Installing BW on a USB Flash Drive

[Joshua Luna]

I am curious: Is it possible to install BW on a USB Flash drive and run BW on a PC other than the one you used to install BW? I have a nice long lunch break where I get to study. I can run apps on a USB drive but cannot install them to the system drive.

[Adelphos]

I am curious: Is it possible to install BW on a USB Flash drive and run BW on a PC other than the one you used to install BW? I have a nice long lunch break where I get to study. I can run apps on a USB drive but cannot install them to the system drive.

I have installed FROM a flash drive onto a system. I don't see why it would be a problem to install TO a flash drive, but the only way to find out is to try it.

[tcblack]

I am curious: Is it possible to install BW on a USB Flash drive and run BW on a PC other than the one you used to install BW? I have a nice long lunch break where I get to study. I can run apps on a USB drive but cannot install them to the system drive.

Well a full install on my system is about 5.5 GB. together with my notes I'd need an 8GB stick just for BW and perhaps a menu system like portableapps.com. Then I wouldn't have much room for anything else.

Also, this is guesswork but unless you have the same drive letter on each system you use it on, your ini files will need to be rewritten each time you start.

[onefear]

I run BW7 off of an 8GB flash drive that I use on the same laptop. I just fixed the letter of the drive in the operating system and it works quite well, though my flash drive is slow. If you go that route, don't by the first cheap drive that comes along. Check transfer rates closely. This search produced a wide variety of 8GB drives (sorted by rating) and the read speed of the top drive does look fast, nearly twice as fast as some of the generic alternatives.

Clay

[Adelphos]

I run BW7 off of an 8GB flash drive that I use on the same laptop. I just fixed the letter of the drive in the operating system and it works quite well, though my flash drive is slow. If you go that route, don't by the first cheap drive that comes along. Check transfer rates closely. This search produced a wide variety of 8GB drives (sorted by rating) and the read speed of the top drive does look fast, nearly twice as fast as some of the generic alternatives.

Very good to know. And you are correct -- the transfer rate can make a HUGE difference on flash drives, as I've discovered through personal experience. If you're going to run an intensive program like BW, you're much better off springing for the higher quality and speed.

[Joshua Luna]

Thanks for the input. I have substantially fast USB drives so that won't be an issue

The issue I believe would be if BW does various installation configurations at the OS level (Registry, etc) that are required for the operatins of the program. Another issue would be fonts.