How to install operating system in a external hard drive

[kunal222]

tell me the process to install any os in a external hard disk

 

[guavasauce]

i want to say if its a usb external, you jaust have to enable booting from usb in bios, and when you install, depending on what os's (and order that you do them) it should write where its located to the boot files and work out.

NOTE: this all theory i drummed up in 3 min, might not work.

 

[kunal222]

i need to install os in external hdd not to install os from hdd........... so help me out

 

[Hawkeye22]

Which OS? I don't think windows can be installed/booted from an external drive.

 

[Zenthar]

It might be possible using eSATA, but I doubt it's possible with USB or Firewire; it is also a very bad idea.

First: USB is slow (USB 3.0 might be OK, but still much slower than native SATA).
Second: Windows installs some drivers DURING installation, moving the drive to another PC after could therefore make the whole thing crash or make the installation a drive mess that will slow the thing even further.
Third: An OEM license, what most people have, is tied to the motherboard, moving the drive would therefore invalidate the license.

If you need an OS to diagnose problems, use a Linux LiveCD or some "Ultimate boot CD"; if you need a transportable working environment, I suggest you use VMWare or any other VM tool.

 

[theuniquegamer]

you use usb external hd then turn on the usb boot option in bios of your system then connect the external hd . Then turn on the external hd as primary boot device in boot device settings in bios . Then restart the pc and install the os .

 

[Hawkeye22]

It is my understanding that windows initializes the USB ports when it loads it's USB drivers. When this occurs, the USB ports get reset at which point the loading of the OS will be halted. It would be like pulling the plug in the middle of the boot process.

If I'm wrong, someone please jump in. I'm always willing to learn something new.

 

[kunal222]

It might be possible using eSATA, but I doubt it's possible with USB or Firewire; it is also a very bad idea.

First: USB is slow (USB 3.0 might be OK, but still much slower than native SATA).
Second: Windows installs some drivers DURING installation, moving the drive to another PC after could therefore make the whole thing crash or make the installation a drive mess that will slow the thing even further.
Third: An OEM license, what most people have, is tied to the motherboard, moving the drive would therefore invalidate the license.

If you need an OS to diagnose problems, use a Linux LiveCD or some "Ultimate boot CD"; if you need a transportable working environment, I suggest you use VMWare or any other VM tool.

thanks a lot. dude i do agree we cant install any OS in external drive as it will b violation of EULA also the motherboard stuff nd all. but why cant we install some open source operating system? waiting for ur reply .

 

[kunal222]

Best answer selected by kunal222.

 

[Zenthar]

thanks a lot. dude i do agree we cant install any OS in external drive as it will b violation of EULA also the motherboard stuff nd all. but why cant we install some open source operating system? waiting for ur reply .

Actually, there must be a way to do that for Linux, but I wouldn't know exactly how. You can have Linux LiveCD/DVD on pendrives so I don't see why you couldn't have them on USB HDDs as well. Might want to as very advances Linux users for advices, if not on this forum, on a specialized Linux forum.

 

[CCSaint]

This site has everything you need to setup a Linux bootable flash drive and there are quite a few options that you can choose for an OS. There is a section at the bottom with all of the OS options for Windows.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

 

[kamal keot]

tell me the process to install any os in a external hard disk

 

[PangolinTahr]

Linux depending on it's distribution can be installed on a USB Flash Drive, so I wouldn't see why it would fail on an external HDD. I know of several users in the Ubuntu community who do this to test new OS's for stability, or troubleshooting for other users. The testing community for Linux practices this quite frequently as a failsafe that's more stable than a virtual environment.

The process for doing this is as simple as one would expect. When you have an External HDD formatted, make sure it's been formatted by a Windows machine first. I used a Windows XP SP 3 for this, setting it as drive "U" so that it wouldn't conflict with the standard assignment of the installed HDD/SSD's.

Find the distro of Linux you like, I'd recommend Canonical's Ubuntu simply because it's an easy, user-friendly environment for a new user. http://www.canonical.com

You need to download the DVD media for the subtype of Ubuntu you like, I.E. Kubuntu, Lubuntu, each work differently for different types of computers. The website will tell you all you need.

Burn the image (distro.ISO) and once done, put it in your CD Drive and enter the BIOS on boot, select boot from CD Drive. This will bring up the installation prompt. Make sure prior to this, the external HDD is connected to your computer.

It will then ask you, at some point which partition you would like to put this on. The Linux definition of your HDD will differ from Windows, and will not label the Drive Letter. Make sure you're aware of the free space on the HDD prior to entering this screen so you can identify which is your HDD when installing. Choose the one you want.

It will install to the HDD, and since Linux is an OpenSource OS, it won't have the same anchor Windows does.

That should work, if you have any more questions, the Canonical community can help you further.

 

[Gregory Anderson]

i want to say if its a usb external, you jaust have to enable booting from usb in bios, and when you install, depending on what os's (and order that you do them) it should write where its located to the boot files and work out.

NOTE: this all theory i drummed up in 3 min, might not work.

I will add my 3 minutes worth.
This would allow the installation disc to function via USB thus boot/external from external. He needs it to install to external. Windows OS will by default will look for C: You would have to convince the BIOS that X: = C: + is bootable + is IDE or Sata + ?

 

[Gregory Anderson]

tell me the process to install any os in a external hard disk

Which OS? I don't think windows can be installed/booted from an external drive.

It is my understanding that windows initializes the USB ports when it loads it's USB drivers. When this occurs, the USB ports get reset at which point the loading of the OS will be halted. It would be like pulling the plug in the middle of the boot process.

If I'm wrong, someone please jump in. I'm always willing to learn something new.

So as you can see from the forums the hang up is mainly the necessity to use USB, vs SATA or IDE. They do make motherboards is integrated SATA ports for connecting external drives in this case you are set.. (possible IDE too, but not likely to encounter one).

For USB
You can make a clean installation in the standard manner. Make an image. Send image to external.
You just need to consider that the source for the image will have different drivers than the destination. If you can, add a generic Ethernet driver, so that the destination drive can get online to help you get the non PnP drivers it will be needing.

 

[Jacob Fremgen]

i need to install os in external hdd not to install os from hdd........... so help me out

Yes, as the previous post stated you should be able to do this. You would need to access your system settings(usually by tapping F2 on startup) and change boot order to default to USB. Which should work, in theory.

The rest of the process would be the same as installing to an internal drive. Also, consider the speed of your available USB ports as opposed to the motherboards internal HDD access specs, as well as the external drives USB version, and number of USB devices you will be using. All of these factors could limit your access speeds, as well as paging files, etc...