the SSD.

Most Linux distros can start the bootloader anywhere and get it to load the OS to a specific drive but I really want to run Windows 10 or Windows 20012 server on this machine.

A windows to Go OS would work but I'd then have to plug the SSD into the internal USB port which rather negates the point of using an SSD in the first place !!!.

It must be doable as Windows PE often works similarly to this.

Cheers
jimbo

:)

 

Windows 10 installation on external hard drive

Hi,

I have Asus X205T EEEBOOK. Since the laptop doesn't have enough internal space, I installed windows 10 update in the memory card. Lately, I noticed that the boot time has increased substantially, possibly because earlier the Windows was loading from SSD
and now it is using the memory card. Also I am not even sure if I can unplug the memory card from laptop.

Is it possible to move the OS to my internal SSD drive as I have created enough space by removing the old windows file.

Regards,

Kunal Jain

 

Any way to boot the Nokia Booklet 3G from SD(HC) ?

Unfortunately booting solely from SD card is not possible in Booklet 3G. SD card controller is not USB device but attached to PCI bus. BIOS is able to boot only from USB devices. Some Netbooks have their SD card readers attached as USB devices thus allowing
to boot from SD card similarly to any other USB stick.



The only way is to load enough of the OS from HDD/USB-stick to have PCI driver for SD card reader and then continue booting from SD card. For Linux that would mean that bootloader and /boot partition with initrd (having PCI SD card support) should be on
HDD/USB medium and root partition can be in SD card. For Widows things are trickier. You;d have to read a lot about Windows PE and have a lot of time to craft the solution.



Anyway for OS to be stored on SD card you need to have extra boot partition on HDD or USB medium, that BIOS of Booklet is able to read.

 

You might be able to create a wintousb drive which can put Windows on a standard usb flash drive in legacy bios mode (uses a vhd) using

Best Windows To Go Creator to create portable Windows 10/8.1/8/7!

I have done this on a fast cruzer extreme usb stick, with windows 10 Insider versions.