262 replies to this topic

[amalux]

OK, got some time to test this and yeah, installing directly to USB sucks! I experienced many of the same issues you did and even more annoyances (never got to desktop*); I would never recommend doing it this way. I can't say if these issues are related to PWBoot (which seemed to work fine); it just seems installing directly to a USB device has inherent issues(?).

So, back to what works: setting up your Windows 7 normally on an internal hard drive; creating a backup image of that working partition and restoring the backup to an external USB drive (Acronis is known working but others should do fine). Then patch it with PWBoot (or other) and boot it normally; no Windows setup etc. just boots normally to desktop like you were starting host OS. If you want 'universal' image, this can be setup with your favorite tools on the host machine before creating the backup image for use in USB.

*Edit: After many attempts, restarts, loooooong waits; finally saw a desktop with low graphics (like yours) and, you guessed it, 'Failed to connect to a windows service' error pop-up in the system tray. So, yeah, I can confirm your exact issue using this (install direct to USB) method.

[SuperJMN]

OK, got some time to test this and yeah, installing directly to USB sucks! I experienced many of the same issues you did and even more annoyances (never got to desktop*); I would never recommend doing it this way. I can't say if these issues are related to PWBoot (which seemed to work fine); it just seems installing directly to a USB device has inherent issues(?).

So, back to what works: setting up your Windows 7 normally on an internal hard drive; creating a backup image of that working partition and restoring the backup to an external USB drive (Acronis is known working but others should do fine). Then patch it with PWBoot (or other) and boot it normally; no Windows setup etc. just boots normally to desktop like you were starting host OS. If you want 'universal' image, this can be setup with your favorite tools on the host machine before creating the backup image for use in USB.

*Edit: After many attempts, restarts, loooooong waits; finally saw a desktop with low graphics (like yours) and, you guessed it, 'Failed to connect to a windows service' error pop-up in the system tray. So, yeah, I can confirm your exact issue using this (install direct to USB) method.

Thanks for you thorough testing. I opted by the method you commented and it worked like a charm. The point of having a Windows installation that can be booted up its to have an autonomous ext. HDD that can help you fix your computer when it's broken or simply make your Windows installation portable (for work, for example). In my case, I also wanted to make the same Windows partition able to host a paging file. This isn't permitted by the OS by default, so I had to follow the instructions to use DiskMod. It was a bit tricky, but it worked in the end.

Are you using DiskMod? What about your drive specs? my unit is a Toshiba 2.5 USB 2.0 with 30 MB/s sequential read/write time. Not quick, I would say A paging file definitely helps.

[OldFart]

I'm not sure if amalux's post was directed at me or not, although I did get an email that he posted a reply to my post. So, I'll go over this one more time, since it still doesn't work;

When I installed Windows 7, the hard drive was connected directly to a SATA port on the motherboard of the computer. Win7 installed without issue, everything worked (all hardware), as expected, all drivers were updated, and I updated the OS via the MS Update Site (right down to SP1 and ALL other updates).

Still connected to the SATA port, I then ran PWBoot on the drive, shut down, removed it from the computer, installed it into an external USB enclosure, connected it to one of the USB ports on the SAME computer, and it booted right up, albeit not nearly as quickly as from the SATA port, but not painfully slow. When everything settled down and the desktop was visible, that's when I saw the message about the missing swap file, which appears upon EVERY boot/reboot. No amount of fiddling with anything will make it go away or will create a swap file. Aside from that, Windows performs about as I would expect it to (meaning everything runs and nothing is missing).

So, I've basically given up on that current Win7 installation and am in the process of zeroing out the hard drive (a rather lengthy process where 1s are written to every sector). When that's completed (assuming it does actually finish), THIS time I'll create a SINGLE PARTITION spanning the entire drive, where before I let Microsoft's brain-dead installer split it into one tiny partition (for the boot loader), with the rest of the drive for Windoze. Why they do that (split it up) I'll never know, nor do I really care.

