Computer help forum: Can You Put an Operating System onto an External Hard Drive?

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Yes, but not XP.

by R. Proffitt - 12/26/06 3:18 PM

In Reply to: Can You Put an Operating System onto an External Hard Drive? by ramairmustang

Your topic question's answer is yes, but then you note XP. Microsoft doesn't supply XP in a form for you to run it from an external USB or Firewire or other type drive.

I will note that some one has heavily modified XP to do such (lookup BartPE) but decline to offer any further information on this dead end.

-> Linux will install and run happily on such a drive.

Bob

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Anything but Windows

by jackson dougless - 12/26/06 3:52 PM

In Reply to: Can You Put an Operating System onto an External Hard Drive? by ramairmustang

Windows is pretty much the only operating system that can't do this. Not because of any technical limitation, but because Microsoft has intentionally sabotaged Windows to prevent this. I do believe they sell a bootable Windows CD to a few select customers, which you and I would not be.

If you're looking for a sort of diagnostic/backup/repair sort of CD, try looking into the Knoppix Linux distribution. Most computer techs worth their salt probably have one in their collection, or something very similar at least.

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Where to get a copy of Linx

by ramairmustang - 12/26/06 4:25 PM

In Reply to: Anything but Windows by jackson dougless

Is there a site that I can goto to get this Linx OS?

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Pick your flavor.

by R. Proffitt - 12/26/06 4:31 PM

In Reply to: Where to get a copy of Linx by ramairmustang

http://distrowatch.com/ among other places has it on CD, there are numerous download sites.

Bob

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Going Crazy

by ramairmustang - 12/26/06 11:05 PM

In Reply to: Pick your flavor. by R. Proffitt

I am having a very hard time getting anything to work. I downloaded one iso and put it on disc and it looked like it was gonna work then when i clicked on the install choice it said theres an error on the disc. I cant figure out how to get it installed onto an external drive. Any idea's?

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Not an one.

by R. Proffitt - 12/27/06 8:00 AM

In Reply to: Going Crazy by ramairmustang

You might want to consider that I don't know which distro you tried. For instance when we boot up DSL (Damn Small Linux) there is an icon on the screen to install to USB or other drives.

But since each distro may not have the Easy Button... And you neglected which you tried, I can't offer any help.

Bob

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Damn Small

by ramairmustang - 12/28/06 12:16 AM

In Reply to: Not an one. by R. Proffitt

I downloaded that one how do I use it? Im not familiar with DSL OS's

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A good OS could be one you don't use.

by R. Proffitt - 12/28/06 5:48 AM

In Reply to: Damn Small by ramairmustang

At first that may sound cryptic but most people are interested in using the applications and not the OS. For example the Web Browser or maybe the file browser.

Fortunately both of this are similar to use.

To learn about an OS may take time, a class or a fine book if one doesn't hit web sites or maybe http://www.wikipedia.com

Bob

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Try KNOPPIX...

by Edward ODaniel - 12/28/06 2:17 PM

In Reply to: Going Crazy by ramairmustang

It isn't as small a download but you can discover how to use it (as well as a link to download it from) here:

Computer First Aid Using Knoppix
http://www.shockfamily.net/cedric/knoppix/

The above is complete with screenshots

A more complete user manual is available here if you decide to get more out of the OS:

The first guide to Knoppix for the complete beginner:
http://www.pjls16812.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/knowing-knoppix/index.html
You can either order the booklet or download it as Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Much of it applies to other distributions also.

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Can you put an operating system on an external hard drive

by jsjacksgirl - 8/4/11 8:54 PM

In Reply to: Can You Put an Operating System onto an External Hard Drive? by ramairmustang

I have been reading these threads and I have sucessfully installed xp on my external hard drive but in an unconventional way. I used partitionguru to make a clone of my current hard drive . You can't clone
the partition it won't boot. But if you clone the drive it will boot. There is one problem. Your external
hard drive has to be as large as the drive windows is installed on.
Believe it or not I got win7 to boot off of a usb 16gig. I used disk part to create a primary partition and then
then formatted and made it active. I used xcopy /s/e/f to copy the C and D drive to my usb.

The damn thing booted up and I almost fell out of my chair.

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