How do I Install Windows XP Home onto an external harddrive?

[Dareshiranu]

Okay, it's not really an 'external' hard drive, but it's a laptop hard drive that is completely formatted(Travelstar from Hitachi). The hard drive belongs to a one Dell Latitude C400.

This model has no cd drive and can not read external drives from the bios. No NIC option either.

I'm using the SunBeamTech.com' USB TO IDE/SATA changer to plug the drive into my workbench computer. How do I go about putting Xp Home on here? I set the install path to G:\WINDOWS but got a cycle redundancy error, no biggie but the copy path said it was overwriting C:\ files!!

So I got scared and exited setup, because I'm not about to overwrite my main drive. So... how can I safely go about installing the OS onto the drive?

Thank you for any information! Google wasn't so helpful this time.. most people's replies were about booting from a usb, not installing the OS via usb.

 

[iisjman07]

off the top of my head, you could clean install xp to a pc with cdrom, then image the drive to the laptop drive.

 

[Blues]

You are going to have issues as it needs to be installed while plugged to the motherboard that it will run on. I would imagine there is an option to boot to something else maybe a USB flash drive. I have never seen a PC that had no boot option but local internal storage. Can you give us the model of the PC it will be running from?

 

[Dareshiranu]

The model number is PP03L. I'd rather not image or ghost it either. As I don't have a clean computer to do it with at the moment.

It does have the boot option for Internal Hard-Drive and that is all, no other boot options, but that's not the problem. The problem is, how do I install the OS onto the hard-drive? After that I'll just put it back into the Laptop and get the missing drivers, etc.

 

[JosephLeo]

Go about it like this.

• Step 1: Open computer case
• Step 2: Remove primary hard drive
• Step 3: Insert "external" hard drive
• Step 4: Run Windows XP installer
• Step 5: Remove "external hard drive"
• Step 6: Re-install primary hard drive
• Step 7: Close computer case
• Step 8: Enjoy!

You don't really have to remove the primary hard drive. But since you're scared about installing it onto the wrong drive I'd just remove it.

 

[Dareshiranu]

Only problem is, it's a laptop hard-drive and I'm using a desktop. Still possible?

Oh, the bios has Onboard NIC option..

RIS time.

 

[georgenoise]

Try this: http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/578/windows-xp-installing-from-harddrive/

I'm actually planning on doing this later today on a laptop that has a bum DVD drive and will not boot from USB. I'll try to document any differences I find.

 

[JosephLeo]

It's 100% possible.

If it's a SATA then there will be no need for adapters (Unless it's a mini-sata)
If it's a Laptop IDE then all you need is a Laptop IDE to Desktop IDE converter which is only $7.99 + Shipping from NewEgg

 

[Tweak]

Copying files to the drive like we once did with the cabs for Win98 and such is the most convient method to have it workout best, other methods tend to come with issues due to the intial load being of different hardware and resulting in BSOD problems. (not always but a majority of the time, using the above method just plain works!)

 

[Markus]

Try this: http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/578/windows-xp-installing-from-harddrive/

I'm actually planning on doing this later today on a laptop that has a bum DVD drive and will not boot from USB. I'll try to document any differences I find.

I have done this before on a few laptops, this is what I was going to suggest but you beat me to it.

 

[thor999]

Go about it like this.

• Step 1: Open computer case
• Step 2: Remove primary hard drive
• Step 3: Insert "external" hard drive
• Step 4: Run Windows XP installer
• Step 5: Remove "external hard drive"
• Step 6: Re-install primary hard drive
• Step 7: Close computer case
• Step 8: Enjoy!

You don't really have to remove the primary hard drive. But since you're scared about installing it onto the wrong drive I'd just remove it.

Awesome! Great post, and truly great advice. Hell, I do that even when flashing cd-roms and such.