When Windows 7 is again installed, and unless someone suggests I do something different, I'll update all the drivers, update the OS, run the PWBoot tool on the drive, remove it from the computer, install it into a different USB enclosure (I have 6 or 7 laying around), plug it into a USB port on the SAME computer, and will then see what happens. As I understand it, which obviously I may not, that's what the tool (PWBoot) is for; modifying an existing Win7 installation on a drive connected to a computer's SATA port, so it will boot from an external USB enclosure. If I'm wrong, please let me know.

Creating a backup image of a working Win7 partition and then restoring that backup to the same drive in a USB enclosure makes no sense to me at all. A backup image is a bit-for-bit copy of whatever is on the drive being backed up. Putting the exact same data back onto the exact same drive is a complete waste of time. The exact same data is already ON the drive. Backing it up (making an image of it) and then restoring it to the same drive acomplishes WHAT?

If any of none of the above makes any sense, please let me know. Or, if I should do something completely different, please let me know.

Thanks.

Old Fart

[amalux]

I'm not sure if amalux's post was directed at me or not...

Old Fart

No, I was responding to SuperJMN's post; I had responded to yours earlier...

The first partition is an annoyance of Windows 7, setup if installing to unpartitioned hdd; the solution is to install to single partition you create prior to install (can be done at setup from DVD or PE). More info: http://www.mydigital...ling-windows-7/

This add'l partition makes it more complicated to use Acronis restore (recommended for setting up bootable USB) because if you restore the backup of Windows 7 install to a new hard drive without remembering the stupid 100MB partition...

Best to setup your host install on single, primary/active partition; create backup and restore that backup to your external USB, then patch it and all is well.

I'm not sure now if my Win7_USB has a pagefile or not (I assume it does); I never saw your error/warning and use many RAM intensive proggies like Photoshop, Sony AV, Office 2010 etc. I won't be able to check about the pagefile till I get my drive from work, give me a little time...

[amalux]

So, I've basically given up on that current Win7 installation and am in the process of zeroing out the hard drive (a rather lengthy process where 1s are written to every sector). When that's completed (assuming it does actually finish), THIS time I'll create a SINGLE PARTITION spanning the entire drive, where before I let Microsoft's brain-dead installer split it into one tiny partition (for the boot loader), with the rest of the drive for Windoze. Why they do that (split it up) I'll never know, nor do I really care.

No need to zero out the drive; a simple delete and format will do. No need for a single partition spanning the entire drive, just a single partition to install to (around 40GB should do); the rest of the drive can be split up into partitions of any size as needed, just don't leave unpartitioned space for windows installer to grab control of (8-16MB OK for buffer).

Creating a backup image of a working Win7 partition and then restoring that backup to the same drive in a USB enclosure makes no sense to me at all. A backup image is a bit-for-bit copy of whatever is on the drive being backed up. Putting the exact same data back onto the exact same drive is a complete waste of time. The exact same data is already ON the drive. Backing it up (making an image of it) and then restoring it to the same drive acomplishes WHAT?

You misunderstand completely! The backup image is created on the host machine of an existing Windows 7 installation and restored to an external drive where no installation exists. This avoids, not only opening your PC and the external drive enclosure (some are not so easy to open) but a second installation to the USB drive! This alone saves a tremendous amount of time and hassle. As time goes by, new programs are installed on host, updates, tweaks, fixes etc. are added and when ready, I simply create a new backup of the host and restore it to the external drive (plugged into a USB port); the whole process takes less than 10 minutes!

[amalux]

I won't be able to check about the pagefile till I get my drive from work, give me a little time...

Here you go

[Wonko the Sane]

@Oldfart
I guess it depends of what you are wanting to do , your approach seems much more in line with this:
http://reboot.pro/10126/
or actually any of the "original" Windows 7 on USB tutorials (stickies here):
http://reboot.pro/forum/77/

@amalux
As already hinted:
http://reboot.pro/6851/page__st__143
to have a pagefile on a USB disk you *need* something, it is very possible that PWboot already does a mod like that, but I wouldn't be so sure.
The screenshot you posted does not show on WHICH drive the pagefile is, if you could click on the "Change" button and post a screenshot of the details of the pagefile, it would be an actual confirmation.

