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Installing windows 7 from a removable hard drive. Installing Windows on an external hard drive

Many of those who have experienced installing or reinstalling Windows systems know that in most cases external media such as USB drives are used to carry out this operation. If you try to start from the hard drive, the user will not get the desired result. Therefore, for Windows 7 installation with hard drive must be done using completely different methods. For an ordinary user, there are five main options, which will be discussed now.

Windows 7: install from hard drive. Installation Options

So, let's consider some directions in the installation of the seventh version of the system. The main options include the following:

installation over the old "seven";
installation as a second OS;
installation using the command line;
use of special utilities;
installing the system on an external HDD.

Each of these methods has its advantages and disadvantages, but for all of them one general rule is the presence of an image of the installation distribution kit of the system, with which you will later have to work. In addition, if the computer already has hard disk partitions created, you can leave them alone when installing Windows 7. IN otherwise they will need to be created. But more on that later.

Preliminary information

Now let's look at some initial conditions that must be observed when installing the system without fail.

The system requirements are such that a 32-bit system requires at least 16 GB of free disk space, and an x64 system needs about 20 GB. And this is on condition that there is already installed system, whose directory will be renamed to Windows.old after installation. In no case can you delete it manually (unless you do a disk cleanup). Then it will simply be impossible to roll back.

Installation over the old system

Using this technique, you immediately need to understand what to format HDD when installing Windows 7, it will not work, even if it is a system partition. But we will rely on the fact that the distribution is on the C drive when the partition is made. How to partition a disk will be discussed later.

As already clear, the downloaded distribution must first be placed on an independent partition (usually drive D). You can, of course, start the installation from it, but then errors will come out. Now we just choose installation file Setup.exe from the Archive directory, followed by the installation of Windows 7, which is no different from the standard procedure.

In this case, for Windows 7, installing from a hard drive is more of an update tool. system files, since the new configuration may inherit the errors of the old one. It is not comfortable.

Alternative method for installing Windows 7 as a second OS: what might be needed?

However, you can do otherwise. For, a method is provided for installing it not on top of an existing OS, but as an additional OS, which can then be loaded when selected from the boot menu (Boot). The main thing is to create boot partition in the original volume.

To carry out all operations, you only need to have an application that can work with images and create a utility that creates an MBR boot sector on the selected partition. Let's use Daemon Tools and EasyBCD as an example.

Section creation

Just like that, it is impossible to download the installation distribution kit, even if it is located on the system disk. This is due only to the fact that the system itself does not recognize it, and, if it does, it sets a ban on downloading. Here you need to turn to the disk management section, which can be accessed through computer administration.

Fortunately, Windows 7, like all subsequent versions, has such a tool. First, we look at the virtual partition D. We call the menu and select volume compression (the specified size should slightly exceed the size of the distribution kit). Next, right-click to call up the menu and use the create command simple volume(without this, the system will not determine that this section workable).

How to partition a hard drive when installing Windows 7 is understandable. Let's get to the most important part.

System installation

Now we are directly interested in installing Window 7. Hard disk systems are such that they still do not see the distribution.

We launch Daemon program Tools and mount the image using the appropriate command, specifying the path to the saved file. We copy it to the newly created partition (unpacked image file).

Now we launch the EasyBCD application and press the add entry button, after which we indicate the WinPE tab at the bottom, and then enter “New volume” in the name field, and in the path line we locate the boot.wim file.

After the entry is added, just restart your computer or laptop. At the same time, the standard installation of the "seven" starts.

Installing Windows 7 using the command line

Yet again, this option cannot be applied when initial system has damage or errors. But in case of recovery, it will do.

When Windows starts, press the F8 key ( standard method unlike Windows 10) and select the troubleshooting line from the menu (the first one in the list). In the additional parameters, we specify the same thing, after which we use what we need in the language selection window, and proceed to system recovery, where we select the command line.

