USB Tricks for Vista and Windows 7

Here are some miscellaneous links I stowed away regarding maximizing USB storage usage.

• Create a Bootable VistaPE USB Hard Drive or Flashdrive – Purviance CS.

I offer this one as a great walkthrough when coupled with a VistaPE build.  Even better would be use with a custom VistaPE WinPE Build perhaps?  Seriously, this is exactly what I did with my custom VistaPE build (with PGP WDE driver injection).  Having that package on a bootable USB stick makes servicing systems so much faster and stable now.

As an added trick, the VistaPE.wim file is right on the root of the device so, say you have a couple of different VistaPE builds, a big/fast USB stick, and a touch of cleverness, you could just keep all your different (renamed) VistaPE.wim file builds on it, then pre-booting, rename the wim file package you want to use to “VistaPE.wim” and then boot away into that build.

• A Bootable USB: Utility to Create Bootable USB Drive to Install Windows Vista, Server 2008 and 7 - Tweaking with Vishal.  Link to a “do-it-for-you” utility which will set up your target USB device to allow it as the bootable installation source for the aforementioned OS versions.  I’ve not minded installing Windows 7 off optical media (DVDs) but a USB source is so much faster.  Definitely the method I will be using when Windows 7 is finally released to the consumer-public.  Spotted via Donna’s SecurityFlash.
• How to Create Bootable USB Drive to Install Windows Vista? - Tweaking with Vishal. Or if you want to learn how to DIY, check out this post.  Should cover Vista as well.
• Running Windows from a USB flash drive – Mark Wilson blog – I wouldn’t particularly recommend it (save for a Win PE config as I mentioned in the lead) but if you are really, really heart-set to do so, Mark shows how it could be done.  I’m not certain but this might thrash the flash memory pretty hard if used on a regular basis.
• How To: Install Windows 7 Beta from a USB Key! – Maximum PC. Another visual walkthrough on the process.
• Install Windows 7 From USB Drive/Pen Drive – Into Windows blog – Yes.  One more guide.  I like having multiple sources so I can try to spot any gotcha’s or other deviations before setting out.  After a few of these you get the concept down pretty firmly.

--Claus V.