Windows 7 on external hardrive

[ehanger]

Would it work if it put windows 7 on my external HDD and boot from that, or would I have to use an internal hardrive?

 

[knotknut]

Works fine if the drive is SATA or E-SATA interface.

 

[jeteryankees22]

Will work if the motherboard supports it

 

[ehanger]

It's a WD 160GB Disk Drive that connects via USB 2.0. Would that work?

 

[knotknut]

No. USB will not work to boot windows from. If your motherboard has SATA interface the best option would be to purchase an external hard drive enclosure that has E-SATA and it will come with the (usually) required bracket and connectors. Do you have an extra hard drive already?

 

[bobusboy]

yes it will, you just have to create an NTSF partition on the drive in question then pop your CD in the computer and tell it to install to that partition.

just google it, i know there are instructions i did it with the 64 bit version, i dont know about 32 bit though

 

[dnickells]

The eSATA option is great - someone mentioned that you need to purchase an enclosure with SATA or eSATA option. The isn't necessarily required if you have a fairly modern ext HD. My WD MyBook Home has USB 2.0, Firewire and eSATA.

The next question is whether your PC has an eSATA port - unless you have a fairly new PC/Motherboard, you may need an upgrade on that side.

 

[Elcano]

I got a question on that: I'd like to install Windows 7 on my external HDD. It has an eSATA port, but my laptop hasn't - so I figured it would be best to 'install' one by an CardExpress-eSATA adaptor. My question is: Will installing Windows 7 work like this? (I know it doesn't work with USB.)

Which adaptor should i buy in order to make sure it works? Nobody seems to be able to help me... Or is there another way?

 

[Jonmor68]

Any eSATA adaptor should work, while you're at it it may pay to consider one with 2 outputs so you can use the other one for high speed storage/backups on another eSATA drive later on.

 

[The_Prophecy]

Provided the motherboard supports it (which any board made in the last 5-6 years should) booting Windows 7 from a USB connected drive will work, it's just not practical as an everyday solution for running Windows, given that it's bandwidth capped at 60 MBps.

Any eSATA adapter should work, as Jonmor said above, just make sure it is connected via the ExpressCard slot instead of the older CardBus slot.