HDD case + windows 7

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I want to buy an hdd 2.5 inch and install in it windows 7 pro (legal copy). Then I want to buy an hdd enclosure to place inside the hdd. My intention is to take the hdd in my vacation and use it as a bootable windows 7 drive on any device with usb port. Will it work?

Thanks in advance!
 
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1. Now the first problem you'll run into is trying to install the "hdd enclosure to place inside the hdd." Not easy; might even be physically impossible. Now if you want to place the HDD inside the USB enclosure, that's doable.

2. Now as long as you later install the HDD in the USBEHD enclosure...your plan of action could work. It's something of a crapshoot and unlikely to work but it may be possible.

3. I'm assuming your present Win 7 OS installed (presumably in a laptop) is bootable and completely functional. Assuming it is, you can clone its contents to the 2.5" HDD installed in your USB enclosure. As you have heard from the other responders you cannot DIRECTLY install a Windows OS onto a USB external drive. (I'm aware there are a...
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MERGED QUESTION
Question from Christopher V : "HDD enclosure + windows 7"

I want to buy an hdd 2.5 inch and install in it windows 7 pro (legal copy). Then I want to buy an hdd enclosure to place the hdd inside. My intention is to take the hdd in my vacation and use it as a bootable windows 7 drive on any device with usb port. Will it work?

Thanks in advance!
 
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USAFRet

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Not easily, no.
1. When you install a Windows OS, an external drive doesn't even show as a target device to install to
2. Even if, by some small chance, you get it to install to the USB connected drive....just plugging it into some random PC won't work. At all.


For vacation type use, either use a Linux, booting off a liveCD or USB, or buy a laptop.
 
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Phillip Corcoran

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Forget that idea - - it won't work.

Windows Setup doesn't show any external drives as being available for installing Windows to.

Even if you managed to do it somehow, you can't just plug it in as a bootable device on a different computer.

Even if you overcame those two issues (which you won't) it would take something like 5-10 minutes for it to finish booting in to the Windows desktop ready to start using using it (big yawn - :/)

In other words, your idea just won't work.
 
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Well..... Let me explain my plan a little more:
At first I'm going to use the hdd as a sata drive (i will connect the hdd with a sata cable to the motherboard and I will install the windows 7...... Like we all do). So the first issue will be solved.
Then I will buy an hdd enclosure and I will place the hdd inside it. From that time and beyond the hdd will not be able to connect with sata cable but only with usb cable.
So my logic says that if I change the boot order of another device (so as to boot from the usb port) the boot of windows 7 will be successful (the drive will load the same files that loads when connected through sata cable..... The only difference this time will be that it will not be connected through sata cable but through usb cable).
About the speed of the connection I don't care (+i will install the right drivers for the graphics, etc after the boot). I want to know if it will be able to boot.
So .... Does it sound possible to do it after all this?
 
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USAFRet

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Your logic is wrong.
It won't work.

As much as we'd all like a Windows OS to work like that...it doesn't.


I invite you to try it, and prove us wrong.
Please document all steps involved.
 
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Well , I probably will try it but only somewhere around August when I will take a break from my work. Stay tuned in this thread and when I try it I will post my experience. If there is something you think will make my purpose easier feel free to post it. Its an informative forum after all.
 
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USAFRet

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Your series of steps will not work.

But...possible ways to do this:

1. A Virtual Machine.
Using VMWare or VirtualBox, install your Windows OS in a VM that lives on that USB drive.
Then, on the target PC at your vacation spot, install the same client software...VMWare or VirtualBox.
Then simply tell that client where the VHD is.
Power it up.

You might even be able to boot from that VHD

2. Possibly this. I have no idea if it works, but here it is:
http://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/

3. Just buy a laptop and take it with you
 
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ArtPog

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1. Now the first problem you'll run into is trying to install the "hdd enclosure to place inside the hdd." Not easy; might even be physically impossible. Now if you want to place the HDD inside the USB enclosure, that's doable.

2. Now as long as you later install the HDD in the USBEHD enclosure...your plan of action could work. It's something of a crapshoot and unlikely to work but it may be possible.

