Install Win 7 on USB drive

[huffman]

I have seen questions about installing from a USB reader.

What I would like to do is install Win 7 on a USB HDD. I have seen nothing on this that was helpful.

I have a basic case and 2gb of memory, usb reader and 600gb. It sees the usb HDD and Win7 boots from the usb reader. It looks good until it gets ready to install then I get this statement "Windows 7 can not be installed on this drive".

I then click on more info and get "Windows 7 can not be installed on drive 2. Then gives several possible causes."

None of the causes are valid.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bhuulo]

I have seen questions about installing from a USB reader.

What I would like to do is install Win 7 on a USB HDD. I have seen nothing on this that was helpful.

I have a basic case and 2gb of memory, usb reader and 600gb. It sees the usb HDD and Win7 boots from the usb reader. It looks good until it gets ready to install then I get this statement "Windows 7 can not be installed on this drive".

I then click on more info and get "Windows 7 can not be installed on drive 2. Then gives several possible causes."

None of the causes are valid.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What r the causes given and What I know is u cannot install an OS on external Drive...

 

[slithernet]

I usually plug the hard drive in my PC, load windows, then throw it in an usb hard drive enclosure.

 

[Captain Zero]

This should help you.

 

[bhuulo]

This should help you.

He wants to install it on USB HDD not From USB HDD

 

[jimbo45]

What r the causes given and What I know is u cannot install an OS on external Drive...

Hi there

Where on Earth did you get that piece of info from.
If you can BOOT a device you can install Windows on it.

An easy way to do this is to create a Windows Image on any old disk and then re-image it on your Bootable USB drive and then mess around with the bootloader.

For examples look and see how people make Bartpe and Vistape Windows bootable disks (on USB sticks etc). Just google Bartpe.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Captain Zero]

My bad, I read the OP right (I knew what he was asking) but I read that tutorial wrong. You can do this the same way as any other drive.

 

[bhuulo]

Hi there

Where on Earth did you get that piece of info from.

For examples look and see how people make Bartpe and Vistape Windows bootable disks (on USB sticks etc). Just google Bartpe.

Cheers
jimbo

I got this information from Himalayas
yes I know well about BartPe and all other alternative methods but they r not for regular working???

 

[huffman]

It seems to me everyone reading the question wrong:

Have regular install disk reading from an external dvd reader. I have brand new external usb drive.

I want to install on the usb drive.

Thanks

 

[bhuulo]

It seems to me everyone reading the question wrong:

Have regular install disk reading from an external dvd reader. I have brand new external usb drive.

I want to install on the usb drive.

Thanks

u r not clear, what I understand is u have External DVD Reader and a External HDD and u wann to install ur OS on external HDD through Eternal DVD reader, is it?

 

[nate42nd]

It seems to me everyone reading the question wrong:

Have regular install disk reading from an external dvd reader. I have brand new external usb drive.

I want to install on the usb drive.

Thanks

If I understand you right.....the USB drive is 2GB....It has to be 4GB to fit Windows into it. That is the problem.

 

[Captain Zero]

^^ I think he means that he has 2GB of RAM.

None of the causes are valid.

Care to post them anyway? I might help us better understand what's happening with the install. We're speculating on what your particular issue is and it's not helpful.

Also be sure to fill out your 'System Specs' in your profile.

 

[huffman]

Here goes one more time.

Ram Memory = 2gb
External HDD = 600 gb
External DVD reader

The reason it did not install were not valid to the pc:
1. bios not setup correctly (yes it is )
2. not enough space to install in the partition (only one partition 600 gb)

I put the install DVD into the reader and it boots up to install find. First window Click the install button.
It saw the use external HDD and I selected that to install windows 7.

It grinds around for bit then i get the what i called Error Messages, but they don't say error. More like information.

Not sure what other system specs you may want.

Hope someone will Know this can be done.

 

[Termana]

Unlike others, I know exactly what your saying. However, it is not possible. During boot up Windows resets the USB ports, and since your booting from a USB port it will blue screen while booting. There used to be a way to do it with XP, which involved modifying some of the drivers so that Windows did not reset the USB ports, however I don't think anything similar has been done for Vista or 7, sorry.
EDIT: I can't explain your errors, however even if you did get through the errors it would blue screen during boot up.

