Windows 10: Create Windows to Go without using the WAIK or ENTERPRISE

Discus and support Create Windows to Go without using the WAIK or ENTERPRISE in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade to solve the problem; Hi there I think this method of creating a Windows to Go system is easier - it doesn't need the WAIK download and it IMO is much easier than the... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade' started by jimbo45, Dec 29, 2014.

  1. jimbo45 Win User

    Create Windows to Go without using the WAIK or ENTERPRISE

    jimbo45, Dec 29, 2014
    #1
  2. Sumit Dhiman2, Dec 29, 2014
    #2
  3. Windows 10 Enterprise

    Windows 10 Enterprise is what you call a volume license client. It is normally sold to large companies who install Windows 10 in bulk. It is not cheap and carries certain requirements to qualify. It is an upgrade license and must be installed on a computer
    running a premium business edition such as Pro or Professional. Also, it is very expensive.

    If you are looking for Windows To Go like functionality, check out the following:

    How to Create a
    Windows To Go USB Drive Without the ...
     
    Andre Da Costa, Dec 29, 2014
    #3
  4. BunnyJ New Member

    Create Windows to Go without using the WAIK or ENTERPRISE

    Thanks,, I'll check this out.
    Jeff *Smile
     
    BunnyJ, Dec 29, 2014
    #4
  5. I may have to get off my @ss and give this another go. I have a nice Kingston 64 gig HyperX USB 3.0 thumb drive I want to use. The official Windows to Go utility won't let me use it. *Mad But will let me use my crappy old 5400 laptop drive in a USB 2.0 enclosure. *Rolleyes WTF?
     
    alphanumeric, Jan 6, 2015
    #5
  6. adamf Win User
    Actually DISM works for me (on 8.1 and 10 not sure about earlier) - no need to download anything.

    1. Diskpart (clean, create partition primary, format quick fs=ntfs, active).
    2. dism /Apply-Image /imagefile:F:\sources\install.wim /index:1 /ApplyDir:W:\
    3. BCDBOOT.EXE E:\WINDOWS /S E: /F ALL
     
    adamf, Jan 6, 2015
    #6
  7. Superfly Win User
    Works for me as well - I do my multi-boot this way as well...viola!
     
    Superfly, Jan 7, 2015
    #7
  8. WHS
    whs Win User

    Create Windows to Go without using the WAIK or ENTERPRISE

    Nice alternative. But if you already have the WAIK, you might as well use it and put the imagex.exe on the desktop. Then it is only 2 commands - e.g.:

    "C:\Users\Your Name\Desktop\imagex.exe" /apply H:\sources\install.wim 1 F:\

    bcdboot F:\windows /s F:

    Works with the .iso in a BD ROM (H here) or a real DVD.

    PS: the WAIK is a useful tool. You also need it e.g. when you want to produce a WinPE recovery CD for free Macrium. You download it when you have nothing else to do. Takes about 2 hours for the average connection.
     
  9. I suck at this. First I tried this, Windows To Go Step by Step - TechNet Articles - United States (English) - TechNet Wiki The official Windows to utility, option 1, will not use my thumb drive because its removable media. Doing option 2, power shell commands, I get as far as, $OSPartition = New-Partition –InputObject $Disk[0] -UseMaximumSize . I get an insufficient free space error message. That I believe is because the drive is removable media and not a fixed disk.

    So then I tried what you others posted,
    1. Diskpart (clean, create partition primary, format quick fs=ntfs, active).
    2. dism /Apply-Image /imagefile:F:\sources\install.wim /index:1 /ApplyDir:W:\
    3. BCDBOOT.EXE E:\WINDOWS /S E: /F ALL
    I can boot from the thumb drive but it stalls at the Windows logo with the juggling balls. All disk activity stops and it just sits there forever. I left it running for 30 plus minutes.

    Then I tried what jimbo posted in post 1. Again seemed to work. I can boot from the drive but it stalls in the very same place. Tried it on my desktop with normal BIOS and my laptop with UEFI.

    The thumb drive is a Kingston HyperX 65 GB USB 3.0 drive. Tried it in a USB 2.0 port on my desktop PC and a USB 2.0 and a USB 3.0 port on my laptop. *Sad

    I just can't get there from here? If I use my old laptop drive in an external enclosure I have no issues creating a Windows To go drive from 8.1 Enterprise. It's just bulky and slow. It would have been nice to use my thumb drive that is a lot more pocket friendly.
     
    alphanumeric, Jan 9, 2015
    #9
  10. WHS
    whs Win User
    Did you disable secure boot and set the BIOS to legacy mode ??
     
