Welcome guest. Before posting on our computer help forum, you must register. Click here it's easy and free.

Author Topic: Can you run laptops OS using an EXTERNAL hard drive as "replacement"  (Read 2847 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

suomyona

    Topic Starter


    Rookie

    • Experience: Familiar
    • OS: Other
    I was curious if say you want to replace laptops hard drive, is it possible to do this with an external hard drive like a goflex 1tb external? or is that only for cloning/backup

    Windows 10 OS
    dell inspiron 7737

    suomyona

      Topic Starter


      Rookie

      • Experience: Familiar
      • OS: Other
      Re: Can you run laptops OS using an EXTERNAL hard drive as "replacement"
      « Reply #1 on: September 25, 2016, 12:02:56 AM »
      BTW: I did order a replacement hard drive. This question is purely out of my curiosity while I wait.

      Salmon Trout

      • Guest
      Re: Can you run laptops OS using an EXTERNAL hard drive as "replacement"
      « Reply #2 on: September 25, 2016, 12:05:41 AM »
      Windows is designed to only run on an internal hard drive.

      Rustys



        Intermediate

      • Escaped Mental Patient
      • Thanked: 15
        • Yes
      • Experience: Experienced
      • OS: Linux variant
      Re: Can you run laptops OS using an EXTERNAL hard drive as "replacement"
      « Reply #3 on: September 25, 2016, 01:32:21 AM »
      Yes and No

      Yes you can run Linux from an external HDD it is very slow and really not worth doing.

      No for windows like Salmon Trout stated.

      Not all external HDD are SATA drives in a cage any more.  Even still if they were there is no guarantee that it would even fit properly.
      "Confucius could give answer to that... unfortunately Confucius not here at moment."

      Salmon Trout

      • Guest
      Re: Can you run laptops OS using an EXTERNAL hard drive as "replacement"
      « Reply #4 on: September 25, 2016, 01:50:54 AM »
      Not only is installing Windows on an external hard drive a crazy idea (USB channel is too slow) but also the Microsoft EULA does not allow it.

      Quote
      Device. In this agreement, “device” means a hardware system (whether physical or virtual) with an internal storage device capable of running the software. A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a device.

      It is possible to run "Live CD" versions of Linux and also Windows recovery CD images from a USB drive, but these get around the USB link problem by reading the whole disk image into memory first.



      Lorraine walsh



        Intermediate

      • A techie by nature!
      • Thanked: 4
        • Experience: Experienced
        • OS: Windows 8
        Re: Can you run laptops OS using an EXTERNAL hard drive as "replacement"
        « Reply #5 on: September 30, 2016, 05:08:46 AM »
        It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. At that point, the right thing to do is to simply replace the internal drive in that laptop.