 

[bhuulo]

Unlike others, I know exactly what your saying. However, it is not possible. During boot up Windows resets the USB ports, and since your booting from a USB port it will blue screen while booting. There used to be a way to do it with XP, which involved modifying some of the drivers so that Windows did not reset the USB ports, however I don't think anything similar has been done for Vista or 7, sorry.
EDIT: I can't explain your errors, however even if you did get through the errors it would blue screen during boot up.

Already told in my first post but not explained tecnically as u have....

 

[slithernet]

I have a usb enclosure that boots vista. I dont know why it works but it does. It is a hard drive from my old pc. I threw it in an enclosure and it booted. Everything i read says that u cant do it. I can only guess that all my tinkering with that visa install broke something that is suposed to make it not work.

Can i ask you y u need to do this? Do you just want to try win7?
If u dont have a drive to put it on i would use a free disk imager to backup ur main install to the usb HDD and just install win7 and make an image of that. u can then swith between the 2 by reimaging. btw clonezilla is a good and free program to do it with. It takes about 10 min to load a clean windows image.

 

[huffman]

Can i ask you y u need to do this?

Yes primarily just to try Win 7.
However, I have an old case built about 7 years ago and it has it's problems (found ways to work around these) and the MB can no longer be replaced. It runs Win XP and does an great job. I can live with XP the rest of my life. It is the best OS I have ever worked with.
When Vista came out I was able to install it, knowing that my case did not have the hardware to do it justice. After several months of fiddling around with Vista, I decided it was not for me. Reason I did not care for Vista was mainly two fold: 1. Too much security, it asked two or 3 times if I was sure I wanted to do something (once is enough). 2. IT was just too dang slow. (had 2 gb of ram).

I recently built a case (not the most sophisticated in the world), with a 300gb sata HDD, 2gb of ram and uses onboard sound and video. IT does NOT have connectors for ide or sata burners or extra HDD's. It does however have many usb connections that work fine. Like I said "not sophisticated, but very economical". The OS installed (don't laugh) is a MAC.
There is really no way to install Win 7 on the sata HDD.
To buy a second HDD and switch out HDD's each time I want to run a different OS is physically challenging for me.

Yes I would love to try Win 7, is it necessary? NO
Would I purchase a PC with Win 7 on it? For personal reasons probably not.
Would I build another PC that could support Win 7? Perhaps, but I would probably stay with Win XP.

Over the years I have discovered that Newer is NOT always better.
Thanks for listening... Have a great day.

 

[bhuulo]

I can live with XP the rest of my life. It is the best OS I have ever worked with.

u cannot live ur whole life with XP, within few years they'll stop supporting it, no updates, no drivers for ur new hardware, etc.... Think windows 7 as windows XP with added layer of security, No much memory consumption (Actually ATM I don't have a snapshot of my system where it shows only 450 mb of RAM consumption with all the Aero things on, and with Norton antivirus and few other programs....

When Vista came out I was able to install it, knowing that my case did not have the hardware to do it justice. After several months of fiddling around with Vista, I decided it was not for me. Reason I did not care for Vista was mainly two fold: 1. Too much security, it asked two or 3 times if I was sure I wanted to do something (once is enough).

U can switch it off in control Panel UAC

2. IT was just too dang slow. (had 2 gb of ram).

u'll be happy to see windows 7 performing lot more better than windows Vista

There is really no way to install Win 7 on the sata HDD.
To buy a second HDD and switch out HDD's each time I want to run a different OS is physically challenging for me.

Yes I would love to try Win 7, is it necessary? NO
Would I purchase a PC with Win 7 on it? For personal reasons probably not.
Would I build another PC that could support Win 7? Perhaps, but I would probably stay with Win XP.

Just partition ur 300gb HDD and install it with dual boot...
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/2774-osx-windows-7-dual-boot.html

Over the years I have discovered that Newer is NOT always better. Thanks for listening... Have a great day.

Not the case with windows 7, (It is far more better)