Concerning your observations about slow boot: I guess, you used an ordinary USB thumb drive, which won’t fit well. I uses a) an USB 2.0 hard disk, that runs excellent and b) a modified Kingston USB 3.0 stick which runs also excellent.

I also switched now over to DISM (which is included in Windows 8) to create Windows To Go. Here is an article, where I discussed it in brief (in English) – with references to several German articles – discussing how to use PWC or DISM to create Windows To Go.

But in RTM I’m not sure, whether this approach works anymore. Windows 8 Enterprise comes with Portable Workspace Creator – but this version is for volume license customers only – and it need a modified USB 3.0 stick (currently only available from Kingston – see my article here).

I also apologize for referring to the ‘tools’ folder when I actually meant the ‘sources’ folder.

It took 2 hours for imagex to load Win 8 RC and after I rebooted it took 3 more hours for Windows to finish the personalization. I rebooted to the USB stick. It takes 30 seconds for the computer to respond to any command. Overall, putting Win 8 on a USB stick seems like a really bad idea.

But thanks for your excellent article!

Also, if you read the article carefully, you will find my remark:

Or you can invoke the command prompt windows using Run as administrator.

Second, Win 8 RP 32 Bit doesn’t comes with a tools folder (I just checked it).

And at least, install.wim is always in the sources folder – along with setup.exe.

So I really don’t understand your point …

Also, when using this procedure you need to get administrator privileges for the command box. The article does not discuss this step. Here’s how: Go into the Metro screen and locate the command line icon. Then right-click on the icon and left-click the administrative privileges icon at the bottom of the screen.

The 2nd thing I need to note: There are some other articles about Windows To Go and also USB 3.0 USB-Stick I wrote – mostly in German. These articles give some further insights to some aspects. Here are two samples:

1: http://www.borncity.com/blog/2012/06/02/creating-windows-to-go-from-windows-8-release-preview/
2: http://www.borncity.com/blog/2012/04/26/windows-8-to-go-probleme-bei-usb-sticks-i/

Till now, we can use Windows To Go with Windows 8 Release Preview – but in RTM we need Windows 8 Enterprise – I guess, others won’t allow to logon – but we will see.

I should also noted, that I have had data errors from time to time on my USB 2.0 hard disk containing several builds of Windows To Go (32/64 Bit versions, DP, CP, RP). But Windows was able to fix this errors using disk check. So, for me, Windows To Go was a nice approach to do a quick check of new builds, withoug ruining my production systems. But there are also limits. In CP it wasn’t possible to install drivers. In RP it’s not possible to do a PC refresh oder PC restore.

Therefor: For my main tests (and for writing my Win 8 books) I’m using either a VHD install, a VM install or a native install (for instance on my slate and netbook).

HTH

The 2nd thing I need to note: There are some other articles about Windows To Go and also USB 3.0 USB-Stick I wrote – mostly in German. These articles give some further insights to some aspects. Here are two samples:

1: http://www.borncity.com/blog/2012/06/02/creating-windows-to-go-from-windows-8-release-preview/
2: http://www.borncity.com/blog/2012/04/26/windows-8-to-go-probleme-bei-usb-sticks-i/

Till now, we can use Windows To Go with Windows 8 Release Preview – but in RTM we need Windows 8 Enterprise – I guess, others won’t allow to logon – but we will see.

I should also noted, that I have had data errors from time to time on my USB 2.0 hard disk containing several builds of Windows To Go (32/64 Bit versions, DP, CP, RP).

For my main tests (and for writing my Win 8 books) I’m using either a VHD install, a VM install or a native install (for instance on my slate and netbook).

HTH

1) I first used a high-speed 32 GB ADATA USB 3.0 Thumb Drive. Everything started out smoothly, and I was able to boot and go through the initial Windows 8 setup about twice as fast as Günter describes. However, after a couple of days of playing with this for some reason my system rebooted unexpectadel. After that ADATA would not boot properly, the system kept complaing there was a problem with the boot blocks. I started from the beginning reformatting the ADATA and installing Windows 8, but again it kept complaining about the boot blocks.

2) I then tried an older slower 32 GB Patriot thumb drive. OMG was this slow, about 10 times slower than Günter described. When I booted it Windows 8 did not activate right away and there were many problems. In general, Windows behaves exceedlingly poorly on a slow file system. Eventually this system did activate, but still there were so many problems it was not usable.

3) I then tried a 64 GB Lexar thumb drive I had been using for a Linux system. The Linux system ran really well on this device. Sadly Windows 8 does not run any better than on the Patriot thumb drive. I could never get this one to activate because the network never worked.

4) Finally I followed the same procedure on a 2 TB USB 2.0 Segate FreeAgent external drive. Things started out really well, and Windows 8 ran great for a couple of days, but ultimately ran into the same problems as the ADATA, the boot block errors. A few times after that it came close to booting again, but always failed. Even after reformatting and reinstalling Windows 8, I cannot get this drive to work again.

Interestingly enough, my Intel S5520SC system board has problems recognizing the ADATA and Lexar as boot devices after installing Windows 8. It takes a few tries, things start to boot, and untlimatly I run into problems.

Overall my impression is that Windows was never meant to boot and run from USB devices. Windows PE runs fine with no problems, but not actual Windows.

Window suffers an insanity of problems with slow storage devices. While Linus runs fine, even with a GUI shell on the Lexar, Windows works about as well as an overfed pig that cannot even stand on it’s own 4 legs.

This was a really cool article that got me really excited a couple of weeks ago, but after two weeks and 4 USB devices later I am just tired of banging my head against the wall being contantly suprized and disappointed at trying to run Windows 8 this way.

Bcdboot – Bcd boot file creation and repair tool.

The bcdboot.exe command-line tool is used to copy critical boot files to the
system partition and to create a new system BCD store.

bcdboot [/l ] [/s ] [/v]
[/m [{OS Loader ID}]]

source Specifies the location of the windows system root.

/l Specifies an optional locale parameter to use when
initializing the BCD store. The default is US English.

/s Specifies an optional volume letter parameter to designate
the target system partition where boot environment files are

copied. The default is the system partition identified by
the firmware.

/v Enables verbose mode.

/m If an OS loader GUID is provided, this option merges the
given loader object with the system template to produce a
bootable entry. Otherwise, only global objects are merged.

Examples: bcdboot c:\windows /l en-us
bcdboot c:\windows /s h:
bcdboot c:\windows /m {d58d10c6-df53-11dc-878f-00064f4f4e08}

Every time I tried to use the /f option, it complains and prints the list of parameters. I am able to create bootable devices without the option however.

I just run a 2nd test – works like a champ. Did you use an administrative command prompt under Windows 8?

Maybe it will helpful to search the web for PWcreator (I’ve found a few sites who are hosting this wizard).

Maybe it will be helpful to

Hope that helps