IronKey has come up with a bootable Flash drive which packs an installation of Windows 8. All you have to do to start using Windows 8 is to plug in the USB and let the fun begin. The USB stick, called IronKey Workspace, gives you a truly portable version of Windows 8. It does have its limitations though.
The good thing about this USB drive is that it can also work on such Apple computers which are powered up by Intel chips. Moreover, the stick is available in three flavors – 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. You can snag the 32GB version for a price of $129, whereas the 128GB version will cost you $389. However, what is rather not cool is the fact that Windows 8 software is not a part of the USB drive by default.
Security features on this USB drive are also quite impressive. It comes with 128-bit of 256-bit full disk encryption, essentially securing the data that goes into it. IronKey WorkSpace is able to support a maximum reading speed of 300MB per second whereas its writing speeds vary between 100 MB per second and 200 MB per second.
The flash drive does seem a tad bit expensive, and the fact that you have to purchase Windows 8 software separately is annoying. Moreover, it isn’t FIPS certified and it can’t be utilized by a user as a storage tool, even if you want to use it thus. Still, Windows 8 on this flash drive boots in less than a minute and shuts down the machine within 2 seconds, which is very impressive.
Source: IronKey Workspace
Courtesy: Slashdot
[ttjad keyword=”mini-pc”]
It boots “in less than a minute”…?
Windows 8 will boot in less than a minute on a mechanical hard drive too, whats special about that??
It boots from my SSD in less than 10 seconds.
And you said nothing about actual operation of Windows 8 from that stick, but ok, I guess you only had the company’s press release to write up this article…
Booting from SSD is a completely different game, but booting Windows 8 from a USB stick in less then a minute is definitely worth noting.
As for the actual operation of the stick, we can’t help you at this moment, because we haven’t got the chance to use one of this yet. But, it should be similar to other bootable versions of Windows/Linux that you can boot from portable media.