Creating a bootable external hard drive

[Mitchdoe]

Hello again all!
I have successfully installed all major components to my new gaming pc and have successfully gained power to peripherals and monitor. In regards to installing an OS i have chosen to purchase a product key for windows 8.1 online and install the iso file from the bootable hard drive. I am however having issues making the external hard drive a bootable drive. My external hard drive is a WD my passport Ultra 1tb

 

[rhysiam]

Not sure if it'll work for an external HDD, but the Windows 7 USB Download Tool certainly works for USB pen drives. It's relatively small and easy to install, so worth a try at least: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool

The name is totally misleading... "Windows 7" and "Download tool"... but contrary to the name you can just select any Windows ISO (you've already got one yes?) and specify a USB (or hopefully USB HDD), and it'll make it bootable. I've used it successfully for multiple versions of Win 7, 8, 8.1 & 10.