Windows 7 Bootable USB Win 7 ( not install )

a w

Senior Member
I see a lot of info on creating a bootable USB installation disk .
What I am interested in , is a bootable USB of actual Win 7 .
In case of hard disk boot troubles , I could use this to get in at least .
Seem to recall , years ago seeing such a thing .
Anyone ?
Thanks .
 
All you need is a copy of the win 7 iso and a copy of Rufus (free).
 
Thanks kemical and nmsuk .
Kemical , is the Rufus solution , not only to make a bootable USB installation disk ?
I am interested in actual Win 7 on a bootable USB Flash Drive .
 
If you get the deployment pack from microsoft, you can create a windows 7 PE stick. Actually having a proper windows install on the disk is unwise. Destroys the flash, due to reads and writes.
 
WinPE is more a of barebones version of Windows primarily for running Windows utilities and imaging. It won't be anything close to a full edition of Windows 7, but you can certainly customize it.
 
I see a lot of info on creating a bootable USB installation disk .
What I am interested in , is a bootable USB of actual Win 7 .
In case of hard disk boot troubles , I could use this to get in at least .
Seem to recall , years ago seeing such a thing .
Anyone ?
Thanks .
Windows 8 and Windows 10 Enterprise actually have a feature called Windows To Go. This feature allows you to boot a portable version of Windows, which I believe is different from WinPE, using certified devices like USB flash and portable HDD. Few have Enterprise Edition Windows and you're doing this with Windows 7 - therefore it is irrelevant, but I thought I'd point it out.

If you REALLY want to run a backup through some form of portable disk, you could always just buy an external drive and use Clonezilla to copy your whole drive to the external. Then remove any files/programs/apps you don't need (while booting solely from the external). If you're only on USB2 it will be noticeably slower, but it is more-than-do-able. With flash drives, like @nmsuk said, you'll just prematurely kill the USB thumb drive/flash running off that, unless its something simple like WindowsPE. Primarily because the NAND memory on these flash drives are designed for storage and not the constant type of read/writing/paging that Windows is capable of in regards to the way NAND memory works. Some may dispute this because you now have MicroSD cards people are writing and deleting huge 4K videos with, and some of these files are in the gigabytes. But I think, really, that you're still running a risk. You could always take the risk, if you so choose, but its going to be slow, choppy, and unreliable. For this, look up WinToUSB: Best Windows To Go Creator to create portable Windows!

This software simplifies the install-to-USB process because of the unique bootloader/UEFI BIOS issues you will encounter with USB flash drives.

Good luck!
 
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