Lacie mini rugged Can I install Operating System to it?

[1Dan]

Pretty much as my title says. I bought this portable external drive with a view to installing my operating system to is in addition to simply storing my files.

I have now found out I cannot do this, or at least Lacie do not support this. I am hoping someone here can inform me as to whether there is a workaround for this perhaps using third party software or another way.

I look forward to some advice on this.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Not so much Lacie not supporting it, but some OSes refuse to install to a USB device (like Win7; what version are you installing?).

Some motherboards will not boot from a USB device, or need BIOS changes.

Can you tell us more: Which OS, how you are installing it, what motherboard, are you attaching it to a USB 2.0 or a USB 3.0 port, and where in the installation process it is failing to install? What message do you get?

Thanks.

 

[COLGeek]

If the intent is to "move" the OS from system to system, that won't work either. The hardware differences in the platforms (unless 100% identical) will register as new hardware and will require constant reactivation. It will look to Windows like an install being used more times than allowed.

 

[1Dan]

It is Windows 7 that I am trying to put on it.

@COLGeek I am not trying to move the OS from system to system, I have my installation disk and registration number, but it says it will not install to a USB device as suggested by Wyoming.

I am on my way nowe to try and get my money back as I basically bought it on the premise that I could make a back up of my OS onto the external drive.

 

[COLGeek]

You can back up your OS install to the external HDD, but you don't install to the HDD. You can use a backup tool (like the one built into Win 7) or a cloning app (like Clonezilla) to do what you want.

 

[ngrego]

You can use something like Acronis to clone your existing drive to the Lacie.
Then boot from the LaCie directly, after making the appropriate changes in BIOS.
But as stated above don't expect it to work on a different machine.

 

[1Dan]

Part of the problem is that I don't want to clone what is on my drive at this time. I want to gradually migrate what I want to keep onto the portable external drive, and then format the old one and start over with it. But because I don't want to disrupt my day to day stuff, I want to do it gradually when I have free time to go through everything.

I am starting to think I would have been better just formatting it and reinstalling the OS to start with. This is a problem I hadn't expected to encounter.

I am going to spend more time googling this tomorrow when I get home. I am hoping I either find the answer that way or on this thread.

 

[COLGeek]

If that is the case, then just save your personal files to the ext HDD and reformat/reinstall as you stated.

 

[WyomingKnott]

I have checked, and Windows OSes refuse to install to removable USB devices.

I can think of two reasons. One is practical: Until recently, USB devices were much to slow to give a satisfactory OS experience. One is revenue-oriented: They don't want people running a single copy of the OS on multiple machines (illegally, I suspect).