problematic step in installing windows 7 on external hard drive

[WarriorLite]

Hi everybody!!

I am trying to instal windows 7 on external hard drive following How To Install Windows 7 On USB Flash Drive or External Hard Drive

the boot from this drive did not work and I have a suspicion what the problem could be.

when i have to indicate the first active partition,whichis in point 8 of hte instructions, i am not usre what to do.

on my laptop, the first active partition is reserved 100mb one, which has no letter assigned, so I cannot give it as the answer. to make things worse, partition c on my laptop is inactive. and even when i used paragon hard disk manager to make the reserved letterless one inactive and c active, upon next restart the situation got back to the original.

supposedly, this messes up the installlation data.

how can i solve this problem?

 

[Computer0304]

Wait a second, so your laptop cannot boot?

 

[gregrocker]

It is not worth the time trying to install Win7 to an external HD. USB is the bottleneck. Even if it installs it is too slow to bother with. Better to use internal or eSATA.

 

[WarriorLite]

from my laptop's internal harddisk - it can boot.

but when i tried to boot this laptop from external hard drive, it would not. i suspect that something is wrong related to point 8 of the instructions How To Install Windows 7 On USB Flash Drive or External Hard Drive
which requires letter of the first active partition - i assume it is the partition of the source internal disk, not the destination external one. please correct me if i am wrong.



i hope it clarifies it.

 

[Computer0304]

Why do you want to even do this?

 

[WarriorLite]

For diagnostic purposes - to test two hard drives, and to gain access to data which is there.

Could someone please anwer my questions?

 

[theog]

For diagnostic purposes - to test two hard drives, and to gain access to data which is there.

Could someone please anwer my questions?

You use the Start up Repair CD/DVD for doing that, or softwate using WinPE3.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Hi everybody!!

I am trying to instal windows 7 on external hard drive following How To Install Windows 7 On USB Flash Drive or External Hard Drive

the boot from this drive did not work and I have a suspicion what the problem could be.

when i have to indicate the first active partition,whichis in point 8 of hte instructions, i am not usre what to do.

on my laptop, the first active partition is reserved 100mb one, which has no letter assigned, so I cannot give it as the answer. to make things worse, partition c on my laptop is inactive. and even when i used paragon hard disk manager to make the reserved letterless one inactive and c active, upon next restart the situation got back to the original.


supposedly, this messes up the installlation data.

how can i solve this problem?

Why not leave 100MB system reserved active? Just give it a drive letter in disk management. You can always remove the drive letter when you're finished

 

[Kaktussoft]

Why install win7 on external usb disk??

 

[gregrocker]

You can rescue data from Win7 installed internally, using the Win7 DVD or Repair CD to Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console, or Paragon Rescue Kit Free Edition 11.0 Free CD.

We have already answered your question about installing Win7 to USB external HD. If you want a dialogue then discuss what we've posted, don't just ignore it and insist we answer your question we've just answered.

 

[WarriorLite]

that's right, it was point 8, where you input the target partition at that moment. Very unusual it would be C, contrary to what they suggested.

I have found another way, though. I put hiren's boot cd on a usb pendrive which gave me a kind of dos explorer. it appears that in dos, or at least in this tool, all the file and folder structure remains plain and clear!!

Therefore, I am now copying all the stuff from the faulty drives to the external hdd and once that is done, i will do all the error checking. it appears that three of my five old disks have errors, and the motherboard seems functional.

In case someone finds himself in a similar situation.

Thank you.

Hi everybody!!

I am trying to instal windows 7 on external hard drive following How To Install Windows 7 On USB Flash Drive or External Hard Drive

the boot from this drive did not work and I have a suspicion what the problem could be.

when i have to indicate the first active partition,whichis in point 8 of hte instructions, i am not usre what to do.

on my laptop, the first active partition is reserved 100mb one, which has no letter assigned, so I cannot give it as the answer. to make things worse, partition c on my laptop is inactive. and even when i used paragon hard disk manager to make the reserved letterless one inactive and c active, upon next restart the situation got back to the original.

supposedly, this messes up the installlation data.

how can i solve this problem?

 

[gregrocker]

I'm sorry, but I'm missing what this is supposed to help with? You needed to rescue files off of unbootable Win7? If so why would you not ask us to help you repair Win7 instead of absurdly reinstall it on an external HD?

Here is everything that can be done Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start.

Since you've messed with the disk configuration you first need to confirm Win7 or it's 100mb System Reserved partition is still Partition Marked Active then run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times. Report back these results which will tell us a lot.