Kingston Demos Portable Windows 8 Drive at IDF

A rather significant feature shipping with Windows 8 is “Windows to Go” – as it sounds, a portable Windows 8 install. Much like ReadyBoost, Microsoft isn’t releasing this feature without some standards, so for a portable drive to be validated, it must first meet the company’s specifications. While speed is important, more so is the ability to create all of the required partitions, something that many thumb drives are incapable of.

Given Kingston’s huge focus on flash storage, it’s no surprise that it’s going to be one of the companies releasing Windows to Go products. Our friends at Legit Reviews stopped by the company’s booth to check out the wares, and I have to say, the product is intriguing. With Kingston’s “Workspace” drives, people can expect SSD performance, high security (BitLocker and Trusted Boot) and for those stuck with it, USB 2.0 support.

The bullet-point that stands out to me is this: Fixed Drive – not designed for data storage. This reminds me a bit of Kingston’s security drives, where data simply can’t be accessed unless a password is provided. Except here, it seems that the partitions will not even become available until you boot up with it and enter your password. This is likely done to prevent someone copying malicious files to the drive at home and then bringing it into work (not necessarily on purpose).

Given my experience with portable OSes, Kingston might want to offer a special model with a large claw that grasps the entire chassis when in use. If I had a nickle for every time I removed a thumb drive while it was running an OS…