Boot windows 7 from external hard drive

[devanand211]

Hello,
While booting win 7 from usb external hdd it shows windows loadin and then a blue screen come for a sec and it restarts. what shud i do to make it boot?

 

[CaedenV]

Windows is largely hardware dependent, so while it is possible (though not suggested) to run off an external HDD, it will be tied to that hardware, or other machines that have very similar hardware. Again, this method is not suggested as USB is generally limited to 20MB/s, while an internal HDD can do ~120MB/s, so you can imagine how slow and painful it would be to use this as a system drive.

If you are looking for a solution to boot other computer with then please look into Linux live CDs or WindowsPE environments. They are limited in what they can do, but it is enough to basic troubleshooting and data recovery.

 

[alharoun]

Hello,
While booting win 7 from usb external hdd it shows windows loadin and then a blue screen come for a sec and it restarts. what shud i do to make it boot?

How did you install windows 7 on a HDD ?? ive been trying and i always failed

 

[locoloco]

I found how to boot windows 7 on a external hard drive by using a program called PWBoot.

Again, the name is PWBoot.

It took me ages to find a program like this.

All you have to do is install windows Vista or windows 7 by connecting the drive on ata or ide. Then after the installation is over, you boot into windows and install the program PWBoot. From that moment on, your hard drive will be able to boot from a USB. Sweet uh?

 

[Brett928S2]

I found how to boot windows 7 on a external hard drive by using a program called PWBoot.

Again, the name is PWBoot.

It took me ages to find a program like this.

All you have to do is install windows Vista or windows 7 by connecting the drive on ata or ide. Then after the installation is over, you boot into windows and install the program PWBoot. From that moment on, your hard drive will be able to boot from a USB. Sweet uh?

Hi

Sweet maybe, drastically slow, certainly....

All the best Brett

 

[thehoffr]

I've been working on this all week. The reason is, I have an MSI mobo with the Intel RSTe controller running arrays that require "drivers to load" before recovery can see the drives.

ISSUES:

I've got a 2x 128G SSD's raid 0 array for the C-drive that are getting 918/389 r/w speeds (it's common to run SSD for the C drive nowadays for speed, but problem is image recovery if they fail since you must load the drivers or recovery can't see the replacement drives). So if I lose an SSD I'm toast, I need a disaster recovery plan, and a fresh Win7 install is not acceptable, I need to IMAGE RESTORE like the big boys do.

I also have a 4x Seagate 2T's R10 array for "storage" that get 378/386 Mbs r/w speeds (smoking write speed of R10's over R5 that were at best 170/90 Mbs).

I have a DUAL BIOS switch and previously had only a 3x R5 array for the storage. My "disaster plan" was an MBR partition on the R5 to hold a backup image; if I lost the C drive I'd flip the switch and boot to the alt-partition containing a restored image ready to go. Tested this and it worked because the partition was a smaller MBR type, not GPT like the second +3T partition (you only get 2 partitions max with RSTe).

When converting to the 4x 2T R10 array which creates all 4 drives as a "single partition" (no choice), I had to initialize the single partition as GPT due to the size.

You must use an MBR partition to boot BCD style. Converting to R10's I have only one array partition, so I lost the ability to have a second MBR partition for the alt-image boot partition. My image backup is BCD style, and I'm not reinstalling Windows as an EFI system, that would defeat the purpose, I have a BCD install and I'm stuck with it.

In either case, TO MAKE THINGS WORSE, testing the "Win 7 System Repair Disc" solution hoping to load the Intel RST drivers FAILS saying "non-compatible", that's it. Hum...does MS even test these solutions. I think they say, "no solution, no problem..."; don't create a solution and you won't have a problem.

So how do the millions of machines running Intel RSTe arrays solve the problem? I'm stuck. I've spent too much time (days) looking for a way to run a ready-to-go partition with a backup image on it to load drivers to see the array partition (C drive).

I spent today trying to image restore to an "external drive" really hoping this would work BUT IT BLUE SCREENS as stated in this thread. Seagate and/or Toshiba rescue/recover solutions don't have a "load drivers" button so (they see the drives but not the array partitions).

ANYBODY KNOW HOW ALL THOSE PEOPLE RUNNING ARRAYS FOR C DRIVE ARE DOING IT?

Loading drivers is all that's needed to see the partitions. MS is suppose to let you load drivers from the recover/repair disc, but it say's NOT COMPATIBLE. That's where the real crime lays, Windows does not tell you any reason for refusing to help...