How can i install windows 7 on an external harddrive

[chrisps2576]

Hey, i do alot of stuff with my computer, and would like to know, how can i install windows 7/XP onto my external hard drive and partition it , could i install it on both partitions? because i want too, after installed, encrypt one with truecrypt and then use the other OS as a decoy if you understand me ? thank you,

PS. i dont know if this is the right place to ask but if its not, could someone move it for me please, thank you!

 

[airdeano]

it is possible to use an external drive for OS/application. only caveat is that the
connection of the drives is "mobile". meaning is subjected to flex, crush, and
degradation. so at anytime the "connection" could be dropped and phase any and
all information un-accessible. and using a true-crypt recovery could be impossible.
portable OS/appz disk has been around a long time. and many have
great success, others total failure. another scenario is multi-computer usage.
driver entanglement and cross-driver problems can occur using a "portible"
drive system.

I understand why, but if it is all above board, why?

 

[FredEx]

Hey, i do alot of stuff with my computer, and would like to know, how can i install windows 7/XP onto my external hard drive and partition it , could i install it on both partitions? because i want too, after installed, encrypt one with truecrypt and then use the other OS as a decoy if you understand me ? thank you,

PS. i dont know if this is the right place to ask but if its not, could someone move it for me please, thank you!

Google - Installing Windows to an external drive

There is a lot of info out there.

 

[chrisps2576]

I understand why, but if it is all above board, why?

it may not be 100% above board... haha

Google - Installing Windows to an external drive

There is a lot of info out there.

also , i looked on Google and what ever i went on was installing windows from an external device not too one . haha , thanks anyway ill keep looking

 

[alpenwasser]

Question: Have you tried it out yet? Might be the easiest route to first try to install the decoy and see what problems encounter; solve them first.
Afterwards, get busy with the TrueCrypt stuff, just make sure you have the needed partitions and space after the first install.

I haven't really done anything complex with Windows installs in a few years (been using Linux personally, installed Windows on a few family and friends machines), but with Linux it's usually pretty easy to do this (I've done it once out of curiosity), I would think it should not be that hard with Windows. In fact, pretty much any Linux installation disk/image is exactly this.

Are you intending to run the external drive via USB or eSATA? Because this can make a difference on Linux; when I tried it the USB variant was a lot more finicky to get to work; the O/S didn't like being just any normal peripheral device without some smooth talk first :lol:

 

[leathart123]

I would agree with @alpenwasser have a go at doing it.
Just one query though why not just get a normal hard drive instead of having an external one that could, if knocked, be disconnected from your computer

 

[SPS]

Seems like your reasons for wanting to do this may be a bit dodgy...

 

[alpenwasser]

Seems like your reasons for wanting to do this may be a bit dodgy...

Well, it could just be out of curiosity, as it was with me. I have reinstalled and scrapped systems just for the heck of it many, many times.

First time I installed FreeBSD on my Laptop I think I did it about 10 times in one afternoon just to see what I could improve each time, even though it was actually working properly on the second install (ZFS is awesome, btw :rock: ).

It was never said this was a critically important undertaking, and if you ever intend to deploy encryption in practice it's best to experiment around with it first anyway (he didn't say how much experience he had with it). So much stuff can go wrong there; screw up and either you just configured a giant security hole into your setup or locked yourself out of your precious data forever. Best to practice first, and practice well.

 

[chrisps2576]

yeah its abit of both, curiosity and abit of dodgy stuff haha! also its like a normal hard drive ofc, but i could just take it out of the case, and put it in my actual computer and install if from there if you think that could be easier?
thanks

 

[alpenwasser]

yeah its abit of both, curiosity and abit of dodgy stuff haha! also its like a normal hard drive ofc, but i could just take it out of the case, and put it in my actual computer and install if from there if you think that could be easier?
thanks

You mean:

• Mount disk normally via SATA
• Install OS
• Take disk out, run via external enclosure?

I actually tried that during my experiments, but the OS somehow expected to be run via SATA and I could not get it to run via USB.

It had something to do with SATA and USB protocol configurations that were done at install time and were not trivial at all to change later on (very deeply embedded in system config it appeared), I didn't fully understand it tbh. Just enough to work out it wasn't going to work without some serious hardcore old school OS hacking that was way above my skillset. Didn't have eSATA, so couldn't try that.

I don't know how finicky Windows is with this. If you have eSATA and can run it via that, I suspect this plan might work. If you install via SATA and then wish to run via USB, you can certainly try, but Linux won't tolerate that (at least not the last time I tried :lol: ).

 

[chrisps2576]

okay, i found a solution, i get my internal hard drive, then burn a copy of Ubuntu
on to it then install that to the external harddrive and it works fine, once youve done that you can partition the hard drive and encrypt the partition thanks anyway guys!

 

[alpenwasser]

okay, i found a solution, i get my internal hard drive, then burn a copy of Ubuntu
on to it then install that to the external harddrive and it works fine, once youve done that you can partition the hard drive and encrypt the partition thanks anyway guys!

Thanks for telling us how you did it. Too many people when finding the solution
to their problem don't bother mentioning how they did so. I might have to give
something like this a shot at some point; I'll have a few spare HDDs when I'm
done with my next build.

 

[FredEx]

okay, i found a solution, i get my internal hard drive, then burn a copy of Ubuntu
on to it then install that to the external harddrive and it works fine, once youve done that you can partition the hard drive and encrypt the partition thanks anyway guys!

With Ubuntu I have done that. I have it on a 16 GB mem stick. Much better than doing it to a CD and running Linux off of it, it will actually save things. Never thought to mention that since you said, Win.

 

[alpenwasser]

Much better than doing it to a CD and running Linux off of it, it will actually save things.

+1 for that! Also never thought that a live install could be the solution to this,
even though I've been a Linux user for a few years now :lol:

EDIT: Wooot! 500 posts :downit:

 

[chrisps2576]

yeah sorry , haha i did use a USB to install but yeah same thing haha and i have it all sorted now, just have too remember my truecrypt password haha!
thanks
and grats on 500posts, you on like 577 now though haha

 

[alpenwasser]

yeah sorry , haha i did use a USB to install but yeah same thing haha and i have it all sorted now, just have too remember my truecrypt password haha!

Yes, I would highly suggest that :lol:

and grats on 500posts, you on like 577 now though haha

Hehe, I have vacation at the moment, and since I still can't do a lot of sports
(see my build log for more explanations) there's not really that much to do besides
building on my rig and browsing the internet