Computer geeks unite....

[AestheticDeath]

.... to answer my question!

You know the USB flash drives that are like 1-32MBs?(I mean GBs sorry)

Is it in any way feasible to actually install a windows system on there? Not just copy the files to it, but run a system off it.

Basically have a portable computer, you could run through someone elses computer. Get around not being able to install things on a locked computer, and play games over the internet via your USB flash drive etc...

Could just change the boot sequence to run off the USB drive first right?

And when you tell me no, like I know you will, explain why it won't work please.

[Bobmuhthol]

You can run XP from a flash drive.

But not a 1-32 MB flash drive, WTF? GB, man!

PS. Systems that don't allow installations, etc., also typically disable USB ports if they're serious.

[AestheticDeath]

oh shit... i typed that... I meant 1-32GB

whats the min you would need to get it done?

[Bobmuhthol]

You can easily do it on a 1 GB flash drive but you need to strip the shit out of the XP installation. It isn't necessarily difficult because a lot of people have pre-prepared installations (I downloaded a version of XP specifically for USB drives a while ago) and there are also programs available to pick and choose what you want and then it strips those files from a normal XP install disk.

[AestheticDeath]

And how would you go about installing XP on the flash drive?

What else could you use it for? Assuming you booted someone elses computer up, with your flash drive.. would it be able to read their computers HD? Or copy/paste things to it?

[Bobmuhthol]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-pocket,1113.html

You should have free reign over any connected hard drive; they get treated like slaves.

[AestheticDeath]

crazy... so assuming I have trouble with an old hard drive booting, is there anyway to use this to still look at that HD? or it will have the same problems reading the HD?

[Bobmuhthol]

That's completely dependent upon the reason the hard drive won't boot. If BIOS doesn't see it you're fucked either way, but if the boot sector is damaged you can at least access the drive's contents this way.

[AestheticDeath]

and thanks for the help

[DaCapn]

There's a lot of Linux distros designed to be booted off of a USB drive. This site lists some: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

Maybe you're committed to Windows though. Format the drive with NTFS if you use Windows (and likewise something like ext3 for a Linux install).

Can the Windows swap use be turned off? I'd imagine that would be wise.

[AestheticDeath]

swap use?

[GS4Ranger]

That's completely dependent upon the reason the hard drive won't boot. If BIOS doesn't see it you're fucked either way, but if the boot sector is damaged you can at least access the drive's contents this way.

Bob's correct on this. One of the programs that I would use to grab contents from a HD that won't boot up is SLAX (Might be different now, but I use the old version). You just put it on a CD, boot it up and it loads the contents and runs everything in RAM. From that point, just mount the HD that is in the system, hook up a USB external drive or some other data storage device, mount it, then whammo, copy over the contents if it can see it.

If it doesn't see the HD, then you will have to go further and I would recommend professional help with retrieving the contents. Most forensic analysts will also create copies of the HD before working and then use the copy to retrieve information (rule of thumb is to never work with the original) so the only harm is when they can't retrieve information, you get your original HD and an apology.

PS: If you have anything illegal on your HD and you turn it over to an analyst company, be warned that your HD will be scanned and anything illegal will be reported if they are reputable, not that I am implying you have anything illegal.