Travel Technology - Boot WinXP/Vista from a USB

I'd like to boot Windows from a USB device. I'd be able to trash the operating system on the USB without affecting the other drive(s) in the systems I'll be working on.

A google search tells me that Windows grabs the USB at boot and that it then hoses itself by grabbing the device it's booting from.

Has anyone managed to successfully boot Windows 32 or 64-bit versions from a USB device?

Windows does not support booting from a USB device. You can install a boot loader on a USB device that will boot Windows from the HDD, but not from the USB device itself.

If you have some free/unallocated storage space on your internal HDD, you could set up a test partition and dual boot Windows with 1) your main system and 2) one system designed to be hosed/reinstalled.

For more portability, you might want to consider creating a Windows "live CD". Here is a great tool for that and a little walk-thru about doing such a thing:
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

The live CD is not very good if you want to save data from the live CD session, although the live CD should support USB devices like a flash drive, so you might be able to read/write from that.

Lastly, have you considered using Virtual PC (or equivalent)? That might take the least footprint if you're just looking for a way to mess around with the OS.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

Good luck.

Windows may not support booting from a flash drive BUT the bios of the motherboard might

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2005/09/09/windows_in_your_pocket/

I seem to recall there may be a way to create a U3-compatible Windows install that will allow you to boot the OS from a U3-compatible USB flash drive...

Windows may not support booting from a flash drive BUT the bios of the motherboard might

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2005/09/09/windows_in_your_pocket/


I know for certain that many motherboards support this. I've booted into Linux from a USB "key drive" several times. I just don't know if Windows supports this yet.

Windows does not support booting from a USB device. You can install a boot loader on a USB device that will boot Windows from the HDD, but not from the USB device itself.

If you have some free/unallocated storage space on your internal HDD, you could set up a test partition and dual boot Windows with 1) your main system and 2) one system designed to be hosed/reinstalled.

For more portability, you might want to consider creating a Windows "live CD". Here is a great tool for that and a little walk-thru about doing such a thing:
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

The live CD is not very good if you want to save data from the live CD session, although the live CD should support USB devices like a flash drive, so you might be able to read/write from that.

Lastly, have you considered using Virtual PC (or equivalent)? That might take the least footprint if you're just looking for a way to mess around with the OS.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

Good luck.

Thank you!

And thanks to everyone else. Looks like it should be a fun summer. ;)