widows 8 install on external hdd

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kmkrreeves1

Member
I want to install windows 8 (32 bit) on an external hdd, my laptop supports booting from an external hdd and my xp laptop doesn't have the specs to run it in a virtual machine.
I couldn't quite figure out how to install it on a usb hard drive, and i have files on the hard drive that i don't want to lose by formatting or anything. the drive is formatted in NTFS and my computer meets the minimum specs to run windows 8. I have downloaded the developers preview and burned it to a dvd please help me!!!
 
Why not install it as a virtual machine on the laptop then?

You have to format a drive in order to boot from it because it requires the necessary boot sectors at the beginning.

Or get the 32 bit version ;)
 
When you boot to the install DVD do you see the external drive in the list of available drives to install Windows on?
 
legalize-i was going to try to install on a virtual machine, but on my xp laptop i only have a gig of ram and don't want to upgrade just because of that (and i am using the 32 but verson) and the minimum is 1gig so the virtual machine can't run it (it can only give about 800mb)

danthrax-I was just annoyed, the last three or four things i've posted no one has answered

voyagerfan99-it sees the drive but it says the installation can't be done on a usb drive when i try to select it, and its a 160gb NTFS so there is plenty of space
 
kmkrreeves1 said:
voyagerfan99-it sees the drive but it says the installation can't be done on a usb drive when i try to select it, and its a 160gb NTFS so there is plenty of space
Click to expand...

If it says it can't be done then it can't be done. Usually OS' don't like to run off external HDD's.
 
You can't it's just not possible. It would run far too slow because USB has very poor BUS speed.

An alternative would be to shrink the partition you have XP installed on (creating unused space on your internal HDD) and then install Windows 8 there. It would be a dual-boot.

Don't know why I didn't think of that earlier.
 
I swear the original post was edited! My answer makes no sense re-reading it now, I suggested absolutely everything that was mentioned in the OP, wtf?

Anyhow Voyager pretty much summed up the USB installation issue, WAY too slow.
 
heres a question if anyone's still following: I realized that my usb hdd was just an adapter and a standard sata 2.5 inch drive. If i took it out of the enclosure and put it in the computer, installed windows 8, put it back in the usb enclosure, do you think it would boot?

what about linux?
 
kmkrreeves1 said:
heres a question if anyone's still following: I realized that my usb hdd was just an adapter and a standard sata 2.5 inch drive. If i took it out of the enclosure and put it in the computer, installed windows 8, put it back in the usb enclosure, do you think it would boot?

what about linux?
Click to expand...

most likely, but will it be functional? I dont know,might be to slow.
 
It will be to slow, it may be worth while if USB 3.0 HDD on a USB 3.0 compatible laptop but even then only worth while on a HDD that requires a power source because USB powered HDD do not have the same rpm or cache as a internal HDD there fore worthless.

Install the OS of your choice and do a virtual machine.
 
here's a question - I realized the usb hdd I have is just a 2.5 sata hdd with an adapter in an enclosure. If i put the hdd in the laptop, installed windows 8, and put it back in the usb enclosure, do you think it would work? (I'm gonna try regardless)
 
(if you take the hdd out of the enclosure put it in the laptop, install windows 8, put the hdd's back, boot off the usb it starts to work then restarts after about 30 seconds-fail)
 
ok i'm sorry about all the odd posts and weird timing and repeats of my posts, I'm not sure whats happening but it doesn't show half of the posts sometimes (including mine)

voyager-thanks I wish i would have seen your post earlier, but for whatever reason the computer thought i didn't need to, anyway, I knew you could do the dual boot, but I need all the space on my hdd because I occasionally transfer old vhs home videos to dvd which uses a ton of hdd space and takes for ever to transfer to usb. And i played around with linux dual boot and it worked great, until first reboot then the linux was inaccessible and wasting 20gb on my hdd.

legalize-I completely believe you (just look at all my crazy posts)

everyone-It does just appear to be too slow for it to even boot up completely. I'll just play with it a couple times and put it away. and i can't do much with a virtual machine because my laptop only has 1gb of ram, which translates to about 700mb for a VM.
 
kmkrreeves1 said:
ok i'm sorry about all the odd posts and weird timing and repeats of my posts, I'm not sure whats happening but it doesn't show half of the posts sometimes (including mine)

voyager-thanks I wish i would have seen your post earlier, but for whatever reason the computer thought i didn't need to, anyway, I knew you could do the dual boot, but I need all the space on my hdd because I occasionally transfer old vhs home videos to dvd which uses a ton of hdd space and takes for ever to transfer to usb. And i played around with linux dual boot and it worked great, until first reboot then the linux was inaccessible and wasting 20gb on my hdd.

legalize-I completely believe you (just look at all my crazy posts)

everyone-It does just appear to be too slow for it to even boot up completely. I'll just play with it a couple times and put it away. and i can't do much with a virtual machine because my laptop only has 1gb of ram, which translates to about 700mb for a VM.
Click to expand...

Dual boot your Linux OS of choice.
 
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