Run vista only from dvd?

  • Thread starter Thread starter George_G
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George_G

I know that with Windows XP Corporate edition I was able to run the OS from a
DVD, so that nothing could hurt the OS. I have installed Windows 98 to a CD
in the past and that OS ran fine without a hard drive. I have Windows Vista
Home Basic for my notebook, which is just used on WI-Fi networks to check
email and blog. It doesn't matter how long the OS would take to run because
the Internet connection will still be the slowest part of the connection.
With a 4.7gb DVD+RW I could fit Windows 98 on easily and find a way to get
drivers that will work with my more modern system, but is there a way to put
Vista Home Basic onto a DVD+RW for all the vital parts and run the OS from a
DVD?
 
George_G said:
I know that with Windows XP Corporate edition I was able to run the OS from a
DVD, so that nothing could hurt the OS. I have installed Windows 98 to a CD
in the past and that OS ran fine without a hard drive. I have Windows Vista
Home Basic for my notebook, which is just used on WI-Fi networks to check
email and blog. It doesn't matter how long the OS would take to run because
the Internet connection will still be the slowest part of the connection.
With a 4.7gb DVD+RW I could fit Windows 98 on easily and find a way to get
drivers that will work with my more modern system, but is there a way to put
Vista Home Basic onto a DVD+RW for all the vital parts and run the OS from a
DVD?
Click to expand...

I don't think vista will do this, but XP or linux could:

XP:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6160062.html?tag=rbxccnbtr1

Linux:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/04/14/ubuntu-804-usb-hard-drive-install/

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- Maura Corbett

DRM and unintended consequences:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=435&tag=nl.e101
 
George_G said:
I know that with Windows XP Corporate edition I was able to run the OS from a
DVD, so that nothing could hurt the OS. I have installed Windows 98 to a CD
in the past and that OS ran fine without a hard drive. I have Windows Vista
Home Basic for my notebook, which is just used on WI-Fi networks to check
email and blog. It doesn't matter how long the OS would take to run because
the Internet connection will still be the slowest part of the connection.
With a 4.7gb DVD+RW I could fit Windows 98 on easily and find a way to get
drivers that will work with my more modern system, but is there a way to put
Vista Home Basic onto a DVD+RW for all the vital parts and run the OS from a
DVD?
Click to expand...


Probably not.

Though I know win98 could be hacked into running from a bootable cd...
I never heard of anyone running XP from one...
I'd be interested in knowing how you were able to do it.

Did you use Bart's PE ?
 
"The poster formerly known as 'The Poster Formerly Known as Nina DiBoy'"
I don't think vista will do this, but XP or linux could:

XP:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6160062.html?tag=rbxccnbtr1

Linux:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/04/14/ubuntu-804-usb-hard-drive-install/
Click to expand...

There are also live CDs for almost every distro of Linux. They will not
touch your hard drive unless you install or mount the drives.

Didn't know XP could do that, run from a USB. Cool.
 
Canuck57 said:
"The poster formerly known as 'The Poster Formerly Known as Nina DiBoy'"



There are also live CDs for almost every distro of Linux. They will not
touch your hard drive unless you install or mount the drives.
Click to expand...

And quite a few of them will not run as live cd's cause they can't see
the vcard...LOL!
A lot of 'fluff' and little real substance.
A lot of hope that is really hype.
Didn't know XP could do that, run from a USB. Cool.
Click to expand...

There is a lot you don't know...LOL!
Frank
 
George_G said:
I know that with Windows XP Corporate edition I was able to run the OS from a
DVD, so that nothing could hurt the OS. I have installed Windows 98 to a CD
in the past and that OS ran fine without a hard drive. I have Windows Vista
Home Basic for my notebook, which is just used on WI-Fi networks to check
email and blog. It doesn't matter how long the OS would take to run because
the Internet connection will still be the slowest part of the connection.
With a 4.7gb DVD+RW I could fit Windows 98 on easily and find a way to get
drivers that will work with my more modern system, but is there a way to put
Vista Home Basic onto a DVD+RW for all the vital parts and run the OS from a
DVD?
Click to expand...

