Hard Disk not supported

[itsMarick]

Hello. I received a Western Digital 500 GB external Hard Disk for my birthday. So today I tried to install Windows 7 on it. It's formatted in NTFS, but the installation panel gave 1 error. It saids that the disk is not supported by booting... I already went to a computer shop (MyCom, in The Netherlands), but they said would work. I axially don't know if they checked in the Bios, but I guess they did...

Further the installation gave no errors. Later I booted in the bios, and the Hard Disk displays. (eSata). Anybody idea?

(By the way, sorry for the poop-english, I'm just a 13 year old boy who's trying to get Windows 7 on it's ext hard disk )

 

[DocBrown]

Hello. I received a Western Digital 500 GB external Hard Disk for my birthday. So today I tried to install Windows 7 on it. It's formatted in NTFS, but the installation panel gave 1 error. It saids that the disk is not supported by booting... I already went to a computer shop (MyCom, in The Netherlands), but they said would work. I axially don't know if they checked in the Bios, but I guess they did...

Further the installation gave no errors. Later I booted in the bios, and the Hard Disk displays. (eSata). Anybody idea?

(By the way, sorry for the poop-english, I'm just a 13 year old boy who's trying to get Windows 7 on it's ext hard disk )

I don't think you will be able to install Win7 on the external HD & Boot from it

" Doc "

 

[Antman]

Is the drive connected by eSATA or USB or firewire? Circle one answer only.

 

[itsMarick]

edit: ^ eSata

Why not? And... do you know (or somebody else ) which external hard disk works to boot? I really want to let this work.

 

[Antman]

eSATA drive should boot.

Don't be offended - please provide a picture of your eSATA connector wire and connection.

Please provide your System Specs under User CP. Motherboard model number PLEASE.

 

[Gilly]

Is the drive connected by eSATA or USB or firewire? Circle one answer only.

lmao

 

[Dwarf]

What is the make and model number of your motherboard?

The e-SATA interface is for connecting external SATA HDDs to your system, and specifically allows them to be hot-pluggable (i.e. you can plug and unplug with the system running).

Just because the interface is the same as the internal connectors it does not mean that an external drive connected this way will be bootable - you will need to check the motherboard manual and/or the support website for that information.

 

[DocBrown]

A: Desktop

B: LapTop

Which ?

 

[Antman]

What is the make and model number of your motherboard?

The e-SATA interface is for connecting external SATA HDDs to your system, and specifically allows them to be hot-pluggable (i.e. you can plug and unplug with the system running).

Just because the interface is the same as the internal connectors it does not mean that an external drive connected this way will be bootable - you will need to check the motherboard manual and/or the support website for that information.

The connectors are not the same. SATA is L shaped, eSATA is l shaped. An internal SATA port can be carried to the backplane with a SATA-eSATA converter assembly, bypassing any BIOS setting that disallows booting from an eSATA port.

 

[Dwarf]

I agree that the connectors are slightly different as this is to allow for the hot-swapping capability of the e-SATA interface. My system only has the internal version of that connector, so I've never seen an actual e-SATA connector.

 

[Antman]

I am refraining from adding a clever comment in this space. The preceding not clever comment is included for the sole purpose of satisfying the forum requirement of "You must post something in addition to a picture".

 

[SquonkSC]

I think the boy was a bit overwhelmed by the many responses/questions.

He went offline almost an hour ago.

 

[Dwarf]

I am refraining from adding a clever comment in this space. The preceding not clever comment is included for the sole purpose of satisfying the forum requirement of "You must post something in addition to a picture".

Thanks for clarifying the differences between the connectors.

 

[Antman]

I think the boy was a bit overwhelmed by the many responses/questions.

He went offline almost an hour ago.

Thanks for clarifying the differences between the connectors.

I hope the OP comes back to this. I am rather interested in the results. Only laziness/lethargy prevents me from trying it myself - but I am 100% certain this can be done. It is only logical.

 

[itsMarick]

Please provide your System Specs under User CP.

Okay.

Motherboard model number PLEASE.

Where can I find this?

A: Desktop

B: LapTop

Which ?

Laptop.

 

[Dave76]

I hope the OP comes back to this. I am rather interested in the results. Only laziness/lethargy prevents me from trying it myself - but I am 100% certain this can be done. It is only logical.

I added an eSATA connection to my desktop via a SATA to eSATA cable directly from the motherboard to the backplate, plugged in my eSATA external HD, loaded Win7 on the external and never had a problem.

How would the motherboard 'know' it's not directly connected to the SATA port?

If there is an eSATA card, then maybe.

Worked for me.

My laptop has an eSATA port and I run the eSATA external HD the same way, but haven't actually ran an OS from the external HD on it. Should work, I do run a couple of programs from it.

Your BIOS must be set to SATA or RAID in order to hot swap.

It worked fine for hot plugging in, but no 'safely remove hardware' for unplugging. I use a program called 'Hot Swap' and now I can 'safely remove hardware'. It clears the cache and let's you know if you forgot to close something.

Win7 is on my internal HD now.

EDIT:
You can get information about your computer (and motherboard) from a couple different programs. I use SIW, it doesn't install on your operating system and you can run it when needed.
SIW can be found here

Hope this helps,

 

[Antman]

I tried to find a user manual for your laptop, but I cannot. I have to work from assumptions.

All of the following is pointel

Scenario One, Assumption One:
There is nothing wrong with your new hard drive. The BIOS is restricting boot from eSATA. This may be as simple as changing some BIOS settings.

Solve: Modify the BIOS to allow boot from eSATA. Perhaps this is found under a header/page like Boot Order or Boot Devices.

Also, I do not understand "Further the installation gave no errors."

 

[Dave76]

Dave's not here.

No, man, I’m Dave, man.

 

[itsMarick]

Sorry for the laaaaate reaction. I'm not gonna install Windows 7 on my external hard disk. Too many problems etc. But my dad gave me my old computer back, and it was still in good state, so i installed Windows 7 without any problems on that computer. And it works really fast! =D

Thanks for all the help people. I don't know what I'm gonna do with that external hard disk, maybe I'll go try again, some day. ^^