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Install and run from thumb drive?

E

Ed from AZ

Flightless Bird
I've got an older desk top with an aging hard drive that has a bad
whine. This machine is used for a very limited application, and is
fine for that use - except for the noise.

Can XP SP2 install and run from a thumb drive? THe idea is to tel the
machine to boot from the thumb drive and run the OS and a couple of
programs from there. No hard drive, no whine.

Good idea or bad?
Ed
 
B

Bruce Hagen

Flightless Bird
"Ed from AZ" <prof_ofwhat@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:596211d8-52ab-485a-95fe-e2be393711bb@q21g2000prm.googlegroups.com...
> I've got an older desk top with an aging hard drive that has a bad
> whine. This machine is used for a very limited application, and is
> fine for that use - except for the noise.
>
> Can XP SP2 install and run from a thumb drive? THe idea is to tel the
> machine to boot from the thumb drive and run the OS and a couple of
> programs from there. No hard drive, no whine.
>
> Good idea or bad?
> Ed


I don't know about your question, but hard drives don't usually whine. I
would be giving the fans a super good cleaning out. Remove them if you can
and get some 'Air In A Can' to blow them out. Even if they look clean,
they may well be plugged up internally where you can't see.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA
 
L

LVTravel

Flightless Bird
"Ed from AZ" <prof_ofwhat@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:596211d8-52ab-485a-95fe-e2be393711bb@q21g2000prm.googlegroups.com...
> I've got an older desk top with an aging hard drive that has a bad
> whine. This machine is used for a very limited application, and is
> fine for that use - except for the noise.
>
> Can XP SP2 install and run from a thumb drive? THe idea is to tel the
> machine to boot from the thumb drive and run the OS and a couple of
> programs from there. No hard drive, no whine.
>
> Good idea or bad?
> Ed

Windows XP and any other later operating systems are designed to NOT be able
to be installed onto a USB external device. The installation will fail as
soon as the removable media is detected.
There has been some reports that people have hacked the OS to be able to do
this but no one has successfully posted anything about it.

There are other operating systems, Linux specifically and all it's
offshoots, that can be booted from a USB device and there are open source
programs that will read and write to Office standards.

The issue you may run into with this type of setup is that USB key devices
(thumb drive) has a finite lifetime in number of read/write cycles they will
do. They can fail at any time and often do.
 
M

Mark Adams

Flightless Bird
"Ed from AZ" wrote:

> I've got an older desk top with an aging hard drive that has a bad
> whine. This machine is used for a very limited application, and is
> fine for that use - except for the noise.
>
> Can XP SP2 install and run from a thumb drive? THe idea is to tel the
> machine to boot from the thumb drive and run the OS and a couple of
> programs from there. No hard drive, no whine.
>
> Good idea or bad?
> Ed
> .
>

Bad idea. XP is not designed to run from a USB device, not to mention your
older hardware may not even be capable of booting from USB. Buy a new hard
drive and clone the OS to the new drive. If you are really concerned about
noise, buy a solid state hard drive; no moving parts.
 
D

Db

Flightless Bird
yes, you can boot with
a thumb drive,

however I don't know
about running programs
with the o.s. on the thumb
drive.

it would make sense
that you can't because
all the programs you
have have been integrated
with the o.s. on the hd.

but if you want to have
some fun loading the
o.s. from the thumb
drive,

you will need to install
2 programs on the
thumb drive.

I don't remember
what exactly the do.

I think 1 program
formats/prepares
the thumb drive.

then the next one
installs a boot mgr.

if I recall the 2
programs can be
downloaded from
the hewit packer
website.

--
--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

DatabaseBen, Retired Professional

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This NNTP newsgroup is evolving to:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx


"Ed from AZ" <prof_ofwhat@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:596211d8-52ab-485a-95fe-e2be393711bb@q21g2000prm.googlegroups.com...
> I've got an older desk top with an aging hard drive that has a bad
> whine. This machine is used for a very limited application, and is
> fine for that use - except for the noise.
>
> Can XP SP2 install and run from a thumb drive? THe idea is to tel the
> machine to boot from the thumb drive and run the OS and a couple of
> programs from there. No hard drive, no whine.
>
> Good idea or bad?
> Ed
 
D

Db

Flightless Bird
ps:

you will need a min
of 2 gig on thum to
install the os

and don't forget to
change the bootup
in the bios.

gl

--
--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

DatabaseBen, Retired Professional

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This NNTP newsgroup is evolving to:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx


"Db" <databaseb~@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:7D406BE5-6E94-409E-AD52-F4C8176D7DE7@microsoft.com...
> yes, you can boot with
> a thumb drive,
>
> however I don't know
> about running programs
> with the o.s. on the thumb
> drive.
>
> it would make sense
> that you can't because
> all the programs you
> have have been integrated
> with the o.s. on the hd.
>
> but if you want to have
> some fun loading the
> o.s. from the thumb
> drive,
>
> you will need to install
> 2 programs on the
> thumb drive.
>
> I don't remember
> what exactly the do.
>
> I think 1 program
> formats/prepares
> the thumb drive.
>
> then the next one
> installs a boot mgr.
>
> if I recall the 2
> programs can be
> downloaded from
> the hewit packer
> website.
>
> --
> --
> db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
>
> DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> This NNTP newsgroup is evolving to:
>
> http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
>
>
> "Ed from AZ" <prof_ofwhat@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:596211d8-52ab-485a-95fe-e2be393711bb@q21g2000prm.googlegroups.com...
>> I've got an older desk top with an aging hard drive that has a bad
>> whine. This machine is used for a very limited application, and is
>> fine for that use - except for the noise.
>>
>> Can XP SP2 install and run from a thumb drive? THe idea is to tel the
>> machine to boot from the thumb drive and run the OS and a couple of
>> programs from there. No hard drive, no whine.
>>
>> Good idea or bad?
>> Ed
>
 
L

LVTravel

Flightless Bird
"Db" <databaseb~@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:C95D781F-555C-4D03-AE8E-A21E7B74E9F7@microsoft.com...
> ps:
>
> you will need a min
> of 2 gig on thum to
> install the os
>
> and don't forget to
> change the bootup
> in the bios.
>
> gl
>
> --
> --
> db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
>
> DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> This NNTP newsgroup is evolving to:
>
> http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
>
>
> "Db" <databaseb~@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:7D406BE5-6E94-409E-AD52-F4C8176D7DE7@microsoft.com...
>> yes, you can boot with
>> a thumb drive,
>>
>> however I don't know
>> about running programs
>> with the o.s. on the thumb
>> drive.
>>
>> it would make sense
>> that you can't because
>> all the programs you
>> have have been integrated
>> with the o.s. on the hd.
>>
>> but if you want to have
>> some fun loading the
>> o.s. from the thumb
>> drive,
>>
>> you will need to install
>> 2 programs on the
>> thumb drive.
>>
>> I don't remember
>> what exactly the do.
>>
>> I think 1 program
>> formats/prepares
>> the thumb drive.
>>
>> then the next one
>> installs a boot mgr.
>>
>> if I recall the 2
>> programs can be
>> downloaded from
>> the hewit packer
>> website.
>>
>> --
>> --
>> db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
>>
>> DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> This NNTP newsgroup is evolving to:
>>
>> http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
>>
>>
>> "Ed from AZ" <prof_ofwhat@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> news:596211d8-52ab-485a-95fe-e2be393711bb@q21g2000prm.googlegroups.com...
>>> I've got an older desk top with an aging hard drive that has a bad
>>> whine. This machine is used for a very limited application, and is
>>> fine for that use - except for the noise.
>>>
>>> Can XP SP2 install and run from a thumb drive? THe idea is to tel the
>>> machine to boot from the thumb drive and run the OS and a couple of
>>> programs from there. No hard drive, no whine.
>>>
>>> Good idea or bad?
>>> Ed
>>

But you still can't boot XP from a USB removable drive. It won't allow
itself to be installed on a USB external drive.
 
B

Bob I

Flightless Bird
You don't need 2 GB to install MSDOS.

Db wrote:
> ps:
>
> you will need a min
> of 2 gig on thum to
> install the os
>
> and don't forget to
> change the bootup
> in the bios.
>
> gl
>
 
E

Ed from AZ

Flightless Bird
But I also need to run Word, Excel, and VB6.
And have USB support for a four-port hub, because I'll have the drive,
a keyboard, and a mouse with only two USB ports.

Ed

On Aug 10, 4:59 am, Bob I <bire...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> You don't need 2 GB to install MSDOS.
 
L

LVTravel

Flightless Bird
"Ed from AZ" <prof_ofwhat@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:f3f2ded9-d032-4116-a0a8-e9e09dbcfb55@t20g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...
> But I also need to run Word, Excel, and VB6.
> And have USB support for a four-port hub, because I'll have the drive,
> a keyboard, and a mouse with only two USB ports.
>
> Ed
>
> On Aug 10, 4:59 am, Bob I <bire...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> You don't need 2 GB to install MSDOS.

You also can not install any Office programs to run from a USB removable
drive. They have to be a "fixed" drive in the system.
 
B

boatman312

Flightless Bird
On 08/11/10 2:20 PM, LVTravel wrote:
>
>
> "Ed from AZ" <prof_ofwhat@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:f3f2ded9-d032-4116-a0a8-e9e09dbcfb55@t20g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...
>> But I also need to run Word, Excel, and VB6.
>> And have USB support for a four-port hub, because I'll have the drive,
>> a keyboard, and a mouse with only two USB ports.
>>
>> Ed
>>
>> On Aug 10, 4:59 am, Bob I <bire...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> You don't need 2 GB to install MSDOS.
>
> You also can not install any Office programs to run from a USB removable
> drive. They have to be a "fixed" drive in the system.