We write two lines in the console:

X:\>windows\system32>E;
E:>setup.exe

Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Drive letters in DOS and Windows do not match. In extreme cases, an error will simply be thrown, after which the corresponding symbol will need to be corrected, but as a rule this is not required. Well, then the process starts, which is no different from the standard one. Note that in this case, you do not even need to reboot the system.

Installation on top of any system using the BOOTICE utility

Now let's say we want another installation of Windows 7. We have a formatted hard drive. The trick is to create a boot device as an HDD partition.

The BOOTICE utility was created in order to emulate the continuation of the Windows 7 installation, while creating and overwriting the boot sector (there is a bootmgr folder in the unpacked distribution for this).

To start the installation, you need to change the MBR boot entry to GRUB4DOS. But here you need to take into account one feature. The fact is that the utility requires the creation of a bootloader manager name of no more than five characters (letters).

Rename the bootmgr file to GRLDR, and then run the utility itself. Visible in the menu new entry, so we put a checkmark there (destination disk), and then click the change installation button and select save to disk in the configuration. It remains only to reboot the device, after which the installation of Windows 7 will be activated. Installation from the hard disk will follow immediately. As a rule, there should be no problems.

Installing Windows 7 on an external hard drive

But, despite all the nuances of installing the "seven" on a hard drive, some users try to install the system on removable media, in particular USB-HDD. What to say? This is fundamentally not true!

The question is: why create problems for yourself out of the blue? Booting from any USB device is much slower than from a hard drive. Myself external drive(hard drive) is subjected to a stronger physical impact and is not immune from failures and errors. However, "specially gifted" users will have to use (at least) virtual machine. And many of these "wunderkinds" have no idea what it is.

Of course, for the rest, we can say that any virtual emulation, for example, using WMWare or the same built-in Hyper-V module, can be done quite simply. But the thing automatic settings will not be limited. Here you will have to set the parameters corresponding to the system configuration. And absolutely wrong are all those who claim that with the operating system can be created in a couple of clicks and in five minutes. Nothing like this!

Possible errors and failures

Now the saddest thing. What to do if installation Issues of equipment failure are not considered fundamentally. The external hard drive must be enabled in the BIOS, as well as boot priority from the main device.

If there are problems with file system, you can always use a command like sfc /scannow or chkntfs x/c (if system disk Section C is selected. Well, if the hard drive "fell down", there's nothing to be done. Will have to change. Although ... Many experts advise first using a program that supposedly remagnetizes the surface of the disk, but this method is hard to believe.

On the other hand, when installing the system on an external drive without utilities like ImageX included with the package Windows AIK, not enough. In addition, the PWBoot module does not recognize Cyrillic characters at all, but works like a command line. So is it worth it?

And that is not all! When it comes to selecting multiple simultaneous installations, you will have to choose between the standard VHD container format and a regular removable device. The VHD format is thought to be faster to read, but the problem with enabling this type of media is precisely the use of BIOS settings. And when switching from BIOS to UEFI (which is not always supported), there can be much more problems. However, for Windows 7 installation can be done by any of the above methods. But formatting partitions in most cases will not work.

Thus, the conclusion suggests itself that the simplest is ideal solution. An ordinary user will not use specific methods with the creation of boot sectors. It's obvious. But the method of updating the system looks much simpler, but it also has its drawbacks. In general, it is better to make a "clean" installation, after copying necessary information to another medium.

No matter how difficult the installation of the OS is, and my opinion is that it is enough to be friends with the computer and have two more hands besides the head - one right and the other left. To install an OS on a computer, you need or.

But what if there is neither one nor the other, it does not work optical drive, or do you have a netbook? After a little thought, I remembered that I have an external usb-pocket for the HDD and a free old HDD 2.5ʺ is also there. In general, if there is a pocket hard drive, it can be made bootable accordingly.

For this purpose, there are utilities with which you can do this, but I decided to use the standard Windows tools.

There are a lot of descriptions and videos on the network, but, unfortunately, there is one problematic point that the authors for some reason omit. Well, okay, I'll start in order.

