External CD Drive For Windows 7

Hi everyone,

My CD drive on my laptop is broken, and I want to buy a cheap external disc drive. I was wondering if this would do the trick:

Portable USB 2 0 DVD CD DVD ROM Sata External Case Slim FOR Laptop Notebook OH | eBay

First of, it says is a caddy enclosure, does it mean its a full CD Drive or just some kind of case with connectors where you plop in a real disc drive? And second, it doesn't mention if it would work with windows 7, it only says Windows 98SE/ME/NT4.0/2000/XP/2003 or MAC OS 8.6 above.

Also, I've been trying to install Windows XP on a partition from a second hard drive, but my task has been made infinitely harder without a disc drive. Though I've made some bootable USB drive using Rufus and Wintoflash, the installation will usually fail at some point (though it does initially allow me to boot into the XP installation txt mode), I tried various XP ISOs. A while ago before I had to format all my hard drives, on the same hardware I did successfully install XP, but at the time I had a working disc drive. Could I possibly use this cheap external hard drive to install XP? My BIOS does allow in the boot order to boot from an external USB drive/external CD drive.

You typically don't need a cd.. as in u can use a usb drive to do the same if you want.. i mean only if you want to buy a cd go ahead

oh windows xp installation on usb is also possible.. you just need to install the correct drivers .. winsetupfromusb is a good program.. all you have to do is slipstream the drivers..using nlite program or you need to download an already slipstreamed iso

nooruddin76 said:

oh windows xp installation on usb is also possible.. you just need to install the correct drivers .. winsetupfromusb is a good program.. all you have to do is slipstream the drivers..using nlite program or you need to download an already slipstreamed iso

I've had problems using the USB stick to install XP. So I was wondering if this CD drive could do the job, as well as be compatible with Windows 7 just to read CDs. Also, is this a real CD drive, not sure what a caddy enclosure actually mean.

Barbarian Roman said:

Hi everyone,

My CD drive on my laptop is broken, and I want to buy a cheap external disc drive. I was wondering if this would do the trick:

Portable USB 2 0 DVD CD DVD ROM Sata External Case Slim FOR Laptop Notebook OH | eBay

First of, it says is a caddy enclosure, does it mean its a full CD Drive or just some kind of case with connectors where you plop in a real disc drive? And second, it doesn't mention if it would work with windows 7, it only says Windows 98SE/ME/NT4.0/2000/XP/2003 or MAC OS 8.6 above.

Also, I've been trying to install Windows XP on a partition from a second hard drive, but my task has been made infinitely harder without a disc drive. Though I've made some bootable USB drive using Rufus and Wintoflash, the installation will usually fail at some point (though it does initially allow me to boot into the XP installation txt mode), I tried various XP ISOs. A while ago before I had to format all my hard drives, on the same hardware I did successfully install XP, but at the time I had a working disc drive. Could I possibly use this cheap external hard drive to install XP? My BIOS does allow in the boot order to boot from an external USB drive/external CD drive.

That's just a case. Have you tried using the one time bios boot menu to select the usb instead of setting it first?

derekimo said:

Barbarian Roman said:

Hi everyone,

My CD drive on my laptop is broken, and I want to buy a cheap external disc drive. I was wondering if this would do the trick:

Portable USB 2 0 DVD CD DVD ROM Sata External Case Slim FOR Laptop Notebook OH | eBay

First of, it says is a caddy enclosure, does it mean its a full CD Drive or just some kind of case with connectors where you plop in a real disc drive? And second, it doesn't mention if it would work with windows 7, it only says Windows 98SE/ME/NT4.0/2000/XP/2003 or MAC OS 8.6 above.

Also, I've been trying to install Windows XP on a partition from a second hard drive, but my task has been made infinitely harder without a disc drive. Though I've made some bootable USB drive using Rufus and Wintoflash, the installation will usually fail at some point (though it does initially allow me to boot into the XP installation txt mode), I tried various XP ISOs. A while ago before I had to format all my hard drives, on the same hardware I did successfully install XP, but at the time I had a working disc drive. Could I possibly use this cheap external hard drive to install XP? My BIOS does allow in the boot order to boot from an external USB drive/external CD drive.

That's just a case. Have you tried using the one time bios boot menu to select the usb instead of setting it first?

I'm not sure what you mean.
I moved the USB stick up to 1st in the boot order, if that's what you're asking.
The USB will boot fine into the Windows XP installation (after it says press any key to boot from USB), but something always goes wrong eventually when installing. I tried various ISO's, I tried WintoFlash, Rufus, the HP DOS bootable thing, but something always goes wrong. I installed the XP ISO's in Virtual Box and there is no problem with them, so I'm sure the ISOs are fine.

BTW, thanks for telling me its just a case.

Yeah, instead of moving it to first you leave the hard drive first and during boot there's "one time" bios boot menu key, f12 maybe, it's the esc key on my hp laptop.

So you would just select it to boot that one time, so it doesn't restart the install during reboots.

Barbarian Roman said:

nooruddin76 said:

oh windows xp installation on usb is also possible.. you just need to install the correct drivers .. winsetupfromusb is a good program.. all you have to do is slipstream the drivers..using nlite program or you need to download an already slipstreamed iso

I've had problems using the USB stick to install XP. So I was wondering if this CD drive could do the job, as well as be compatible with Windows 7 just to read CDs. Also, is this a real CD drive, not sure what a caddy enclosure actually mean.

Problem is not about the cd drive .. its about the iso itself be it usb or be it cd.. its about the drivers..
so i think you just need a slipstreamed iso.. i have it but i can't share it with you cause its too big..
maybe you'll be able to find it .. or maybe i can tell you how to slipstream.. or wait .. i'll some how try and find you the link...do you have intel processor?

Here's the pdf file

nooruddin76 said:

Barbarian Roman said:

nooruddin76 said:

oh windows xp installation on usb is also possible.. you just need to install the correct drivers .. winsetupfromusb is a good program.. all you have to do is slipstream the drivers..using nlite program or you need to download an already slipstreamed iso

I've had problems using the USB stick to install XP. So I was wondering if this CD drive could do the job, as well as be compatible with Windows 7 just to read CDs. Also, is this a real CD drive, not sure what a caddy enclosure actually mean.

Problem is not about the cd drive .. its about the iso itself be it usb or be it cd.. its about the drivers..
so i think you just need a slipstreamed iso.. i have it but i can't share it with you cause its too big..
maybe you'll be able to find it .. or maybe i can tell you how to slipstream.. or wait .. i'll some how try and find you the link...do you have intel processor?

I don't think this problem has anything to do with IDE/SATA incompatiblilty.
I have a slipstreammed ISO and I set my bios to SATA mode.
I have a non slipstreammed ISO and set my bios to IDE mode.
Both detect a hard drive and start installing. There are no bluescreens.
It is the first time starting Windows I get problems. It errors stuff like missing hal.dll, or cannot find EULA, setup will now terminate, that kind of stuff.