Except for OpenOffice...

http://lifehacker.com/5113888/openofficeorg-portable-30-ready-for-your-thumb-drive
 
L

LVTravel

Flightless Bird
"boatman312" <eracars@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:i3ur2k$asd$1@news.eternal-september.org...
> On 08/11/10 2:20 PM, LVTravel wrote:
>>
>>
>> "Ed from AZ" <prof_ofwhat@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> news:f3f2ded9-d032-4116-a0a8-e9e09dbcfb55@t20g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...
>>> But I also need to run Word, Excel, and VB6.
>>> And have USB support for a four-port hub, because I'll have the drive,
>>> a keyboard, and a mouse with only two USB ports.
>>>
>>> Ed
>>>
>>> On Aug 10, 4:59 am, Bob I <bire...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>> You don't need 2 GB to install MSDOS.
>>
>> You also can not install any Office programs to run from a USB removable
>> drive. They have to be a "fixed" drive in the system.
>
> Except for OpenOffice...
>
> http://lifehacker.com/5113888/openofficeorg-portable-30-ready-for-your-thumb-drive

Correct but the OP was talking about Microsoft Office programs. If he wants
to run Linux with Open Office linux version that would be perfectly OK just
as I said in my first response back to the OP.
 
B

Bob I

Flightless Bird
Humm, I've never seen a mouse with USB ports, much less 2 of them. All
kidding aside, you aren't going to be running a setup like that with
Windows XP. The only way Windows XP can even potentially run from a
drive on USB is you have to hack the USB port recognition features so
they aren't available any more. Beginning to get the picture?

Ed from AZ wrote:
> But I also need to run Word, Excel, and VB6.
> And have USB support for a four-port hub, because I'll have the drive,
> a keyboard, and a mouse with only two USB ports.
>
> Ed
>
> On Aug 10, 4:59 am, Bob I <bire...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>You don't need 2 GB to install MSDOS.
>
>
 
E

Ed from AZ

Flightless Bird
On Aug 12, 5:13 am, Bob I <bire...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Beginning to get the picture?

Long time ago!
Time to search for a "new" IDE hard drive.
Geeks.com has a few in the 20-30 dollar range.
Might even be able to find one locally for less.
'Course, that's where the current noisy one came from .....

Oh, well ... the adventure continues!
Thanks for all the responses.

Ed
 
E

Ed from AZ

Flightless Bird
Okay - just gotta ask --
Can I run either Win 98SE or 2000 off a thumb drive?
(Just searching for alternate paths that won't cost me anything out of
pocket!)

Ed
 
R

Richard in AZ

Flightless Bird
NO

"Ed from AZ" <prof_ofwhat@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1b1ab609-9fdb-4bfd-9465-192fe46bd0c6@b4g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
> Okay - just gotta ask --
> Can I run either Win 98SE or 2000 off a thumb drive?
> (Just searching for alternate paths that won't cost me anything out of
> pocket!)
>
> Ed
 
E

Ed from AZ

Flightless Bird
Well, that quick answer saved me some time! 8>)
Thanks!!

On Aug 31, 2:19 pm, "Richard in AZ" <m...@mailinator.com> wrote:
> NO
>
> "Ed from AZ" <prof_ofw...@yahoo.com> wrote in messagenews:1b1ab609-9fdb-4bfd-9465-192fe46bd0c6@b4g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
> > Okay - just gotta ask --
> > Can I run either Win 98SE or 2000 off a thumb drive?
> > (Just searching for alternate paths that won't cost me anything out of
> > pocket!)
>
> > Ed- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
 
B

Bob I

Flightless Bird
Alternate paths for what?

Ed from AZ wrote:
> Okay - just gotta ask --
> Can I run either Win 98SE or 2000 off a thumb drive?
> (Just searching for alternate paths that won't cost me anything out of
> pocket!)
>
> Ed
 
T

Tim Meddick

Flightless Bird
I've successfully run Windows 3.11 from what you call a "thumb drive" ....

It is now, for all intents and purposes, classed as legacyware and you can
freely obtain
a cd-rom disk-image ISO file from :
http://rapidshare.com/files/9212261/Windows_3.11.iso

the setup RAR-file set from :
http://www.4shared.com/file/ReBJcPdl/Windows_for_Workgroups_311.html


==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :)




"Ed from AZ" <prof_ofwhat@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1b1ab609-9fdb-4bfd-9465-192fe46bd0c6@b4g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
> Okay - just gotta ask --
> Can I run either Win 98SE or 2000 off a thumb drive?
> (Just searching for alternate paths that won't cost me anything out of
> pocket!)
>
> Ed
 
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