What about your drive specs? my unit is a Toshiba 2.5 USB 2.0 with 30 MB/s sequential read/write time. Not quick, I would say A paging file definitely helps.

I am failing to see any cause-effect relationship in your above quoted sentence.
Can you try to better explain?
A pagefile on a very fast disk may help IF you have a very small amount of RAM (or you use some of the bloatware that is common nowadays), having it on a slow drive and if you have *enough* RAM does not help at all as it is never used (AFAIK/AFAICU).


Wonko

[amalux]

The screenshot you posted does not show on WHICH drive the pagefile is, if you could click on the "Change" button and post a screenshot of the details of the pagefile, it would be an actual confirmation.

C: is the USB drive:


If I set this up manually, with some mod, I've forgotten it now; more likely it was handled by PWBoot.

[Wonko the Sane]

C: is the USB drive:

If I set this up manually, with some mod, I've forgotten it now; more likely it was handled by PWBoot.

I don't know.
Do you have physically BOTH a pagefile.sys on C: and on D: drives?

http://reboot.pro/9461/

Normally, Windows creates page file in IDE/SATA/RAID hard disk but not in USB hard disk.
If Windows creates page file in a partition in internal disk, you cannot format or delete that partition.
If you boot from USB disk and there is no Windows partition available in internal disk, you don't have page file.

Or maybe, for whatever reason (maybe another tweak) your USB thingy is seen NOT as "removable"?


Wonko

[amalux]

Do you have physically BOTH a pagefile.sys on C: and on D: drives?

If I leave both drives system managed (the way it defaults), pagefile.sys only exists on internal D: drive; this is the boot drive when USB not present. If I set pagefile to none on D: and only for C: (USB) from Windows 7, I get a notice on reboot that Windows had to create a temp pagefile.

There still shows a system managed pagefile for C: (USB) but the pagefile.sys is created on another (non USB) internal drive (E:) which does not show as having a pagefile in system settings.

It seems Windows will not create the pagefile.sys on a USB drive (willingly). I guess this would be an issue if booting a machine with no internal drives present.

This Windows behavior seems especially odd considering the answer to your next question...

Or maybe, for whatever reason (maybe another tweak) your USB thingy is seen NOT as "removable"?

It's true, the external USB drive is seen as internal (both partitions) from booted Windows 7 as well as from other OS's. I don't know why this is, as I don't recall any tweak or patch used for this. I definitely have not used the bit flipper thingy but maybe PWBoot or set_7_usb_boot.cmd does this; can't be certain which I used since I've experimented with both and this is an image I created a while back.

Question: If a drive is originally setup as internal, will it still show as internal, booted as external USB? It's possible this external drive came from a laptop and was put in an external case later.

[Wonko the Sane]

It's true, the external USB drive is seen as internal (both partitions) from booted Windows 7 as well as from other OS's. I don't know why this is, as I don't recall any tweak or patch used for this. I definitely have not used the bit flipper thingy but maybe PWBoot or set_7_usb_boot.cmd does this; can't be certain which I used since I've experimented with both and this is an image I created a while back.

Question: If a drive is originally setup as internal, will it still show as internal, booted as external USB? It's possible this external drive came from a laptop and was put in an external case later.

It was mostly a rhetorical question.
A USB hard disk will be seen as "Fixed" (not as "Removable") BUT it will still be seen as "USB connected" AND you won't have a pagefile on it. (though you may have - as you actually have - a pagefile for it -more exactly for the OS booted from it - BUT residing on another - non-USB - disk)

If you prefer, on a diskless machine, if you attempt to boot an USB install of 7, it will complain about the pagefile, as it will have nowhere to create it (and you may need diskmod).
This is what I (and presumably SuperJMN also) was trying to tell you.
There is no known (at least by me ) Registry tweak or patch that can make you have the pagefile.sys physically on the USB disk if not the mentioned diskmod.



