Trying to boot Windows 7 from external hard drive

jhamms66

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I'm currently using a Dell Inspiron 3520 laptop with Windows 8 on it. I have an external hard drive from a Windows 7 desktop. It recognizes the external hdd right away and I can access it but I can't figure out how to boot Windows 7 as the primary. I've tried changing boot order in bios but I've had no luck as it still boots Windows 8 first. Is there a way to use the Windows 7 as the primary drive or could someone teach me about dual booting? Even a way to temporarly turn off the Windows 8 hard drive will work. I just need to access the Windows 7 hard drive without having to navigate through program files to have to open something. Any ideas?
 
An external drive?

7 won't boot natively via usb if that is what you are trying.

It is possible ,with a couple of registry changes.

You would also need to add it as a boot menu entry.
 
I found how to boot windows 7 on a external hard drive by using a program called PWBoot.
Again, the name is PWBoot.
It took me ages to find a program like this.
All you have to do is install windows Vista or windows 7 by connecting the drive on ata or ide. Then after the installation is over, you boot into windows and install the program PWBoot. From that moment on, your hard drive will be able to boot from a USB. Sweet uh?
 
Yes, that makes the couple of reg changes for you.

Phil has been making that for a while.

Haven't looked at it recently - I just do it by hand
 
If you use a USB hard drive dock ($30), it will surely work without any third party application. And I would recommend USB 3.0 for faster transfer rate. I have it and it really works. It's actually made so that you won't have to open up your PC to switch hd. It will be recognized by the PC as an internal hd in the same level as C drive. I have the white Nexstar USB 3.0 dock.

Here: hard drive dock - Google Search
 
If I image internal hd to external hd, can I boot to external hd to copy back to new internal replacement hd

If you image your system, you can restore that image to the same system any time. However, you cannot 'boot' an image from an external drive. You have to first restore the image.
 
You wouldn't normally boot an image file itself directly.

Usually you boot a wim file which contains the recovery program. You then browse to the image file and apply it to the target partition.

That bootable wim can be on dvd or usb stick, or a hard drive. It can also be on the same drive as the image. So it is possible to do it that way too.
 
Hi there

Depends on what you used to create the backup image. In the case of say Acronis you can make BOOTABLE media - this means a bootable version of the program will be written to a USB device or a DVD/CD (usually user choice). You the BOOT the program which gives you a graphical system - follow the on screen instructions to restore the backup image to the computers internal HDD.

If you are REPLACING say an HDD on a laptop with an SSD - ensure that the OS is in it's own partition - usually the HDD is LARGER than an SSD - but a typical decent sized windows partition would easily fit into 60 GB -- plenty even for a 120 GB SSD. Use something like GPARTED to re-size the partition if the current one is too big. I'd always keep DATA and the OS+pgms separate.

Create the backup image - write it to another partition on the existing HDD or even to another external HDD. Plug in your new SSD to a USB port via a SATA==>USB connector -- if it's a SAMSUNG SSD you'll probably have one of these connectors thrown in with the drive - but they are cheap enough.

Restore your image to the SSD. Now open Laptop and swap HDD with the SSD -- usually very easy to change a laptop's HDD - even for the most hamfisted "engineer". No tools other than a Philips type screwdriver needed -- take the battery out first though usually.

I use something like Acronis for this but any decent backup program should work.

If you can use Linux then another FREE method would be to boot up the Linux system and run the DD command to copy the old HDD's partitions to the new one -- don't forget the Ms reserved system partition too if it exists -- whether you use Linux DD or an Imaging / Backup program you need to copy (and restore) the system partition as well as "C" if it exists.

Cheers
jimbo
 
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