Loading Windows 7 on an External HDD

[jpballa]

I have been looking high and low on how to install windows 7 onto an external USB hard drive.

I have a lenovo yoga with windows 8.1 and would like to also be able to boot from the external usb hard drive with windows 7.

Tryed doing this the straight forward way by using a bootabe usb then install to the ext. usb hdd, but the drive does not show up on installation. Apparently Microsoft does allow you to load it that way.

Youtube had some vids on how to manually load it, however I was unable to find the files needed to to this.

Anyone try this? or have suggestions on what to do.
Need some help figuring this out.

[Marauder2003]

http://www.fit-pc.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_make_Windows_7_bootable_install_USB_stick

[shotcaller6]

Have you tried this?

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7-to-usb-external-hard-drive-must-read/

[jpballa]

http://www.fit-pc.com/wiki/index.php...tall_USB_stick

That is just for making a bootable usb, which i have done since i do not have
a DVD/CD drive. I am trying to load windows in the ext usb HDD.

Have you tried this?

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-in...ive-must-read/

Yes, i followed that guide, The problem is that i cannot find the the 3 files needed.

On the reboot.pro thread the op says " I can't include the imagex, bcdboot and bootsect. You need to find them by yourself and put them in the folder."

Anyone know where i can find them? Or know of another way to install it.?

[codypaint77]

Another way

I have been looking high and low on how to install windows 7 onto an external USB hard drive.

I have a lenovo yoga with windows 8.1 and would like to also be able to boot from the external usb hard drive with windows 7.

Tryed doing this the straight forward way by using a bootabe usb then install to the ext. usb hdd, but the drive does not show up on installation. Apparently Microsoft does allow you to load it that way.

Youtube had some vids on how to manually load it, however I was unable to find the files needed to to this.

Anyone try this? or have suggestions on what to do.
Need some help figuring this out.

Why not try a virtual machine (VM ware). It works great. You can also try a dual boot OS on your hard drive.

[CaMakarovnik]

Imagex.exe and bootbcd.exe are in the WAIK, the Windows 7 automated installation kit. Its a free download from Microsoft. You can search the web for for bootsect.exe, but be careful, downloading .exe files from random web sites is sketchy at best.

[shotcaller6]

You can get those 3 files at this site.

http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/getwaiktools

[stilly]

Would Microsoft allow this possible violation of their EULA? If not, then they might have windows setup blocked from this kind of action.

Maybe you are looking for the wrong information. Maybe you need to look at making a Windows 7 LIVE cd or DVD...

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-run-a-portable-version-of-windows-from-a-usb-dri-1565509124

http://www.bing.com/search?q=how+to+make+a+windows+7+live+usb&qs=n&form=QBRE&pq=how+to+make+a+windows+7+live+usb&sc=1-31&sp=-1&sk=&cvid=1376a7abd198474b839220a7cb5defb5&undefined=undefined

Good luck if you can do it. From the Lifehacker link, Windows 7 might be a PITA to do, but Windows 8 has no issues.

[jpballa]

UPDATE

Man, what a PITA it was and thanks for the links shotcaller.

So I was finally able to succeed with loading windows 7 onto my
500GB seagate external. usb hdd.

However, I am still having no luck running it on my lenovo windows 8
laptop. It boots up fine from my dell win 7 desktop, but when I try it on my laptop it gets to starting windows logo then the blue screen of death appears.

Not sure what the issue is. Seems to be some sort of compatibility issue.
I know win 8 uses UEFI, which I disabled and ran in it legacy, so who knows.

Any suggestions on what to try or how to fix it?
Or is it a lost cause.

[meno377]

UPDATE

Man, what a PITA it was and thanks for the links shotcaller.

So I was finally able to succeed with loading windows 7 onto my
500GB seagate external. usb hdd.

However, I am still having no luck running it on my lenovo windows 8
laptop. It boots up fine from my dell win 7 desktop, but when I try it on my laptop it gets to starting windows logo then the blue screen of death appears.

Not sure what the issue is. Seems to be some sort of compatibility issue.
I know win 8 uses UEFI, which I disabled and ran in it legacy, so who knows.

Any suggestions on what to try or how to fix it?
Or is it a lost cause.

If you installed it onto an external drive using your desktop, you're out of luck running it on your lenovo. The hardware abstraction layer won't match and that's why you're getting the BSOD. Whatever machine you want it to run on, you must use that machine to install it.

There are exceptions as doing multiple installs in a network environment, but that is too much to get into here.

Here is a Link to show you an example, but you would need an enterprise edition to perform this.

[shotcaller6]

Maybe this might work?

UPDATE

Man, what a PITA it was and thanks for the links shotcaller.

So I was finally able to succeed with loading windows 7 onto my
500GB seagate external. usb hdd.

However, I am still having no luck running it on my lenovo windows 8
laptop. It boots up fine from my dell win 7 desktop, but when I try it on my laptop it gets to starting windows logo then the blue screen of death appears.

Not sure what the issue is. Seems to be some sort of compatibility issue.
I know win 8 uses UEFI, which I disabled and ran in it legacy, so who knows.

Any suggestions on what to try or how to fix it?
Or is it a lost cause.

Booting from a different system

If you want to connect the USB drive to a different system, you may need to sysprep the drive - otherwise it may crash on boot and also could prevent it from booting on the original system again too (changes/corrupts boot files and registry)!

A Sysprep cmd file should be already present on the Windows Desktop, once the system has booted from the USB drive - if you right-click on this and Run as Administrator it will reset and shutdown the system. You can then boot the USB drive on a different system that has different hardware. This sysprep command should run from an administrator command prompt and uses the command: \Windows\System32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /shutdown

Once the computer shuts down, you can boot the USB drive on a different system which has different hardware. If you want to move it to another system again or back to the first system, don't forget to run Sysprep again before you move it!