Solved Booting from external hard drive in VMWare Workstation?

jagwar · Dec 25, 2014

I have Windows 8.1 installed on an external hard drive. actually installed...like you would on an internal drive (http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/58616-wintousb-install-run-windows-usb-drive.html)
and I want to use it with my main PC without booting entirely from it... which is where VMWare comes into play.
So, want to boot from external drive containing Windows 8.1 using VMWare
Anyone know how?

jimbo45 · Dec 26, 2014

Hi there
AFAIK the only way to boot Windows from an external HDD is to either use a Windows to Go system (Enterprise) or create a bootable Linux system (these boot from external devices) and run a VM from the Linux.

I've done this many times on an external USB connected via a SATA==>USB connector on a laptop. I use an old Laptop HDD -- works fine. If you have a SATA==>USB3 connector even better or an external USB even better.

Here's a link about this I made a while ago.

http://www.eightforums.com/installa...make-portable-windows-system-any-version.html

This system will run TOTALLY from am external HDD even if there's NO internal HDD in the HOST computer. Other solutions like attaching Virtual HDD's are OK but this then NEEDS the initial boot from an internal HDD to mount the VHD. My method runs 100% from the external HDD.

Cheers
jimbo

jagwar · Dec 26, 2014

jimbo45 said:
Hi there
AFAIK the only way to boot Windows from an external HDD is to either use a Windows to Go system (Enterprise) or create a bootable Linux system (these boot from external devices) and run a VM from the Linux.

I've done this many times on an external USB connected via a SATA==>USB connector on a laptop. I use an old Laptop HDD -- works fine. If you have a SATA==>USB3 connector even better or an external USB even better.

Here's a link about this I made a while ago.

http://www.eightforums.com/installa...make-portable-windows-system-any-version.html

This system will run TOTALLY from am external HDD even if there's NO internal HDD in the HOST computer. Other solutions like attaching Virtual HDD's are OK but this then NEEDS the initial boot from an internal HDD to mount the VHD. My method runs 100% from the external HDD.

Cheers
jimbo

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/58616-wintousb-install-run-windows-usb-drive.html is my method of installing and using Windows on an external hard drive.

Here is a diagram showing what I want:

adamf · Dec 26, 2014

No you can't. You can run a VM as a VM but you need a host. You can boot from external drive (if you must) and then it would be the host.

You can not run two concurrent host OS on your hardware. If you think about it one has to be in charge and decide what window goes where.

To do what you want you would need to run one host OS and the other two as guests.

jagwar · Dec 26, 2014

adamf said:
No you can't. You can run a VM as a VM but you need a host. You can boot from external drive (if you must) and then it would be the host.

You can not run two concurrent host OS on your hardware. If you think about it one has to be in charge and decide what window goes where.

To do what you want you would need to run one host OS and the other two as guests.

cant say I understand completely but since its not a major issue i will end the thread.

Solved Booting from external hard drive in VMWare Workstation?

jagwar

Aircraft Enthusiast

My Computer

System One

jimbo45

New Member

My Computer

System One

jagwar

Aircraft Enthusiast

My Computer

System One

adamf

Banned

My Computer

System One

jagwar

Aircraft Enthusiast

My Computer

System One