Oct 14 2015

Keep the USB Drive Plugged In Error When Booting Windows

For some reason when you reboot your Windows computer you might see the following error:

Keep the USB drive plugged in.

Only remove it after your PC has shut down completely. Otherwise, your Windows To Go workspace might crash and you could lose data.

The quick way to fix this is by editing the Windows registry.

Proceed at your own risk! Mucking up the following could render your computer inoperable!

  1. Click Start,
  2. Type in regedit then press Enter,
  3. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control on the left side of the window,
  4. Select the PortableOperatingSystem key in the right pane,
  5. Delete the key by pressing Delete on your keyboard,
  6. Confirm deletion by clicking Yes,
  7. Close regedit,
  8. Restart the computer.

That should stop the message from coming up but that may return if you plugin a USB drive that has the same unique ID as one of the hard drives inside your computer. I’ll write up a separate article to cover that and link it here when I am done.

Boydo

My name is Boyd and I’m a Service Management Specialist with a knack for operational data gathering, transformation, analysis and reporting.

In 2012, I obtained my Masters of Science in Information Technology through the University of New South Wales @ The Australia Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA).

I was also part of an online community known as the Panasonic Insider Crew in the capacity of “Insider Guru” for Panasonic Australia where I interacted with other tech enthusiasts and find out more about Panasonic's latest gadgets.

I love technology, gadgets, and the Internet and maintain a keen interest in these areas locally, nationally, and globally. I hope by sharing my views on these topics that people will receive an honest point of view from someone with a genuine interest in these topics.

I have also written and edited articles for Neowin - you can check out my articles over @ https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/boyd_chan

I hope you enjoy reading my blog!

5 comments

Skip to comment form

    • Michael Christensen on October 15, 2015 at 17:45
    • #
    • Reply

    And if you don’t have PortableOperatingSystem but you still get the error every time you reboot?
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/1p27jumtsz0v5nw/Screenshot%202015-10-15%2008.44.00.png?dl=0

    1. You forgot to click on “Control” under “CurrentControlSet” in the left hand pane 🙂

    • Frankez on December 11, 2015 at 22:27
    • #
    • Reply

    Good information

    Its actually found under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and not HKEY_CURRENT_USER

    Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control on the left side of the window,

    • Vlad on January 1, 2022 at 05:31
    • #
    • Reply

    Thank you, now I can actually update my computer

      • Richard Salvatierra on July 10, 2022 at 04:24
      • #
      • Reply

      Thanks a lot!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.