installing windows to external hdd while IN windows?

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damian'

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 12, 2009
Messages
228
(NOTE: Wasn't sure if this belongs here or in the storage forums so i'll try both)

hey guys i have a few questions. I just built a computer but i do not have an optical drive nor do i have a large enough USB drive to use as a boot tool.

I do however have an external hdd (I plan to take out the HDD inside and use that as my main drive with the new computer). So im thinking of using that to install windows 7 on my computer.

Right now I am using a netbook. I already have the windows iso files along with a legit key.

Question:
How do i go about installing windows 7 while in windows mode (via my netbook) onto my external hdd. Do i treat the external hdd as a usb?

If that is not possible, is the only other solution to just boot from my external hdd and install windows 7 using that.
 
If the files have been extracted from the ISO to the external drive (inside a folder, for example), just run the Setup.exe file and go from there.

If you're trying to do a clean installation of Windows 7 for the Netbook, it must be on the Netbook - Windows 7 will not run from an external hard drive unless it's an eSATA drive - USB ain't happening. But if the files have been extracted into a folder on the external drive, and you can run the Setup.exe, that'll get you situated.

It'll do all the file copying up-front then reboot the Netbook to do the installation. It might not be a clean installation, however, leaving some files behind in the process. The USB stick is still the best possible way to install Windows 7 (and even Vista if you must) for Netbooks.

Your best bet for a clean install of Windows 7 on a Netbook which doesn't have an optical drive is take the ISO and feed it to this tool made by Microsoft:

http://store.microsoft.com/help/iso-tool

That'll transfer the contents of the ISO to a USB stick (gotta be a 4GB stick or larger) and make it bootable, then you can use that to do the installation, and it's much faster than using an optical drive also. You can find 4GB USB sticks for like $15 most anywhere these days - I even saw some at 7-11 and Walgreens lately.

But Windows 7 can't be installed to or run from an external USB hard drive, it just ain't happening.
 
as i said in my post, this is for my new computer not the netbook. i don't have a usb drive

i do have an external hdd. BUT i just want to be able to put the iso files onto my external hdd

once that is done with, i would take the hdd out of the external storage compartment and use that hdd as my main drive for my computer (via a SATA cable)

The problem is, im not sure how to transfer the ISO file onto the HDD all the while making it bootable.
 
Uhmmm... ok, somewhere down the line you're getting lost, at least that's how it looks at this point.

You have a Netbook, and you have an external hard drive. You have another computer entirely, and that's what I'll focus on.

Is the second computer another Netbook, a regular laptop (with optical drive), or some desktop (hopefully with an optical drive also)? And where are the ISO files right now, on the Netbook or on the external hard drive?

Just to cover some ground:

You can't put the Windows 7 installation files on the external hard drive and make it bootable like it was a DVD - that's not happening either. You can't start the installation of Windows 7 off an external hard drive in that manner; it has to be installed from a DVD (optical media) or a USB stick created with that Microsoft tool (or one of the other methods of creating a bootable USB stick).

Realistically it's possible to some degree to install Windows 7 on a hard drive and then "swap it out" into another machine but you'll most likely encounter BSODs and other issues from the swapping process - Windows 7 isn't a "mobile" OS like Linux distros can be, moved from one machine to another without many issues at all.
 
yeah i probably am getting lost. Im sorry its just that im at my wits end here. I really need to get the rig up and running.

The second computer is a desktop (although it does not have an optical drive) and the ISO file is in my netbook.

Is this a lost cause?
 
Is there any OS on that desktop at this moment, like XP or whatever? Without it, you're pretty much dead in the water without a) an optical drive of some kind even if it's just a temporary "fix" or b) a 4GB+ USB stick prepped for installing the OS on that machine.

There's just no way to do this without one of those two methods.

EDIT:

I don't think this will work at all but, if you do have that external drive, and you can ensure that it's clean and has NO DATA ON IT at all, it needs to be completely blank, one partition, etc - there's a chance, a very very small chance that the Microsoft USB tool MIGHT be able to actually transfer the contents of the ISO to that drive and make it bootable.

I don't have such a small external to try this test myself at the moment, unfortunately, all I have are USB sticks. But when it comes to the tool asking for the target (where the files are going to be written) it just says "USB device" - it doesn't say USB stick/jump drive/flash drive/etc. So it might be possible to use that external hard drive as a way of doing thing, as weird as that sounds. But that drive has to be completely empty because this tool will need to format it before the writing begins...

Can't hurt to try it I suppose. If it does work, it's basically treating the external drive as a big USB "stick" of sorts... same principle, just a different from of media. Give it a go and see what happens...
 
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