Use external drive as primary drive

Pragyaa

Honorable
Dec 30, 2013
2
0
10,510
I have windows7 and am using Dell 5110 laptop. the hard drive on the laptop is not working and as the hard drive on this laptop lies well inside - you have to remove keyboard motherboard and all - it involves a lot of work to be done. I am not very good at this and wouldn't like to take the risk to do all this to replace the hard disk. I have external seagate hard disk and would like to use it as primary drive and install Windows and all progams in it, connecting with the usb. Windows 7 does not normally allows to install on external hard drive. is there any way around this without going all the way to replace the hard drive.
Thanks for your support.
 
Solution
As the above poster stated, an external USB drive as the main drive is not a viable option.

I watched this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWdp8TrBjI8 and couldn't believe the complexity of replacing the hard drive on this laptop. I have changed hard drives on my Dell D 630 as well as on my Dell E 6500, and in both cases it is a 5-minute job.

If you want to get your laptop properly repaired with a new internal hard disk, I suggest that you get a local repair shop to do it and then re-install Windows. If you are going this route get a hard disk of larger capacity than the previous one.
As the above poster stated, an external USB drive as the main drive is not a viable option.

I watched this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWdp8TrBjI8 and couldn't believe the complexity of replacing the hard drive on this laptop. I have changed hard drives on my Dell D 630 as well as on my Dell E 6500, and in both cases it is a 5-minute job.

If you want to get your laptop properly repaired with a new internal hard disk, I suggest that you get a local repair shop to do it and then re-install Windows. If you are going this route get a hard disk of larger capacity than the previous one.
 
Solution