Wonko

[amalux]

It's true, I'm not a mind reader ; I didn't know OldFart had no internal drive. This would explain why I have a pagefile and he does not. Normally, when booting from an external drive, one expects there is also an internal one.

SuperJMN's issue has nothing to do with a missing pagefile, I'm not sure why he asked about it unless he also has no internal drive! I have not used DiskMod and yet I do have a working pagefile booting from USB! The physical location of the pagefile.sys file seems to be a secondary issue, which is only relevant if no internal drive(s) exist.

[Wonko the Sane]

The physical location of the pagefile.sys file seems to be a secondary issue, which is only relevant if no internal drive(s) exist.

OR, if you have NOT a suitable partition/volume on the hard disk (example Linux only machine) OR if you have not enough space on the internal hard disk, OR if you are attempting to use the USB disk as a way to recover deleted data from a partition/volume and windows decides to write the pagefile.sys on that particular volume overwriting "empty space" (where your data actually was) with NO possibility whatsoever of recovery the deleted data .

And NO, OldFart and his issues have nothing to do with this, it was SuperJMN allright:

In my case, I also wanted to make the same Windows partition able to host a paging file. This isn't permitted by the OS by default, so I had to follow the instructions to use DiskMod. It was a bit tricky, but it worked in the end.

Are you using DiskMod? What about your drive specs? my unit is a Toshiba 2.5 USB 2.0 with 30 MB/s sequential read/write time. Not quick, I would say A paging file definitely helps.

Wonko

[amalux]

OR, if you have NOT a suitable partition/volume on the hard disk (example Linux only machine) OR if you have not enough space on the internal hard disk, OR if you are attempting to use the USB disk as a way to recover deleted data from a partition/volume and windows decides to write the pagefile.sys on that particular volume overwriting "empty space" (where your data actually was) with NO possibility whatsoever of recovery the deleted data .

Yep, more examples of issues my powers of mind reading don't include

And NO, OldFart and his issues have nothing to do with this, it was SuperJMN allright:

Yes, I read that quote, he seems also confused that no pagefile is possible, from USB, without DiskMod.

[Wonko the Sane]

Yes, I read that quote, he seems also confused that no pagefile is possible, from USB, without DiskMod.

To avoid further misunderstandings (and NO, no mind reading is needed), a quick sum up :

• an user (OldFart) had some problems with the pagefile
• you stated you had your pagefile allright
• another user (yours truly) suggested the use of diskmod that is the only (at least known to the said user) way to fulfill this request
• sad user (OldFart) ignored the hint
• another user (SuperJMN) wanted to have pagefile.sys on the SAME, USB connected, disk where the booted Windows 7 is and STATED so AND followed the suggestion AND stated how he got it by using diskmod
• you stated you had your pagefile allright without using diskmod
• upon verification it turned out that it was NOT residing on the USB hard disk
• a number of reasons why it is advised to either use NO swap file OR use diskmod were given
• The End, nothing more, nothing less.

Wonko

[OldFart]

Amalux wrote: "You misunderstand completely!"

Actually, I think you do (you don't know what I'm working with).

I have a wide open chassis; a "testing computer structure" (no case), for all things hardware and software related. All the ports are accessible and very easy to get to. The hard drive in question is sitting on my desk, next to the chassis, as is the external SATA-to-USB enclosure connector. It takes less than 10 seconds to disconnect the drive from the computer and plug it into the external USB connector (there's no case for it either).

I also don't care at all about backups or restoring anything, quickly or otherwise. This is a one-time-shot and if it works, great. If not, life goes on. Installation of Win7 is completely unattended (works all by itself). I don't know how long it takes, nor do I care. It just happens and I work on other things while it's going on. The drive has never had UNIX, Linux, OSX, Windows or any other OS installed on it. At least until I installed Win7 on it the other day.

In your last post you wrote: "Yes, I read that quote, he seems also confused that no pagefile is possible, from USB, without DiskMod."

Okay ... I'll bite. What is "DiskMod", what does it do (that might actually be useful) and where can I find it? If there IS a way to create a swap/page file on a Win7 installation running from an external USB enclosure, I'm all ears.

