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IronKey Releases Windows 8 Certified Bootable Flash Drive
Lucas123 writes "IronKey has released a thumb drive certified to be used as a bootable Windows 8 device, enabling users to use Windows To Go — an enterprise feature of Windows 8 — to deliver a fully portable desktop. While Imation doesn't promote this feature, users can also boot up this USB on any Intel-based Apple computer. The flash drive has its drawbacks. It's not yet FIPS certified, it can't be provisioned as storage, and it lacks admin management features. The IronKey Workspace drive comes in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities. It offers either 128-bit or 256-bit full disk encryption. Users must purchase the Windows 8 software separately. According to Imation's specifications, the IronKey Workspace has a maximum average read speed of 300MB/sec. and an average write speed of 100MB/sec. to 200MB/sec. When I timed the boot-up times, the initial boot-up from the USB drive was slow — 3 minutes and 40 seconds — but the drive was configuring itself. Subsequent boot-ups took a mere 35 seconds. Shutdown is near instantaneous — about 2 seconds. The flash drive is priced from $129 to $389 depending on capacity."
What happens when one purchases a new motherboard and tries to boot up from the original hard drive? I used to do this with 95 and 98 but since xp was introduced, I find that the computer will not boot and the only thing I could do was to install the operating system and all the programs again. That would mean that one had to have a cd or a flash drive with the ability to install the operating system. Most new computers do not come with this capability. This is why I find it hard to believe that Microsoft would allow one to boot several computers with a flash drive. At a minimum one will have two computers that could be running windows 8 at the same time with only paying for one license. Allowing this would probably bankrupt Microsoft or at least mean that Bill Gates would lose a small chunk of his fortune. Just a couple of days ago I had a 6 year old computer that the motherboard or the microprocessor went bad. The computer was on at least 80% of that time and was using 100% of all four of its cores most of that time so I guess I got enough use out of it. I still do not believe that I could buy another motherboard and install it and boot from the ssd and have everything work.