  11. adamf Win User
    whs, Jimbo and I are only suggesting different ways to copy the .wim to your drive. The end result is the same (I've also made my USB stick a RAW disk and installed via VirtualBox which is again the same).

    Via USB2 no thumb drives seem usable to me. I've used a USB2 HDD and it was (just about) OK. I don't own a USB3 stick but it should be better (you would like to think). If I use a decent SD card (on my mac host) it is OKish.

    If your boot is halting try rebooting a few times. If that doesn't work you are most likely having a problem with a screen driver which I'm afraid I don't know about.
     
    adamf, Jan 9, 2015
    #11
  12. jimbo45 Win User
    Hi there.

    Actually an old laptop HDD (I replaced the laptops HDD with an SSD) works brilliantly for a Windows to Go -- I use a USB2==>SATA connector to connect the USB drive to the computer --perfectly fast enough even to run SKY GO to watch SKY SPORTS / SKY MOVIES from the Internet.

    A USB3 ==>SATA connector on a USB3 port would work even better.

    A 2.5 inch 320 GB laptop drive is almost as portable as a USB stick and much more durable (and robust). You can even get a 1TB laptop HDD for probably cheaper than a 64 GB USB 3 stick !!!!.

    You don't need any caddies etc and its very portable. The USB2 / 3 -->SATA cables only cost a few pence / cents / eurocents.

    Cheers
    jimbo
     
    jimbo45, Jan 9, 2015
    #12
  13. Create Windows to Go without using the WAIK or ENTERPRISE

    Did you disable secure boot and set the BIOS to legacy mode ?? My desktop PC, the one I created it on, doesn't have a UEFI BIOS, so it doesn't have those BIOS options. My laptop listed the thumb drive with the UEFI option in the quick boot menu. I'd have to try it again to see if its also listed in legacy mode. I didn't change any settings on my laptop. The TechNet procedure says the finished thumb drive will be compatible with normal BIOS and UEFI but I couldn't get all the commands to work.
     
    alphanumeric, Jan 9, 2015
    #13
  14. I probably should have posted this in the tutorial thread but didn't. I've tried several times with several different methods to make a Windows to go on my thumb drive and failed. I have access to Windows 8.1 Enterprise and have done it the official way. That portable drive worked fine in several of my PC's without having to mess with BIOS settings (other than boot order). I tried cloning it to my thumb drive but got a BSOD when I tried to use it. My official drive is a 5400 RPM Laptop IDE drive in a USB 2 external enclosure. It works but its slow. Right now I'm pretty well going to give up on the thumb drive. I have a 256 GB SATA SSD still in the box that I think I will put in a USB 3.0 external enclosure I have and use that for my Windows To Go. I may even give that TechNet tutorial another go as I don't have enterprise installed on a PC at the moment.

    The kicker is the official WTG utility will not use removable media. Those official certified WTG thumb drives have the bit set so they show up as fixed disks. You pay a premium for them too.

    Using an SD card sounds interesting. I have a couple of decent Kinston cards and a USB SD Card reader. With the card in and the cap on it just looks like a bigish thumb drive. The largest capacity card I have is 32 GB. It might be just big enough though. I may have a go at using that.

    I had to hold the power button down to get out of the lock up. I did get the blue screen with the "Your PC needs to be repaired" or something like that, once. I just powered down again and let it boot up normally and all was fine. I wasn't sure what drive the repair was running from, internal or external. No harm done to any of the installs on my PC's, not that I can tell anyway. I'll play around with this somemore over the weekend and let you guys know what works and what doesn't. I'll have another look at the official tutorial again too. Bye for now.
     
    alphanumeric, Jan 9, 2015
    #14
  15. The one I was using was an 80 gig 5400 RPM laptop IDE drive in a USB 2 enclosure. I do have a couple of SATA Laptop drives, I assume they are 5400 RPM, in USB 3 enclosures. They came out of our laptops when I replaced them with SSD's. I use them for backup at the moment. One is 500 GB and the other 750 GB. I think I'm going to pull the 500 out and replace it with a 256 GB SSD and see how that works for a WTG drive.
     
    alphanumeric, Jan 9, 2015
    #15
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Create Windows to Go without using the WAIK or ENTERPRISE

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