Preparing an external HDD

Before working with a disc, be sure to transfer and save the necessary information from this disc to another medium.

All settings will be made standard means Windows 8.1. There may be some differences from previous releases of Windows, but if there are, they are not significant.

First of all, I want to note that to make an external HDD bootable, more comfortable. I divided the disk into two partitions, one contains the Windows distribution, the other partition is for my needs.

1. Connect usb-pocket and go to Disk Management.

Attention! All data on the disk will be destroyed!

If you have Windows 8 installed on your PC,1 click right click mice: Start / Disk Management;

If Windows is over early versions, open the Computer Management console: Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / expand Storage Devices / left click Disk Management.

See screenshot:

2. Choose an external HDD disk. Be extremely careful, if you choose another disk by mistake, all information will be destroyed.

In my case, this is Disk 1. As you can see in the screenshot, the disk is divided into two volumes (partitions):

3. Delete disk partitions:

4. Create new disk partitions. One for the distribution, the second will remain for your needs:

Right-click on a free space on the disk context menu choose a team Create a simple volume:

5. In the New Simple Volume Wizard window that appears, click the button Further:

Specify the volume size of 4404 megabytes and click Next. Please note that the size is indicated in megabytes. And since 1 gigabyte is equal to 1024 megabytes, then 1024 × 4.3 = 4403.2 megabytes is obtained under the distribution section (the weight of mine is 4.18 GB for example);

In this dialog, you need to format the new partition (FAT 32), press Further then Ready:

6. After that, you need to make the created partition active. (don't forget, because the computer will boot from this partition), for this:

Right mouse click, select the command in the context menu Make section active.

To the request for confirmation, we answer YES.

External HDD looks like this:

7. In the same order, we format the second partition on the disk, preferably in NTFS, but do not make it active.

Copying Windows to the active partition of an external HDD

copying Windows distribution to a bootable external HDD is quite simple and easy.

From bootable DVD:

Open the installation DVD in Explorer, select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition of the external HDD;

From ISO image but:

By and large, an ISO image is a kind of archive. So you can open it with any archiver. You can also open the ISO image via Total Commander or DaemonTools. Well, if you have Windows 8 or 8.1 installed on your PC, then open it with Explorer. Select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition of the external HDD;

That's it, your external HDD can act as bootable media. Just reboot and set USB HDD as boot priority in BIOS (depending on BIOS type).

When you turn on your laptop, press F2, to ;
Go to tab Boot;
IN Boot priority order install USB HDD;
Click F10, and then OK.

If not, then check out the article.

Save your changes and get started.

As you can see from the text, preparing an external HDD for installing Windows is quite simple. And my description will not be complete if I do not talk about one problem, which for some reason is rarely written about on the net.

Making a hard disk partition active

When I divided the hard drive into two volumes, for some unknown reason, none of the disk partitions could be made active. This function was not available in the context menu.

The partition from which the computer boots is called active.

There are two ways to make a partition active:

Using the Computer Management console. We have already considered this method, but, unfortunately, for a number of reasons, the Make Partition Active command is not available. The solution to this problem is also not difficult. Remember how to prepare bootable flash drive from the command line.
Using the Command line, through the utility diskpart. The second way is a little more complicated, but more effective. You just need to do all the operations carefully and slowly.

Setting the active partition using the command line

1. Connect external USB HDD;

2. Click Start/All Programs/Accessories/ Command line . Press the right mouse button and select Run as administrator.

3. In the window that opens, write the command diskpart and press the button Enter. A prompt for working with the utility will appear - DISKPART>;

4. Enter command list disk and press the button Enter. You will see all disks installed on your computer;

5. Select the disk with which we will work. To do this, enter the command select disk 0, where "0" is the disk number in the list, i.e. for my external drive there will be a command select disk 1. Click the button Enter, the message Disk 1 selected;

6. Next, you need to find all partitions on the selected disk. Enter command list partition and press the button Enter.

7. Select the section with which we will work. We enter the command select partition 1, where 1 is the section number in the list, i.e. for the section that we make active. Click Enter, a message will appear Section 1 selected.

