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Windows To Go Creator for Windows 7

Hi, I just purchased the Pro version, so I can wrap up my Clone of my 125GB SSD to a 240GB SSD.  In your documentation you mentioned a 13GB or larger USB stick is needed to create a bootable USB stick.  I've tried my 14GB, and a 32GB stick I own.  The software is telling me it's not large enough.  How can I estimate what size I need?  I've also seen conflicting information in your forum from your staff that says Windows 7 is not supported as a USB bootable stick?  Is this true?

I'm hoping to hear some good news from your team regarding both of my questions?  

Comments

  • edited October 2020
    Are you interested in creating a bootable rescue media on a USB flash drive or are you wanting to create a Windows To Go USB flash drive?  If you are wanting to create a bootable rescue media using the Aomei Backupper product then almost any flash drive should work.  I checked both of my USB flash drives, one with a WinPE rescue media and the other with Linux and both occupy less then 500 MB of space on each of the two drives.  Now if you are wanting to create a Windows To Go bootable USB Flash Drive where you boot the machine up on the USB drive and the flash drive contains a functioning copy of the Windows operating system I am not sure that Aomei Backupper will do that for you.  However, Aomei Partition Assistant does have a procedure for doing that.  Windows 7 requires a minimum of 16GB for the 32 bit system and 20GB for the 64 bit Windows 7 system.  Make sure that if you are wanting to boot up a windows 7 system that the USB Flash drive is USB 2.0 as windows 7 support for USB 3.0 is hit or miss.  If you have additional questions let me know.

    Keep in mind that I am not affiliated with Aomei at all.  I am just a user like you.
  • Windows 7 will be supportet as well. And creating a bootable stick should be done only within any (backup)tool, not with Windows or any other system. AOMEI formats and copy that stick.

    As Vbbritt I have also created a stick (16GB, out of the box) successfully with AOMEI (on Windows 7), it works perfect.

    If there will be not enoght space on that stick, AOMEI will ask you to format and destroy any data and continues.
  • @CSX289FI,  Thank you for your question about Windows to go Creator in Aomei Partition Assistant.  I had never seen the option and had never tried it.  Here is my opinion for what it is worth.  Whenever I attempt to execute Windows to go Creator and select the option to use my existing system it fails stating that my USB drive isn't large enough.  On the screen that provides you with the summary of what has been requested there is a size of the operating system provided.  On my particular system it was 168.17GB.  Once I plugged an external USB drive (1TB), I didn't have a flash drive that was large enough, then the program started up the process.  Now when I put in a DVD that contained a .wim file then I was able to run the program with a 128GB flash drive.  I feel like I could successfully create the Windows to go flash drive on a much smaller flash drive, but all that I had was the 128GB drive available. 

    The Windows to go Creator has to install a USB driver so that you can boot up from the flash drive.  Windows 7 does not necessarily recognize USB 3.0 so it is hit or miss as to whether or not it will work with a USB 3(x) flash drive.  So I believe that Windows 7 is supported but you may have to use a USB 2.0 flash drive.  I hope this helps you with your questions.  Incidentally I also found two 3rd party packages, WinToUSB and FlashBoot, that will allow you to create Windows to go on a flash drive in addition to Aomei Partition Assistant.  In addition, It is my understanding that Rufus will also work.   
  • Hi, do you want to boot from the target drive internally or externally? If you want to boot externally, you'll need a larger drive. If you want to boot internally, please use Disk Clone, not Windows To Go Creator.
  • I´m sorry, but the complete process works perfectly, no fail. But afterwards the disk does not boot.... winload.exe not found. The disk was named "klone from c". It has taken about 2,5 hours to migrate local C: to my ext. drive 2TB....
  • @MrPresident, Did you use AOMEI Partition Assistant to do system migration? Could you take a photo of the boot error so that we check? And, please also boot from the source disk, and connect the target one, and then take a screenshot of Partition Assistant or windows disk management so that we check your disks?
  • edited November 2020
    Please allow me some time to gather all necessary informatiion, thanks.
    I will get back to you soon....
  • So, the process has been completed.
    The creation has taken about 2 hours and were successful.
    The drive tries to load the system, but it fails.

    On the left you can see the "copy", on the right the original drive and it´s folder size. Of course some folder sizes has been changed during using the system before and after the creation process.

    I tried it 2 times without any success. Both drives have enough place....


  • edited December 2020
    ....to be continued
    I comment only if necessary!! The pictures speak for themselves.

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    I tried both.... Legacy and Legacy/UEFI

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    In both cases the ext. drive does not boot....
    On the tested system I use Windows 7 latest updates.
    At least, the ext. drive is connect by USB.
  • @MrPresident, Do you want to migrate the current system to an external drive and boot from the external drive? Do you want to create a portable boot drive? If yes, did you boot the external drive on the same computer? or another computer?
    Or, do you want to migrate the system to the external drive and then use the external drive to replace the original system disk?
  • I really don't want to be rude, but please read everything first and then reply. I have provided all relevant information, so i don't understand this question time!!

    Yes, I want boot from the ext. drive. USB!!!
    Yes, an ext. drive is mostly portable. USB!!!
    No, why I should boot from a ext. drive which does not work??
    No, I don´t want to replace an existing drive.
    But cloning a drive does even not work!!
  • @MrPresident, did you boot the external drive(win-to-go drive) on the same computer? or connect it to another computer to boot?
  • No, I don´t try the ext. drive on another computer. Why should I do that?
    The system should be loaded from the ext. bootable drive....
  • It is best to create a Windows To Go USB drive,there is no difficulty in doing this.


  • From my personal experience, there are two tools that I think are great in this regard,UUByte WintoUSB Pro and AOMEI Partition Assistant,especially the former, its professionalism will not cause any abnormal troubles.

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