USB stick with Bootloader

D

disposable

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I would like to install the Vista Bootloader on an USB Flashdrive. It is supposed to be able to boot Windows 7 from local hard drive and Win7 from VHD (or at least that VHD file), also located on the local hard disk. Actually, I want it to be an exact copy of what I have installed on the disk, only on an USB drive.

Is it possible, especially with EasyBCD? I've seen 'Create Bootable External Media' option, but I'm not really sure how it works.
 
You can install the bootloader to your USB drive. You may also be able to boot the VHD, but most likely only on that machine which defeats the purpose of it being portable. You well not be able to copy over your physical installation and boot that up as you wish, as MS doesn't want you booting Windows from external media.

To setup the bootloader on your USB drive, copy any important files from the drive to a safe place, than open EasyBCD > Bootloader Setup > Create Bootable External Media > Select your flash drive from the dropdown > Install BCD.

To load this new BCD store to edit its entries do File > Select BCD Store > Navigate to x:\boot\bcd
 
JustinW said:
You can install the bootloader to your USB drive. You may also be able to boot the VHD, but most likely only on that machine which defeats the purpose of it being portable. You well not be able to copy over your physical installation and boot that up as you wish, as MS doesn't want you booting Windows from external media.
Click to expand...

I don't need it to be portable - I want to use it only on that machine. The thing is that I have created a VHD installation as a kind of sandbox for the purpose of testing different software and I simply don't want to see the bootloader menu at each startup, it's kind of annoying actually. VHD stays safely on /dev/sda7 and I don't intend to move it or copy anywhere :wink:

By "copying physical installation" I meant only the bootloader, or even only its settings.
 
In "edit boot menu", if you set timeout(2) and default as your usual OS, you'll hardly notice the boot menu and you can just ignore it, but you'll just have time to interrupt with an arrow key to choose your sandbox if you want. (the timer stops if you intervene, until you make up your mind and hit enter)
 
Or set the timeout to 0 completely and install iReboot for those times where you want to boot the test system.
 
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