Installing Windows 7 on External HDD

[HeroBub]

How To Install Windows 7 On USB Flash Drive or External Hard Drive

Supposedly this is the way to install Windows 7 on a External HDD. Anyone knows if it works? cause the harddrive on my laptop is fried and I cant afford a new one, but If I can just install Windows 7 onto my ext. hdd (using my tower) i'll be good to go.

 

[xxxdannyxxx]

Hello HeroBub

Although I have never tried this I don't think you would get the results you are looking for. It looks quite complicated and judging by the users posts below doesn't seem to work correctly for eveyone. Depending on how the external is connected and Im presuming Usb2 its going to run very slow at those speeds. Hang around to see what others say but I dont think it will work as you want, in my opinion possibly asking father christmas for a new Hdd would be your best bet.

Danny

 

[Corazon]

Welcome to SevenForums!

I must admit the article surprises me, as the generally held opinion is it's not possible to install Windows 7 to an USB stick or USB HD.
But even if this does work, I would be worried about possible side effects down the road (not necessarily the malicious kind).

Is your external drive a 2.5" drive? If so, a far simpler solution would be to put it in your laptop in place of the dead drive. Otherwise I can only suggest you simply try the tutorial and see how it works out. (I'm curious!)

 

[HeroBub]

Hmmm if this doesnt work. Is it possible to install XP to a ext. hdd?

 

[xxxdannyxxx]

Hmmm if this doesnt work. Is it possible to install XP to a ext. hdd?

What type of external do you have, As Corazon said if its a 2.5 inch in an enclosure just replace the laptop Hdd with it.

 

[HeroBub]

not 2.5" or i would have done that

 

[Corazon]

Well, you said you can't afford a new drive - but honestly, that's your best and maybe only option. Despite the recent rise in HD prices, you might score a good deal on a used/refurbished drive on eBay. While there's an inherent risk of course, many sellers are reputable and won't try to dump a bad drive on their unsuspecting buyers.

If you can tell us more about what your budget is, which interface you need (IDE or SATA/SATA-II), what size in GB you prefer or need, if you care more about space or more about speed, etc., we can help you find a few candidates.

Oh, and...XP will be even harder than 7 to install on any USB device, if that's even possible at all...

 

[gregrocker]

The bottleneck is the USB. If you can find an adapter cable to IDE or SATA then you can do it.

 

[Big Tom]

The bottleneck is the USB. If you can find an adapter cable to IDE or SATA then you can do it.

this is what i would do

 

[Mark Phelps]

Even if the installation does work, how are you going to handle re-activation every time you plug the USB drive into a different PC? That article references another article where they discuss carrying around Win7 on USB, but from the little I read, it looked like they installed it using Virtualbox. But that still leave the issue of reactivation with every new set of hardware (i.e., every different PC).