Computer Guru Question Putting an OS on external HD??
Helpful advise anyone?
I have an external hard drive, 320 gb, connects with a USB, and has its own power supply.
Would it be possible to install, say, Windows 7 beta onto this HD, so I can avoid any start up programs on my internal C drive?? I am currently running Vista and would like to try out Windows 7, or maybe start up with Ubuntu again, but without the OS selection screen. I think you can select your boot device from the bios settings, but I don’t know if or how to get it to boot from the usb.
I haven’t tried anything yet, except for having Ubuntu for awhile. I had to reformat that computer due to some error in the selection screen. So can this work, and what problems will I be looking at setting it up if it is feasable???
Thank you for your help or advice. (or both)
If your bios allows USB startup, then yes, this can be done.
When you install Windows, it will install its own bootloader, which will reside on the same hard drive as the Windows install.
Therefore, if you install Windows 7 onto your external hard drive, it may override the bootloader on your internal drive, and you may be unable to boot into Vista.
While you can boot from USB if your BIOS supports it, the tricky part is going to be installing Windows 7 on that external drive so you can boot from it. You have to boot from the Windows Install DVD, and the install program will not allow you to install on the USB drive, at least according to this blog I found (google cache since I couldn’t get it to actually load). That same blog also seems unsuccessful in trying to get it working, so you may not be able to do it.
You’re probably better off dual-booting, as explained here. Basically, use GParted from a Live CD (I prefer System Rescue CD) to shrink your current NTFS partition (Vista) and create a new empty partition. Then use the Windows 7 installer to install to that new partition.
Another option if you’re worried about partitioning and accidentally installing to the wrong one is to just install a different hard drive in your computer and disconnect your current one (you may be able to take that external one out of the case and install it inside your computer instead). Then you don’t have to worry about Windows 7 changing anything and you can put back the original drive when you’re done.
Oh and of course BACK UP YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE TRYING ANYTHING. I would probably back everything up to the external USB drive, then attempt the dual boot, if it were me.
Also, even if you are successful in installing and booting Windows 7 on a USB drive, your performance will be painfully slow. The additional latency, lack of DMA, and generally slower throughput (especially on writes) all add up to a sub-par experience. This would be give an unfavorable impression of the OS, which would be a shame because one of the nice things about 7 is that it is zippier than Vista.
Seconding this. Real world USB data-rate is about 1/5th (or worse) that of the native disk. Especially when its busy with multi-reads and writes, which an OS will do. It will be slow. What you should be doing is putting the disk in your computer, installing 7 onto the new disk, and editing the bootloader so you can boot into both 7 and XP. Im not sure if the 7 installer does this by default or not, it probably does. I think the Vista one did.
If you dont want to do this then you can run 7 on a virtual machine. VirtualPC and VirtualBox are free. You’ll get less of a performance hit with a VM solution.
So, from the advise given, my best bet would be to put in a different HD.
I just want to do a test run of Windows 7.
The main reason I wanted to put it on a separate usb drive was mainly that the bootloader would not need to be changed, and my original hd setup would be unchanged. Thanks all, I will be mulling over this option, I do have a spare computer, I would be willing to try this on. Is windows 7 compatible with x64??
Does anyone have a link to a good description for windows 7, users who have tried it out?
Thanks again!
Yes it definitely supports 64-bit, it’s a completely separate download though.
I don’t know if you already have an external drive, but a lot of the newer externals, support esata cables. I added an eSata port because my external was slow via USB and it’s almost as fast as my internal hard drive, that is when run with the eSata cable.
You could just run it in a virtual machine.