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OS Installs on external drive...

S

Sullivan

New Member
I bought an external hard drive off Overclock.net and I was wondering if I would have issues running Windows7/Leopard off it. Or if its just like any hdd, as long as its formatted NTFS.

Thanks

And also, will I have issues running them on other pcs?
 
T

The Teej

Also know as The Tjalian
There shouldn't be an issue running an OS off of an external drive, no.
 
ilyace

ilyace

Member
Installing Windows on an external drive should give you no issues (i'll get to OS X later) as long as you set it as the first in the boot sequence in your bios (whether it be e-sata or usb(that would be pretty slow though)). As for OSX, there are many different issues you can come across when installing OSX86, mainly depending on your system specs. So basically we can't tell you if it's going to work right off the bat in OSX86 (most likely isn't).
 
Leecher

Leecher

New Member
Yeah. My good friend is running Windows off of his external drive, and he hasn't encountered any major issues that I know of.
 
twelve

twelve

I'm not dead
You'll come into issues running it on more than 1 PC unless all PC's you intend to run it on have the same motherboard, CPU, chipset, graphics card etc.

If you want a portable OS to run on multiple PCs your best bet is linux, it's not so driver reliant.
 
S

Sullivan

New Member
Ya I totally forgot about the drivers and stuff, but I will most likely use it only on one pc. Which is mine.
 
B

BlackBurd

Original Gangstuh
twelve said:
You'll come into issues running it on more than 1 PC unless all PC's you intend to run it on have the same motherboard, CPU, chipset, graphics card etc.

If you want a portable OS to run on multiple PCs your best bet is linux, it's not so driver reliant.
Click to expand...

generic drivers.
Like in bartpe disks.


to be honest i dont know how exactly those work but i do know ive been able to run bartpe on every pc ive come accross so far.

take the drivers from that and replace the ones yo have with them and it might work.


EDIT:never mind use this Install Windows XP From USB Full Software Downloads - Download For All
 
W

WillyVWade

New Member
B

BlackBurd

Original Gangstuh
WillyVWade said:
That link is for the opposite. He wants to boot to the desktop from the USB drive.
Click to expand...

sorry i posted the wrong link and now a cant find the one i ment to post. lemme look again.
 
Seth

Seth

MD Party Room
May I ask what would be the point?
 
LocutusEstBorg

LocutusEstBorg

Active Member
Windows won't install on a USB drive unless the BIOS completely abstracts it as a fixed HDD.

The installation will fail as soon as the setup's mini-kernel initializes the USB drivers. You need to make extensive modifications to the setup files to get it to work.
 
eldiablov

eldiablov

Contributor
Torch said:
The installation will fail as soon as the setup's mini-kernel initializes the USB drivers. You need to make extensive modifications to the setup files to get it to work.
Click to expand...

Not really extensive, just edit and repack a few files that's all ...
 
S

Sullivan

New Member
@Greyone: I am not trying to install from the external, I want to install to.

@torch, hey man, thanks for the input, I got to the install part and it said it wouldn't install, so I opened up the enclosure to find the sexy 2.5 inch 250gb drive, and then hooked it up with a sata cord and such and it works fine now. I just got to go buy a 2.5 inch usb/esata enclosure. Windows 7 is suhwheat!
 
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