Installing W7 on External HD

Im trying to install Windows 7 on my external Hard Drive

Seagate
1.5TB
Power and USB Slot


Toshiba
4GB Ram
320GB
T6400 Duo Core

When I got into the install screen it says it cannot install by USB/IEE3 Ports =/ Do you guys know how to install Window 7 on External Hard Drive =/ I only have 2 plugs just a USB and a power

 

My question would be, would you really want to boot an operating system off a USB harddrive given how slow transfer rates on USB are?


I mean USB only transfers at 60 MegaBytes/sec (480 Megabits/sec [Mbps] while
Your average laptop harddrive (eSata) does 375 MegaBytes/sec (3 Gigabit/sec)

*Also note these are RAW data speeds-actual speeds will most likely be much slower*

 

Im pretty sure D: I need help =/

 

why not just dual boot?

much easier and as justin said much faster

 

....I know....but I dont want to I just want it on my external hd

 

You'll need to mod the Windows 7 Installation disk by injecting the usb driver before the OS boots. That's probably illegal because you have to modify the "core" of the OS.

Anyways...get a esata external drive and you'll be able to install and boot from the external drive.

 

You can boot Windows 7 from usb. The only time you will notice any slowdown is when you are writing something to the external drive. I rarely see my hard drive light turn on when I am using Windows 7. As long as you have enough RAM, it will practically load all of itself into system memory and only touch your drive when you tell it to.

 

....Ok my question is How to install Window 7 on my external HD
On the setup it says it cannot install in the External Drive by IEE3 Port or By USB

 

does your bios support booting by usb?

Primary/Active?

 

I'm pretty sure you can boot from a USB HDD easy enough if the OS is on it, it's getting the OS on it.

I'm not familiar enough with any hacks to help you in this regard.

 

Can you put your external hard drive in the system while you load Win 7?

I did that as it was easier than worrying about loading to an external. I took the external hard drive out of the enclosure and put it inside and booted to the DVD and loaded Win 7 and than pulled the HDD and put it in the external enclosure and it works swimmingly well. I simply have to access setup on bootup and choose which HDD I want to boot to.....internal or external.

Good luck.

BTW, I did a google search on your question before I decided to get inside the computer to make it work the easy way and there are a lot of hits, many in this forum on how to accomplish your objective.

Perry

 

uhh I tried booting from USB and i burned a win 7 disc
it gives me a blinking white "_" and it doesnt proceed to type any key to start
until i unplugged my external hd which i did then plug it back in and proceed with install but it says it cannot install by USB/IEE3 port

I made the external HD active
I made a partition of 300gb

I tried putting the OS on the partition but the set up said the same thing =/

and my bio is support to boot up by USB


Pkincy


I did that as it was easier than worrying about loading to an external. I took the external hard drive out of the enclosure and put it inside and booted to the DVD and loaded Win 7 and than pulled the HDD and put it in the external enclosure and it works swimmingly well. I simply have to access setup on bootup and choose which HDD I want to boot to.....internal or external.

I dont know what u mean by take the external hard drive out of the enclosure but i assume the outer shell of the hard drive and put it inside what?

I dont get ur directions : (

 

If your external HDD is really an internal drive in an external enclosure than you can remove it from the enclosure and install it in your machine. Boot up the machine to the DVD drive and install windows on what is now an internal HDD. After you get it working you can pull the HDD and reinstall it in its external enclosure. It will then boot (assuming you have the USB HDD set as bootable in the BIOS) to the external HDD.

All the while this is going on your original OS can safely stay on the original internal HDD.

I actually did this in a laptop. I took out my original XP HDD and installed the older HDD that I wanted to use for Win 7. Booted to the DVD drive with the Win 7 ISO file and installed Win 7 on what was now an internal drive. Got it working and than physically reinstalled the XP OS HDD. I put the Win 7 HDD in its external enclosure and have it connected by a USB cable.

Good Luck.

Perry

 

WELL Pkincy i have found out that my External Hard Drive is a Serial ATA >_> and my old 6 year old computer is...just....ATA -.- SO! I tried with my sister laptop but it didnt work becuz my external hard drive was a fat and couldnt fit =/ FML

SOOOOO Next Choice of Solution.....Try USB Install ^______^ Pl0x?

 

or any other kind of solution =/

 

yes, that is a problem. fat drives can't copy partitions orver 4 GB, so it splits then up. Many backup software like Acronis has trouble reading these divided segments as they weren't acronis created-- good luck. Make your partitions NTFS!!!

 

i tried that =/ still says cannot install VIA USB

 

If you external HD can be put in a different case with eSATA try that and then if you have an expresscard slot you could get a card to have eSATA.

Or back up what is on your current HD on the external and install W7 on the internal.

 

nope cant do that

and well i wanna keep Vista too u know ^_____^