Windows 7: Installing Winodws on my WD Passport?

The Hard Drive on my computer is pretty small and I really don't want to keep putting more and more crap on it, can I install a Windows on my Passport HD and then install games on the windows and run them off it or is that a bad idea? And thoughts would be great! thanks!

Your best option would be to have windows on your internal drive and store all your data etc on your ext drive, dont even know if its possible to install windows to ext drive

A 120GB drive should be more than ample for windows and installed programs

well im 48 used right now, I just don't want to keep installing games on the internal if I can do something else.

You can install games on the ex if you really want to. When setup asks you where to install it, just change the drive letter from C: to whatever your external is.

But, as mentioned 120 GBs is plenty for windows.

Go through it and start getting rid of junk you don`t use.

Since Internal HD's are relatively inexpensive nowadays, why not get a new large one & re-install Windows 7 on it.

Yeah I def. understand and I don't have a lot of junk on my Windows or Internal Hard Drive, I was just seeing If I could utilize what I had that was all.

This is what my 120GB SSD looks like with multiple users and a good few programs installed (although no games)


As long as you have somewhere in the region of 20GB free that should be plenty for pagefile and hiberfile to not give you any problems (and thats airing on the side of caution you could prob get away with 10)

Get rid of the hiberfile. The command is powercfg - h off. And reduce the pagefile to 2GB.

Installing the system on an external drive is theoretically possible. But you need eSata for any decent performance. Even USB3 is not optimal and forget USB2.

I made several Windows 8 installations on external disks and USB sticks. Here is my report which may give you some insight. Windows 8 To Go - Setup on a USB Flash Drive or USB Disk

According to your system specifications you have a 120GB SSD (boot) and a 500GB HDD installed.

You should try to move your movie and picture libraries to the 500GB hard drive, which should clear up space if it's becoming a problem.

use a program such as SpaceSniffer to see what is using up space on your hard drive, and what you can move.

There are two reasons why you sholdn't install Windows on your WD passport:

a) there will be a drastic performance loss. You will be going to a high speed solid state to a hard drive on (I assume) usb. it will go from running very quickly to being unusable.

b) Windows does not like to run from external drives. Aside from being very slow, if your drive gets disconnected accidently at the wrong time your whole system can be screwed.

If you use the modern Hibernate feature which is perfected in Windows 7 then you wouldn't want to turn the hiberfile off.

Make sure you have a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 (same for retail) and then use only the tools and methods given to keep it running smoothly.

Sort all of your user data into the User folders, keep only what you need, if you run short on space copy User folders to the external, link them via Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forums then delete their content in the C User folder, leaving it in the library so you can see if anything lands in C and drag it over to external.