When or if I ever get it working, it (the USB enclosure with the drive in it) will plug into a computer that has NO hard drive installed. Nothing, nada, zip. Just a very small (custom) chassis with a motherboard, power supply, pro sound card, video card and nothing else. It is part of a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

Old Fart

[amalux]

To avoid further misunderstandings (and NO, no mind reading is needed), a quick sum up :

• an user (OldFart) had some problems with the pagefile
• you stated you had your pagefile allright
• another user (yours truly) suggested the use of diskmod that is the only (at least known to the said user) way to fulfill this request
• sad user (OldFart) ignored the hint
• another user (SuperJMN) wanted to have pagefile.sys on the SAME, USB connected, disk where the booted Windows 7 is and STATED so AND followed the suggestion AND stated how he got it by using diskmod
• you stated you had your pagefile allright without using diskmod
• upon verification it turned out that it was NOT residing on the USB hard disk
• a number of reasons why it is advised to either use NO swap file OR use diskmod were given
• The End, nothing more, nothing less.

Wonko

Number 2 is correct; number 3 is incorrect unless you contend that a pagefile can only reside on the same partition it supports. This is demonstrably not true.

5 and 6 are both correct and not mutually exclusive.

7 is irrelevant, I never claimed it did.

8 was after the fact and not germane to the earlier points.

9 is also correct.

[amalux]

Amalux wrote: "You misunderstand completely!"

Actually, I think you do (you don't know what I'm working with).

No, I'm pretty sure you do

I have a wide open chassis; a "testing computer structure" (no case), for all things hardware and software related. All the ports are accessible and very easy to get to. The hard drive in question is sitting on my desk, next to the chassis, as is the external SATA-to-USB enclosure connector. It takes less than 10 seconds to disconnect the drive from the computer and plug it into the external USB connector (there's no case for it either).

I also don't care at all about backups or restoring anything, quickly or otherwise. This is a one-time-shot and if it works, great. If not, life goes on. Installation of Win7 is completely unattended (works all by itself). I don't know how long it takes, nor do I care. It just happens and I work on other things while it's going on. The drive has never had UNIX, Linux, OSX, Windows or any other OS installed on it. At least until I installed Win7 on it the other day.

You, like Wonko, seem to think I should know all sorts of information without being told. Being more precise about your situation and exactly what you want can help avoid all sorts of mis-understandings.

Okay ... I'll bite. What is "DiskMod", what does it do (that might actually be useful) and where can I find it? If there IS a way to create a swap/page file on a Win7 installation running from an external USB enclosure, I'm all ears.

See links already posted for DiskMod. You mean, a pagefile without use of any existing internal drives, right?

When or if I ever get it working, it (the USB enclosure with the drive in it) will plug into a computer that has NO hard drive installed. Nothing, nada, zip. Just a very small (custom) chassis with a motherboard, power supply, pro sound card, video card and nothing else. It is part of a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

Good information to provide, better late than never.

[OldFart]

I guess the question I asked in a previous post about swap files, in general, still remains. Is a swap/page file even necessary? I mean, are there any negative side effects to NOT having a swap file? As I understand their usage (page/swap files), as system memory is consumed to some point where the memory manager considers it too much, it (the OS) "swaps" things out of memory to the hard drive. Then, when those things are needed again, it swaps them back into memory. Presumably, if you have a HUGE amount of RAM, that might not ever happen (swapping of processes or portions of whatever is in memory to the hard drive).

The software I intend to run on the drive (aside from Windoze 7) is primarily audio capture, mixing, editing and playback related. There will be an ASIO driver running, for connected MIDI, USB, etc., "devices" (muscial instruments), a mixing board interface and a few other odds and ends, all connected to the various ports and the audio card. The primary goal is to record live/studio audio to WAV files, and then unplug the drive and take it home for further refinement.

