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Windows 7 on external hardrive

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ehanger   01-09-2009 at 11:54:18 PM

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?

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knotknut   01-11-2009 at 05:13:45 AM
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Works fine if the drive is SATA or E-SATA interface.

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jeteryankees22   01-11-2009 at 05:29:26 AM
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Will work if the motherboard supports it

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ehanger   01-14-2009 at 08:09:59 PM
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It's a WD 160GB Disk Drive that connects via USB 2.0. Would that work?

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knotknut   01-15-2009 at 03:47:22 AM
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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?

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bobusboy   07-03-2009 at 06:22:28 PM
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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

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dnickells   07-05-2009 at 06:41:20 PM
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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.

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Elcano   10-18-2009 at 07:58:15 PM
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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?

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Bronze Win 7 badge Jonmor68   10-18-2009 at 10:11:03 PM
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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.

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Silver Win 7 badge The_Prophecy   10-19-2009 at 05:01:30 AM
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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.

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