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Installing Windows 8 on external HDD - How to?

  • 12-04-2013 03:24PM
    #1
    thedeadp0et
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30 ✭


    Might be better suited to Computers & Technology but I'll see what response I get here first.

    I installed windows 8 on my laptops internal hard drive in January, but unfortunately the hard drive failed about a month ago.

    I recently purchased a 250GB external HDD with the intention of installing W8 onto it - formatted to NTFS, partitioned etc - but setup claims it no longer allows windows to be installed onto external media/drives.

    I've tried a few things - since I have an OEM copy of the W8 disk I copied all the files from the disk onto the HDD and booted into it to see if that would make a difference; alas no - it doesnt recognise anything on the disk.

    I spent 4 hours last night googling possible soloutions and kept running into something about 'bootsect' via command prompt, but command prompt continues to tell me bootsect is not reconised.

    REALLY need my system back up and running...is there any way around this?

    Thanks.


Comments

  • #2
    Fysh
    Moderators, Arts Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 11,203 Mod ✭✭✭✭Fysh


    Windows To Go is the supported way of doing this, but it's only available in Win 8 Enterprise. I wasn't aware of any MS-supported way of installing any version of Windows to an external hard drive (certainly I recall that trying to do so with XP on eg a USB drive meant tinkering with CAB files to change the point at which USB drivers were loaded, which is so far from legit that you wouldn't be able to spot it with the Hubble telescope).

    Edited to add: Unless your laptop and external drive are both using USB3, expect any such installation to be dog-slow and damn near unusable. I speak from experience testing Windows 8 To Go on a USB2 drive :(


  • #3
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 96,078 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Most laptops, with the exception of some of the early acer aspire netbooks, are easy to change the hard drives.

    Ask on the laptop forum , mention the make and model

    If the 250GB is a pocket sized 2.5" then there is a good chance it'll be a SATA and fit in the laptop.

    But check first the specs first.


    Windows is licensed per motherboard, and in the more restrictive OEM licenses it was licensed to just one partition on one hard drive on that mother board.

    This is nothing new, the last time you could install windows on a "removable drive" was with the early versions of Windows 95. The admin setup would allow you to install enough files on the boot drive and that then pulled files from other drives.


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