Hi need all the GURUs' help.

I'm using my company's laptop. Which run on Vista.

However I would like to install Windows XP and Server 2003 for my personal purposes...

So I was thinking ... if it's possible for me to install it on a External HDD. And when startup I can chose either to boot from which OS.

Anyone done this before?

Arigato first....

1. Plug in your external drive to your laptop.
2. turn on your pc and wait until windows finishes loading up.
3. Once windows is fully loaded up, Go to MY Computer and see if your pc detects the external hard drive under: E: or F: and remember the drive** make sure its not C: because thats your main hard drive!
4. when it located the hard drive, insert the Windows 2003 Disk into your CDROM Drive.
5. Start the Setup by double clicking on your D: drive.
6. Once the setup has began, It will ask you where to install the setup files. Make sure you choose the Removable drive destination: E: or F: which ever your computer detects as a removable hard drive.
7. when you pass through that, setup should resume and follow the steps to installation.

Have you tried before? It can boot????? I dun think it works...
By the way, i have tried install Windows XP in external harddisk and even pendirve...
But the windows i used to install have been modified...

i tried doing that too coz my laptop doesn't have a cd rom drive..but i cant seem to boot the setup from the external hard drive..do we need to copy the setup files to the external hard drive? trying to find a way to boot it from there

change the boot setting to usb(pendrive or whatever)

done it before, but my pc keeps boot from the main hard drive.

i dono but my latest new mobo can allow me to boot from external.
i change setting from the bios to DVD-External-External-External-External-LAN-HDD, make the HDD last option and then oso enable "Boot from Other External Devices"

---

Added on September 12, 2008, 9:34 amand also make sure the external is a proper OS bootable hard disk or thumbdrive - make sure MBR and all OS rootkits extensions are set to boot up.

This post has been edited by bendover: Sep 12 2008, 09:34 AM

it ain't that simple.

if u perform normal installation on USB devices, on boot win xp resets the USB bus, thus causing the (in)famous STOP 0x000007b "Inaccessible Boot Device" bluescreen error. u can try unplug your hard drive that has been installed with normal installation of xp from your drive bay, and then connect it to computer using USB to SATA / IDE cable to your USB slot. no matter how u set the bios setting, u'll get the same error. and some computer will just skip the error message and brings ou computer into endless boot cycle.

cut the story short, when booting through USB, that USB connection will get disconnected while on boot sequence. so u'll get the blue screen error message.

but yup, there r ways to boot it. mostly through custom installation on Windows (but downloading them is illegal). there are also methods on developing the installation by yourself but it's too complicated. some method need to use PE.

so it aint that easy.

When you start your workstation, go into the Master Selection, usually by pressing F10.

On the boob (depending on your BIOS GUI), you should be able to choose boot priority - USB, Hard Disk, CD-ROM

So, just choose USB, then Hard Disk.

Works for me because I also use Live CD OS.