Installing Windows 7 on external HDD

[quad777]

Hi Guys

Would just like to know if its possible to install the Windows 7 OS on an external HDD and if so how do i do it? I have a Seagate 2TB Expansion desktop External HDD, which i have created 4 partitions, 3 of the 4 partitions are used up so i thought it be kinda cool to have an OS on the External. When i try installing straight onto the external disk, i get an error saying that windows cannot be installed on a USB drive or IEE 1394. Any ideas on how i can get the OS installed?

Would creating an image with Ghost or Acronis work?

Much Appreciated

 

[Xttony]

Help yourself to this tutorial
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7-to-usb-external-hard-drive-must-read/

 

[dingo07]

it really makes no sense unless you plan to always have the external drive boot to the same motherboard and system

 

[Xttony]

yes it will only work on your system
you can try this out to make it work on other systems but you will lose your activation on that os installed on the hard drive.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

 

[DarkSable]

Yeah, like xttony said, unless you have windows 7/8 professional you won't be able to make a "portable" install of the OS... which is kinda a shame.

You also will have a LOT of issues if you, say, change the USB port the external drive is plugged into. It's just too much of a hassle to be worth the slow, crappy performing benefits.

 

[Surendra Chowki]

HI,

the zip filw which you mentioned in point 2 is not getting downloaded properly. can you please share that to (surendrachowkisap@gmail.com)

Thanks,

 

[Prankstaq]

Help yourself to this tutorial
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7-to-usb-external-hard-drive-must-read/

good day
I have a probleme with this instalation .When it asks me to choose active partrion and i select c: it gives me a error that says partion C: is not writable?can you help please

 

[Prankstaq]

good day
I have a probleme with this instalation .When it asks me to choose active partrion and i select c: it gives me a error that says partion C: is not writable?can you help please

 

[John Sagan]

I know this is a year late, but I was just looking for a solution for this same issue when the hard drive got wiped when installing linux. It doesn't have a dvd drive, and for some reason I could not use a bootable Windows USB install.

Create a new virtual machine without a virtual hard drive. Plug in your USB stick and format it to NTSF. Connect it to the virtual machine (you may need to go into disk manager first and put it 'offline'). Then add your Windows install disk as a virtual disk to the virtual machine. When you turn on the VM, it should boot to the virtual disk and allow you to install to the physical hard drive it sees. Since it's in a virtual machine, it sees the USB drive as a local hard drive and doesn't throw the error.

 

[buythiscomputer]

Hello and thank you, I will try it.

 

[imaginashawn]

Help yourself to this tutorial
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7-to-usb-external-hard-drive-must-read/

Very confusing instructions at that site. He doesn't even identify the first package to download, just says 'download this zip' so that as you continue on working with it and other files, you can't tell them apart!

 

[herolion]

This Tutorial makes it look really simple:
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-run-a-portable-version-of-windows-from-a-usb-dri-1565509124