Some of the software I intend to run is a bit of a memory hog. While I don't know exactly what it's doing, I suspect that it's buffering the audio in memory until it gets to the point where either the software or the operating system HAS to write it to disk. How much of that is in system memory though, I don't have a clue. The size of the WAV files appear to grow incrementally, as the software records the audio. Depending upon how many tracks I'm recording, those files can get pretty huge. I've never tried dissabling the swap file on the recording computer, just to see what happens, but maybe I should?

I'm assuming that the audio recording software itself controls (to some extent) the interval at which the audio gets written to the hard drive. How the OS interacts with that process though, I don't really have a clue. I'm sure the file system itself holds the key to all that, but how the OS, its task manager, memory manager, etc., play into that process is a mystery to me. Without a swap/page file to fall back on, I'm not sure what the odds of "lost audio" might be (system latency issues asside). I used to do all this stuff under Linux, but the current caliber of software available for PCs, far exceeds what's available under Linux. There's just no comparison.

And that's about all I know. How much of this is actually useful information no doubt remains to be seen. I appoligize for not including it ALL from the get go. I just assumed it would bore you all to death (pretty low-tech stuff).

Something just occured to me. I have a firewire port on the motherboard. Does anyone know if it's possible to install and/or run Win7 from a hard drive connected to a firewire port? I think I actually have a firewire (SATA on the inside) enclosure, somewhere around here. Or is the problem basically the same as using a USB interface? There's so much I DON'T know about this stuff.

Old Fart

[amalux]

I guess the question I asked in a previous post about swap files, in general, still remains. Is a swap/page file even necessary? I mean, are there any negative side effects to NOT having a swap file? As I understand their usage (page/swap files), as system memory is consumed to some point where the memory manager considers it too much, it (the OS) "swaps" things out of memory to the hard drive. Then, when those things are needed again, it swaps them back into memory. Presumably, if you have a HUGE amount of RAM, that might not ever happen (swapping of processes or portions of whatever is in memory to the hard drive).

Having a swapfile of sufficient size should avoid some errors (low virtual memory) and some program crashes where more memory is called then is readily available. Some programs (like Photoshop) look for a swapfile and may throw an error even if plenty of RAM is available. It's better to have a swapfile.

The software I intend to run on the drive (aside from Windoze 7) is primarily audio capture, mixing, editing and playback related. There will be an ASIO driver running, for connected MIDI, USB, etc., "devices" (muscial instruments), a mixing board interface and a few other odds and ends, all connected to the various ports and the audio card. The primary goal is to record live/studio audio to WAV files, and then unplug the drive and take it home for further refinement.

My experience with these types of programs is that they demand lots of (fast) memory (RAM) and a big swapfile. You may have troubles with data transfer rates on the USB drive. This isn't the type of thing I'd recommend for USB 2.0, maybe USB 3.0 or eSATA.

Some of the software I intend to run is a bit of a memory hog. While I don't know exactly what it's doing, I suspect that it's buffering the audio in memory until it gets to the point where either the software or the operating system HAS to write it to disk. How much of that is in system memory though, I don't have a clue. The size of the WAV files appear to grow incrementally, as the software records the audio. Depending upon how many tracks I'm recording, those files can get pretty huge. I've never tried dissabling the swap file on the recording computer, just to see what happens, but maybe I should?

I'm assuming that the audio recording software itself controls (to some extent) the interval at which the audio gets written to the hard drive. How the OS interacts with that process though, I don't really have a clue. I'm sure the file system itself holds the key to all that, but how the OS, its task manager, memory manager, etc., play into that process is a mystery to me. Without a swap/page file to fall back on, I'm not sure what the odds of "lost audio" might be (system latency issues asside). I used to do all this stuff under Linux, but the current caliber of software available for PCs, far exceeds what's available under Linux. There's just no comparison.

This type of SW likes to load up huge chunks of data in cache for fast retrieval as needed. If not enough, fast cache space available you'll see drop outs and stalls. The three main things needed for this work are speed (fast, multi-core cpu, fast memory and fast transfer rates); lots of memory and a big swapfile.

And that's about all I know. How much of this is actually useful information no doubt remains to be seen. I appoligize for not including it ALL from the get go. I just assumed it would bore you all to death (pretty low-tech stuff).

