Want to install Windows 7 on eSata drive

unfortunately, the other posts are correct, you can't install windows 7 to an external hdd connected via eSATA

well, I don't quite understand it but you folks have much more experience than me. I've gone ahead and made a partition on my internal hard drive and installed a copy there. It is working fine. I had just wanted to try the eSATA thing but its okay. Thanks for all your help and putting up with my ignorance.

Hey no problem, and it's only ignorance if someone offers the correct information and you don't listen..

I realize this is an old post, but you should take your own advice. OP was absolutely right, you just have to set the SATA drive first in the bios boot order.

What was that about ignorance?

I am running Win7 on my internal drive and a backup copy of Win7 on an external drive (eSATA). I keep the external copy as a clean copy in case my laptop gets infected/corrupted and I need to replace the current copy of Win7 on my laptop. I made the external copy functional because I hate the long wait and procedure for seemingly hundreds of Win7 updates on a new installation. So every couple of weeks I plug in the eSATA drive, run that backup copy of Win7, do the updates, and then go back to using the working copy on my internal drive. I changed the boot loader on my internal drive using the free program EasyBCD so the laptop would recognize the eSATA drive as a bootable option.

Here's how I did it:

1. Opened laptop, removed current HDD & installed new/clean HDD in laptop
2. Installed Win7 on new HDD using my product keys
3. Removed new Win7 HDD from laptop, placed it in an eSATA enclosure
4. Returned old HDD to laptop
5. Booted up old HDD and installed EasyBCD
(EasyBCD - Take control of your boot loader | NeoSmart Technologies) (Free for personal, non-commercial use)
6. Externally connected eSATA drive with the new Win7, and made note of the drive letter assigned to the Windows partition of the eSATA drive (not the 199MB partition, but the larger partition with the actual Windows 7 operating system)
7. Ran EasyBCD to change boot loader on the internal hard drive
8. Using EasyBCD, added new entry for Win7 (called it "Win7 eSATA") and told it to find it at the drive letter assigned at #6 above.
9. Saved new entry.
10. Restarted laptop

Now at boot up I am given a menu to choose between
1. Windows 7 (internal)
2. Windows 7 (eSATA)

Option 1 is set as the default and Windows 7 (internal) will run normally. But I can choose the other option at any time. I do not need to have the Windows 7 (eSATA) drive connected unless I intend to use it.

Can you install Win7 to the eSATA drive while it is connected with the external connection? Answer: I have no idea, and no interest in finding out. This method worked for me with the least amount of hassle.

There you have it. Two working copies of Win7 assigned to the same computer, one internal, the other external.

Disclaimer: Although I see little danger in using EasyBCD to change a boot loader, you do so at your own risk.



“Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” - Albert Einstein