USB to SATA

[sambat]

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

Thank you.I seen that previously and was hoping to avoid the required 1.7 GB download - but it may just have to be unless I can get another way.

[smrpix]

I think the overall point is clear -- there are several better and easier ways to accomplish his goals than the way he is insisting on accomplishing it.

Sambat, you may want to rethink your parameters and just get the job done.

Good Luck

[sambat]

I think the overall point is clear -- there are several better and easier ways to accomplish his goals than the way he is insisting on accomplishing it.

Sambat, you may want to rethink your parameters and just get the job done.

Good Luck

I shall make a mental note.
Parameters, eh?

[sambat]

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

Thank you.I seen that previously and was hoping to avoid the required 1.7 GB download - but it may just have to be unless I can get another way.

Doesn't work.
Note that apart from the huge download required fro the WAIK, there is also a dead link for the required setup files.
The author has 120 responses from users and has never responded to any of them - probably because half of them are from people who can't get it to work.
I got to the last step where I was required to "follow the usual Windows 7 installation procedure..." which you follow and it gets you to the point where it tells you that it can't install to an external USB drive.

[nic2k4]

Unless your eSATA setup supports hot swapping drives, you need to shut down the PC every time you want to disconnect/(re)connect a drive.

Install windows to the drive while it's connected to the MB. I know it was a bitch to get it in the case, that's what you get for re-using sealed cases (WD/Seagate).

Someone already suggested cloning a HDD with windows installed on it, to the USB drive. You will get a drive that won't boot through the BIOS boot menu, but GRUB2 (or some other boot loader) will let you boot it. This is advanced level stuff, but you are asking for a lot. Smrpix had good advice for you.

[sambat]

With the respect that I always extend to others, post # 1 spells out what I asked.
Neither esata or extracting drives was on the wish list.

Installing Windows while the drive is connected to the USB port is not on the cards - notwithstanding the link provided;that link and advice (which is cloned to varying degrees all over and purported to be a a way to "install Windows on an external drive" is not a method of installing Windows , it's a method of copying some files from a Windows installation disk to a hard drive and then crossing your fingers and hoping that the hard drive can boot and install Windows on a device that has no DVD drive to boot from).

If the whatsit/doodad/doohicky/dongle that costs practically nothing to fool Windows into thinking that an external drive connected to a sata/esata port on the motherboard is an internal drive doesn't exist, then I am content with that as the answer to my question.

Cheers, and God bless.

[nic2k4]

Here's the info on how to install Windows to an external USB HDD, the easy way or the hard way. It may be a bit late, but you know how it goes, when you need to find something badly it only appears when you stop looking for it (had the bookmark on a different PC).

[sambat]

Thanks for the response.
Re the 'easy way', aedipuss (#29) provided a link to a different source - same steps;it ended in tears in #34.
The 'hard way' is beyond my level of comprehension.

[nic2k4]

The link to the easy way brings you to the forum from the originator of the fast installer and its batch file. There you'll see a number of posts from people that couldn't get it to work and the help they received that finally got them going.