Well... I'd be surprised if one were able to run the entire XP OS from
CD... I've plenty of experience with WinPE... which does boot into XP
from CD but doesn't even offer Windows Explorer by default... just a
command window. Not to say that some enterprising soul didn't get
Windows Explorer to run in WinPE... but as far as having a full XP OS
and a full complement of applications running from CD... uh, doubtful.

And same goes for Vista...

Lang
 
It doesn't run the whole XP OS from DVD just the critical Windows components
and then reads the hard drive plus puts some stuff into memory
 
Goto
Control Panel
-Security

then click "Turn automatic updating on or off"
and change the setting to "Never check for updates"

then click on "View installed updates"
Next just uninstall all the updates that are on your system

You might risk some minor performance problems and have a slightly out of
date malicious and unwanted software list. But until Microsoft finds the
people who wrote the Vista Operating Systems and releases a list of the
critical Windows components to make sure they get protected your better off
in the long run. As long as you check to see if you have any updates on your
system every once in a while, to make sure some program didn't start
receiving updates behind your back, this would be all the average PC user
needs. I also use a technique I learned back with Windows 3.11 which is to
just leave the install disk in an empty drive, not sure if it still does
anything but I get superstitious sometimes.
 
George_G said:
Goto
Control Panel
-Security

then click "Turn automatic updating on or off"
and change the setting to "Never check for updates"

then click on "View installed updates"
Next just uninstall all the updates that are on your system

You might risk some minor performance problems and have a slightly out of
date malicious and unwanted software list. But until Microsoft finds the
people who wrote the Vista Operating Systems and releases a list of the
critical Windows components to make sure they get protected your better off
in the long run. As long as you check to see if you have any updates on your
system every once in a while, to make sure some program didn't start
receiving updates behind your back, this would be all the average PC user
needs. I also use a technique I learned back with Windows 3.11 which is to
just leave the install disk in an empty drive, not sure if it still does
anything but I get superstitious sometimes.
Click to expand...
 
First back up all your files, have your install disk handy, know all your
product keys, I recommend a clean install, plus you may wish to uninstall
those updates that were put on the install disc at the last minute right
before it left the factory.

Insert a Blank DVD
-Select the Mastered disc format

Next, Goto Computer and open your Hard Drive
Select the Windows folder, right click it and copy
Paste the Windows folder into the "Files to be written" area of your DVD drive

On my system after the files were copied the copier held at "0 seconds
remaining" for a couple of minutes. In my opinion this is just some advanced
artificial intelligence that knew what I wanted to do and was setting it up
to work just perfectly.

In order for me to get everything on one DVD I had to remove some files, I
went for a TEMP folder, a BACKUP folder, and a WINSXS folder I found. The
first Vista I did this with I was able to fit everything on the DVD, but on
this system the install disk had more features active.

Goto
Control Panel
-System and Maintenance
Click System
Goto "Advanced system settings" under Tasks in the far left section

Click "Environment Variables"
Under System variables scroll down until you see "windir
c:\Windows"
Click it once until its highlighted, then click Edit
For Variable value put: D:\Windows (D is the drive letter for the drive the
boot DVD will be in"



IN the end this should give you that nice reassuring hum that you used to
only be able to get by standing next to a multi-million dollar server. Of
course this is only for the Windows critical components and there may be
other things like Boot critical components that somehow could fit on the DVD,
but I always know where my installation software is and never lost my boot
system. When I did this on my Notebook PC I got a nice intermittent tone like
the big servers make telling me the DVD is being read and that the OS is safe
and sound. I was able to take my boot DVD out of my drive and burn a CD with
no problem, but this made some other System programs that needed the boot DVD
not be able to open and showed an error for that I just did my normal thing
of restart the computer with the boot DVD in rather than try to just get the
boot DVD read by Vista.

After this I went with "Install updates automatically (recommended)" for my
Windows Update selection.
 
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