can i run windows eight off a external hard drive?

explosivepastry · Jun 25, 2014

can i run windows 8 from an external hard drive?

ksham · Jun 25, 2014

Yes. Just install it to the external hard drive and make sure you tell the BIOS to boot using it.

Dblkk · Jun 25, 2014

USAFRet · Jun 25, 2014

Um, no.....

Ok, yes you can, but not natively. It is a serious PITA to make it work, unless you have Win 8 Enterprise (which you don't) and you use Win2Go.

USAFRet · Jun 25, 2014

ksham :

And you have actually done this?
No, you can't.

ksham · Jun 25, 2014

Yes I have. Not that much of a PITA. It's not without issues but definitely not too hard. It may be better to say NO and OP may not be able to debug and get it to work, but it's really not too bad in my opinion.

A much bigger issue if OP wants to make it a portable system.

USAFRet · Jun 25, 2014

"Just install it to the external hard drive and make sure you tell the BIOS to boot using it. "

...is a little bit deceiving.
Can you make it work? Yes.
Is it as easy and transparent as installing to a regular internal drive? No.
Is it slower than running off an internal drive? Yes

@OP...I'm going with my standard question - Why?

explosivepastry · Jun 25, 2014

USAFRet :

well my internal hard drive is failing and i need to make a system image to a new hard drive and since im new to this and dont understand much im trying to find the easyiest way to do this

USAFRet · Jun 25, 2014

OK...that's a whole different question.
Can you image your current drive to somewhere else? Probably. Depends on why and how bad the original drive is failing.

So:
Connect your external drive
Boot from some cloning application. CloneZilla, perhaps
Tell it to clone the internal drive to the external
Power down, and replace the failing internal drive
CloneZilla again, migrate from the external back to the new internal.

Can you clone directly to an external and have it boot? I'd have to actually see someone do that before I would say 'yes'.

explosivepastry · Jun 25, 2014

USAFRet :

so i would have to buy a external drive and a internal?

ksham · Jun 25, 2014

You can just buy an internal. Clone to it using the method @USAFRet said and that's it. We thought you had an external hard drive readily available so you can back it up for the time being.

explosivepastry · Jun 25, 2014

right now i have a internal in my computer that will probably fail soon and i need to know now if i can clone this one to another internal? sorry im new :/

USAFRet · Jun 25, 2014

Is this a laptop or desktop?
If laptop, does it have provision for a second drive? (actually 3rd - HDD, ODD, HDD)

USAFRet · Jun 25, 2014

If this is a desktop, just buy another internal drive.

However.....what is telling you the drive is actually failing?

explosivepastry · Jun 25, 2014

this is a desktop and this thing called MY DELL gave me two errors and another member told me that i would need to buy a new hard drive

ksham · Jun 25, 2014

You can, if you have an internal hard drive that is large enough. It doesn't have to be a new internal hard drive. It can be one that isn't used or if you have an external hard drive that you aren't using.

To be generic, if you have some storage device large enough to allow you to clone the HDD that is about to fail right this very moment, then yes you can clone it to another storage device.

ksham · Jun 25, 2014

explosivepastry :

Do you have a link to that post or can you post up the errors that you got?

explosivepastry · Jun 25, 2014

the errors i got were the targeted read test and the SMART short self test

can i run windows eight off a external hard drive?

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