When you thought that you have just successfully upgraded to Windows 8, you check the System properties and notice that it says: “Windows To Go machine” instead of the version of the operating system. And that’s not all, when you remove a USB drive, your PC crashes.

Now to the obvious question: Why is that? Surprisingly, this happens because Windows 8 thinks that the unique USB drive ID is the same as the internal hard drive ID in your PC. — If you ask me, I think this is a big flaw in the OS that users should never have to go through, but thankfully has an easy fix.

For those people who aren’t familiar, Windows To Go is a feature in the Enterprise version of Microsoft’s operating system that allows to install and run a full version of Windows 8 from a USB drive. The feature brings some additional flexibility for businesses to take the company’s environment anywhere. For example, when employees need work remotely or from a shared computer, or even to avoid spending hours configuring a new PC for a contractor that has to work temporarily in a different location.

If you find yourself in this situation where Windows 8 thinks it is a Windows To Go, when it’s not, the steps below will help you to fix this issue:

Instructions

  1. Use the  +R keyboard shortcut to bring the Run command, type regedit.exe and click OK.

  2. Browse the following registry key:

  3. Delete this value:

  4. Now “clean” USB drive by opening the command prompt, type diskpart.exe and press Enter.

  5. To figure out the disk number of the USB drive in the system use this command:

  6. Use the following command to select the disk (note that “#” is the number of your USB drive):

  7. Type:

And then type exit to quit DiskPart. Reboot your PC and everything you should go back to normal.

Source Microsoft Forum