8. We mark the selected partition as active, to do this, enter the command active. Click the button Enter, a message will appear DiskPart: partition marked as active.

That's all. Good luck.

HDD preparation

You can do boot disk, install Windows 7, and then erase it and continue to use the HDD for your needs. Or to make it much more convenient:
If you do not feel sorry for 4 gigabytes of space on the External HDD, then the Disk can be cut into two parts, in our case I did just that, giving one part to the Windows 7 distribution kit, which will always be at hand.

Cutting and preparing HDD partitions

1. Go to:
Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management (disk management)
Find Disk 1 (if you have several hard drives, find the one that is equal to the size of your External HDD)

2. Choose our our External HDD drive:
- Right mouse click - Delete volume;
- Right mouse click - Create a simple volume;
In the window that appears, select the volume size of 4300 MB (Under the Distribution section), and click next,

In the next dialog, if necessary, select the drive letter, and click next. In the new dialog, you need to format our new partition (FAT 32), click next and you're done.

After that, you need to make the created partition active, for this:
- right click on the section - make the section active.
Now our External HDD looks like this:

By the same principle, we format the second partition on the disk, best of all in NTFS. but don't make it active.

Windows 7 copy

Copying a Windows distribution to a bootable drive has never been so easy.

If you have a DVD:
- Just open your installation DVD, select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition of your External HDD;

If you have an ISO image:
- Just open your installation ISO image via

I've given up on a DVD drive for over a year now, and the netbook trends seem to point to the right decision. But I was faced with the question of how to install the operating system without a DVD. The flash drive died out of place, and when I went to the store for a new one, an external Seagate drives Expansion, the 250Gb version of which cost literally 500 rubles more than an 8Gb flash drive (2323 rubles). And the size and all of which did not bother the jacket pocket much.

Dimensions: 141 x 18 x 80 mm
Weight:0.16kg

But as it turned out, installing Windows 7 from a USB HDD does not work in the same way as from a USB FLASH. Having understood and checked the performance, I share the information with you.
Works for both desktops, laptops and netbooks.

HDD preparation
Slicing and preparation of HDD partitions;
Windows 7 copy

HDD preparation

You can make a boot disk, install Windows 7, and then erase it and continue to use the HDD for your needs. Or to make it much more convenient:
If you do not feel sorry for 4 gigabytes of space on the External HDD, then the Disk can be cut into two parts, in our case I did just that, giving one part to the Windows 7 distribution kit, which will always be at hand.

Cutting and preparing HDD partitions

1. Go to:
Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management (disk management)
Find Disk 1 (if you have several hard drives in your system, find the one that is equal to the size of your External HDD)

2. Choose our our External HDD drive:
- Right mouse click - Delete volume;
- Right mouse click - Create a simple volume;
In the window that appears, select the volume size of 4300 MB (Under the Distribution section), and click next,

In the next dialog, if necessary, select the drive letter, and click next. In the new dialog, you need to format our new partition (FAT 32), click next and you're done.

After that, you need to make the created partition active, for this:
- right click on the section - make the section active.
Now our External HDD looks like this:

By the same principle, we format the second partition on the disk, best of all in NTFS. but don't make it active.

Windows 7 copy

Copying a Windows distribution to a bootable drive has never been so easy.

If you have a DVD:
- Simply open your installation DVD, select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition of your External HDD;

If you have an ISO image:
- Simply open your installation ISO image via Total Commander or Daemon Tools, select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition of your External HDD;

That's it, your External HDD is ready to act as Bootable media, just reboot, and in the BIOS Set as Primary boot device. specific External HDD, or just USB HDD, depending on the type of BIOS. Save the changes and start installing your Windows 7.

UPD: For cmd lovers(thanks )
diskpart

List disk
select disk no.
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32 quick