3. I'm assuming your present Win 7 OS installed (presumably in a laptop) is bootable and completely functional. Assuming it is, you can clone its contents to the 2.5" HDD installed in your USB enclosure. As you have heard from the other responders you cannot DIRECTLY install a Windows OS onto a USB external drive. (I'm aware there are a number of reports that you can find on the net that purport to have a procedure to do just that but we've never achieved any reliable success with them.)

4. Now here's the crapshoot part...
The OS installed in the USBEHD enclosure may or may not boot in EITHER your present laptop or a different laptop (I assume that latter is what you've referred to as "another device").

5. We frequently have occasion for one reason or another to clone the contents of an existing OS to a USBEHD (or SSD). These days it's mostly Win 10 systems. When we're working with "generic" (non-OEM) PCs we're usually able to obtain nearly a 100% success rate in terms of the the cloned USBEHD booting & properly functioning IN THE SAME PC.

6. We rarely utilize the cloned USBEHD to transfer an OS to another PC since we would nearly always remove the HDD or SSD from the USB enclosure and install it as an internally-connected drive in another PC; usually the destination PC is a generic one but on occasion we've attempted it with an OEM machine. Needless to say the rate of success with the latter OEM machine is virtually nil, but on very rare occasions we're able to achieve a bootable functional OS with the latter (keeping in mind we're using an internally-connected drive).

7. Now the disk-cloning program we use is Casper. I'm unsure whether other d-c programs have the same capability as I've described above.

8. So the bottom line in all this is that if you have the USB external enclosure and requisite HDD or SSD, you may want to give it a try along the lines I've described above with the understanding that this is a highly unlikely solution re your objective. But there's really little to lose except some of your time and you may learn few things in the process.
 
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Actually the windows 7 copy I own is fresh new (from Microsoft imagine) and not under use on any pc. So the procedure of cloning the system is needless in my occasion. In detail my steps will be:

1) buy an 120gb 2.5 hdd ~ 30$
2) internally connect the hdd with the mobo of my pc using a sata cable
3) install the os on the hdd (the os will recognize the hdd during the install process cause the hdd will be internally connected).
4) finalize the install process and complete any windows update task.
5) from now on the hdd contains the os.
6) remove the hdd from the pc
7) buy an hdd case (like this  https://www.transcend-info.com/Products/No-737  )
8) place the hdd inside the case (the hdd will be connected with the case using sata interface..... And the case will be able to connect with any pc using usb interface..... Like any hdd case).
9) change the boot order of the target pc-laptop (I mean the pc-laptop than I'm going to connect the hdd case in my vacation)
10) boot from the hdd case

English is not my first language, so sorry if you misunderstood my previous posts.
 
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USAFRet

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Your sequence fails in between 9 & 10.
 
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ArtPog

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1. I received your "private message" however, I'm responding here since you've posted the substance of that message here in this thread.

2. That Transcend device is really nothing more than a USB external enclosure designed to accommodate a 2.5" drive. It's equipped with a "spacer" to accommodate both 7 mm & 9.5 mm 2.5" drives. The latter "extra" makes is somewhat different from run-of-the-mill USB external enclosures basically designed for 7 mm SSDs, such as the 120 GB SSD you're apparently planning to purchase. (I'm assuming it's a SSD although you refer to it as an "HDD", which it's not.)

3. While you can obviously install the SSD in your present laptop and fresh-install the OS onto that drive the basic info I (and others) outlined in my previous message doesn't really change. You would still be installing the OS from your present OEM installation. The fact that this would obviate the need to clone the contents of the present installed drive to this new installation is irrelevant.

4. The likelihood that you would be able to boot the "new" OS and thereby create a functional system with a new OEM laptop using a USB external HDD/SSD enclosure is, as you have heard, virtually nil. We have achieved this capability on very rare occasions (primarily for testing purposes) but virtually never utilize a USBEHD/SSD in the process. The few times we were able to successfully transfer a OS from one OEM PC to another OEM PC (including the licensing/activation) we always used a cloned drive that was internally-installed in the destination PC. And in virtually every case a new license had to be procured.
 
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Thanks everyone for your anwsers. I might give it a try in the future just for test purposes. If I do I will post my experience here.
 
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