windows Bootable Windows External HDD

[LordSherman]

I am in a pretty frustrating situation.  Let me start out by saying about 6-10 months ago I had my 1TB Seagate external hdd setup to be a bootable windows 7 drive (Think it was 7 could have been 10).  I had to wipe it as I needed the storage.  Fast forward to last night and today.  I want to set it back up to be able to be used as a bootable drive.  I have read that this is just not possible from posts on different forums from many years ago, which does not make sense to me as I had it working fine before.

 

I have tried using things like Rufus, PowerISO, Windows USB/DVD Download Tool.  I have taken a look at many many guides that just do not work.  The farthest I can get is the error message "setup does not support configuration of or installation to disks through a USB or IEEE 1394 port"  Which I have read is just Microsoft being Microsoft and locking down their OS cause they dont want users to have portable boot drives.  I have also tried many fixes and methods to try to get past this but I absolutely cannot figure out what to do.  I have tried formats like MBR and GPT and many other configurations.  I have tried to use diskpart to properly create a clean partition on my drive and still nothing.  

 

I am really at a loss here and would love if anyone can point me in the right direction.  My only needs really is it has to be Win 7 or Win 10 home or pro doesnt matter.  If you have any questions please ask really want to get this figured out.

[Light-Yagami]

Hmm.. Today's Windows will remember what components the system is running, so it can bind the license to it. And It's understandable it won't work through USB. It will work as a bootable drive from bios, I'm sure of that. If you plug the disc through the sata3 port, it should detect Windows executable in bios and you'll be able to start it. The only way I imagine it would work through USB port is if:

 

1. download windows installer (if it's still available) - put in on USB, (have the disc plugged in the MB sata3 slot), run PC to bios, run windows from USB, install it on the wanted disc, complete the installation. Then you should have a working windows on  the disc plugged into the MB. The only question is if you can then plug that disc out and plug into a USB port, starting the PC back into bios and selecting your disc as a 1st priority boot drive, if it even recognises it. Because I don't know if you can run Windows through a USB port due to bandwidth limit and shite... idk. Do I make sense?

 

by disc I mean HDD/SSD

[LordSherman]

2 hours ago, Light-Yagami said:

Hmm.. Today's Windows will remember what components the system is running, so it can bind the license to it. And It's understandable it won't work through USB. It will work as a bootable drive from bios, I'm sure of that. If you plug the disc through the sata3 port, it should detect Windows executable in bios and you'll be able to start it. The only way I imagine it would work through USB port is if:

 

1. download windows installer (if it's still available) - put in on USB, (have the disc plugged in the MB sata3 slot), run PC to bios, run windows from USB, install it on the wanted disc, complete the installation. Then you should have a working windows on  the disc plugged into the MB. The only question is if you can then plug that disc out and plug into a USB port, starting the PC back into bios and selecting your disc as a 1st priority boot drive, if it even recognises it. Because I don't know if you can run Windows through a USB port due to bandwidth limit and shite... idk. Do I make sense?

Im sorry but I am not to sure what you mean being bootable form BIOS.  Also not to familiar with what a sata3 port is.

[homeap5]

@LordSherman: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3185777/windows/how-to-install-windows-on-an-external-drive.html

Maybe this helps you to prepare bootable USB drive with Windows. Is not as easy as normal installation, but of course possible.

 

Next time if you need to format whole drive and want back your system later, just image your system usign Macrium Reflect and restore when needed - less problems and faster.

 

[LogicalDrm]

Only reason why this would have happened, might be that there's some odd size limit that Win installer can be "burnt" to. 1Tb is quite alot when most bootable USBs are 8-32gig.

[LordSherman]

Thanks for all the replies.  Although I had never run into the  "setup does not support configuration of or installation to disks through a USB or IEEE 1394 port"  error before when setting up my drive I thought it too be too much of a hassle so just got myself a new internal hard drive.  Cheap but big enough for what I need it for.