Something just occured to me. I have a firewire port on the motherboard. Does anyone know if it's possible to install and/or run Win7 from a hard drive connected to a firewire port? I think I actually have a firewire (SATA on the inside) enclosure, somewhere around here. Or is the problem basically the same as using a USB interface? There's so much I DON'T know about this stuff.

I don't think you can boot from firewire, eSATA is what you want but only newer machines support it.

[OldFart]

amalux wrote:
"I don't think you can boot from firewire, eSATA is what you want but only newer machines support it."

Oh well. I know you can do that with a Mac (boot OSX from a firewire drive). In fact, I set that up on a friend's iMac. Their internal hard drive crapped out, and those stupid things are a HUGE pain in the butt to take apart. I guess it's too much to hope that a PC running Windoze 7 might be able to do the same thing. Back to the drawing board.

Thanks for all the info. Very helpful stuff.

Old Fart

[amalux]

Thanks for all the info. Very helpful stuff.

Anytime, happy to help

[Wonko the Sane]

There is not one reason in the world why (if the BIOS supports it) one cannot boot from Firewire.
At the most something similar to the "XP Kansas City Shuffle" or "fake signature image" may be needed (if the BIOS does not support Firewire booting.

Only, since it is much less popular than USB, there is not much experience/reports/performed tests with it.

@amalux
#7 is irrelevant if you ignore #5, otherwise it becomes relevant, in the context of the request of having the pagefile on the same USB disk..

Carpenter's Example :
SuperJMN:How do I connect two planks together?
Amalux:You can use nails driven by a hammer into the wood.
SuperJMN:I want to be able to disassemble and reassemble easily the connection, is there any way to accomplish this?
Wonko:Yes, of course, you can use screws instead but you will need a screwdriver instead of a hammer.
SuperJMN:I tried screwing the planks together, it is more difficult then with nails, but it works allright.
Amalux:The planks I connected are very solid.
Wonko: But did you use nails or screws?
Amalux: I cannot remember, the connection is very solid.
Wonko: Do the metal bits you used for the connection have a flat head or do they have a slot?
Amalux: They are flat and smooth, no slot, the connection is very solid.
Wonko: Then you used nails and not screws.
Amalux: It is irrelevant if you use nails or screws, I have always used nails and the connection is very solid.
Wonko: Sure, nails are good, but in some cases screws are more suited.
Amalux: It is irrelevant if you use nails or screws, I have always used nails and the connection is very solid.
Wonko: Sure, but if you need for any reason, to easily disassemble and reassemble them as SuperJMN needs/wants, screws are more suited.
Amalux: It is irrelevant if you use nails or screws, I have always used nails and the connection is very solid.


Wonko

[SuperJMN]

Wow, guys, you are incredible! quick answers and discussion guaranteed! this is what I expect from a good forum

I have been testing for 24 hours the current installation in my Toshiba 2.5'' USB HDD and it worked real good. I have to say that, of course, I was interested in the paging file being also the system partition for it to be a totally autonomous system.
However, since most external HDD drivers are not as good as internal ones in terms of specs (reading speed, access time, burst time…) we should set the paging file into other partition (from a better HDD) in order to increase the performance. I say other HDD if it's available, of course.
By the way, I patched my installation with the DiskMod (registry settings, signed the DiskMod driver, enabled test mode) for Windows to be able to use a partition from the USB HDD drive as a paging file host.

That said, I want to ask you 2 things:

• Do you use the DiskMod method?
• What are the specs of your USB drive? (the one from which you boot Windows).

The next post I will be sending a benchmark of my USB disk for you to compare. I'm benchmarking it using a software called "HD Tune Pro 4.61" (full version). If somebody wants it, PM me.

Edited by SuperJMN, 01 November 2011 - 10:10 AM.

[SuperJMN]

Those are my specs. I'm adding them as a Google Document because adding images to the forum is a really annoying task
Link: https://docs.google....Zw-FsbcFGM/edit