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Installing windows 7 with hdd. Install OS from hard drive. How to install Windows directly from a hard drive using different methods? Possible errors and failures

Many users who have encountered installing Windows operating systems know that external media such as USB drives or optical drives are usually used to perform this operation. If you try to run the installation file with hard drive, the user may not get the desired result. For this reason, for the operating room Windows systems 7 Installation from a hard drive must be performed using other techniques. There are five main options for the average user. We will talk about them now.

Installing Windows 7 from a hard drive: options

Let's look at some directions in installing the seventh version operating system Windows. The main installation options include the following:

  • installation on top old Windows 7;
  • installation as a second operating system;
  • installation using the command line;
  • use of special utilities;
  • installing the system on an external hard drive.

Each of the methods listed above has its own advantages and disadvantages. However general rule For all the described methods, it is necessary to have an image of the installation distribution of the system, which you will have to work with later. If there are already created sections of hard disk, then you can leave them alone when installing Windows 7. Otherwise, you will need to create them. However, this will be discussed a little later.

Installing Windows 7 OS from a hard drive: preliminary information

Let's look at some initial conditions that must be met when installing the system. The system requirements of Windows 7 are such that to install the 32-bit version you will need less than 16 GB of free disk space. To install the 64-bit version you will need about 20 GB. This is provided that there is already installed system, the directory of which will be renamed to Windows old after installation. Under no circumstances should it be removed manually. It will simply be impossible to roll back later.

Installation over an old operating system

Using this technique, you should immediately understand that when installing Windows 7, you will not be able to format your hard drive, even if it is a system partition. But let's rely on the fact that the distribution is on the C drive when the partitioning is done. Later we will talk about how to partition the disk. As should be clear by now, the downloaded partition must first be placed in an independent partition. As a rule, this is drive D. Of course, you can start the installation from there, but then errors may appear. Now you just need to select the installation file Setup.exe from the Archive directory. This is followed by the installation of Windows 7, which is no different from the standard procedure. For Windows 7, in this case, installation from the hard drive is more likely an update tool system files, since the new configuration may inherit errors from the old one. It's not very convenient.

Installing Windows 7 as a second operating system: what you may need

You can choose another option for the development of events. To install the system, there is a way to install it not on top of the existing operating system, but as an additional OS, which can then be loaded when choosing from Boot menu. In this case, the main thing is to create a boot partition on the source volume. To perform such operations, it is enough to have only one application capable of working with images and creating virtual drives, as well as a utility that creates an MBR boot sector on the selected partition. For example, we will use DaemonTools and EasyBCD.

Installing Windows 7: how to create a partition?

It may be impossible to simply download the installation distribution, even if it is located on the system disk. This is due to the fact that the system itself does not recognize it, and even if it does recognize it, it will prohibit downloading. Here you should refer to the disk management section. You can access it through the computer administration panel. The Windows 7 operating system, like all subsequent versions, has this tool. First, you need to look at the virtual partition D. At this stage, you need to call up the menu and select volume compression. You need to specify a size that is slightly larger than the size of the distribution. After that, use the right mouse click to call up the menu and use the create command simple volume. Without this, the system will not determine that this section is operational. Now it should be clear how to partition a hard drive when installing the Windows 7 operating system. You can proceed to the most important part.

Installing Windows 7

Let's deal directly with the installation of Windows 7 itself. Hard systems disks are designed in such a way that they do not see the distribution. You need to run the program Daemon Tools and mount the image using the appropriate command, specifying the path to the saved file. You need to copy it to the newly created partition. Then launch the Easy BCD application and click on the add entry button. After that, indicate the Win PE tab at the bottom. In the name field enter “New Volume”. In the path line you need to locate the boot.wim file. When the entry is added, all that remains is to restart the laptop or computer. At the same time it will begin standard installation Windows 7.

Installing Windows 7 using the command line

This option may not apply if the initial system has errors or corruption. However, in case of restoration it is suitable. When Windows starts, you need to press the F8 key and select the troubleshooting line from the menu. She will be first on the list. IN additional parameters the same must be specified. After that, we use what we need in the language selection window. Let's move on to system recovery. In this case, you need to select the command line. You must enter two commands in the line: X:\>windows\system32>E; E>setup.exe. Don't be afraid to make a mistake. In Windows and DOS, the drive letters do not match. The system may throw an error and you will need to correct the corresponding symbol, but this is usually not necessary. Then the process starts, which is practically no different from the standard one. It is worth noting that in this case you do not even need to reboot the system.

Installing Windows 7 over any system using the BOOTICE utility

Now suppose we need a different type Windows installations 7. You already have a formatted hard drive. The problem is that you need to create a boot device in the form of a HDD partition. The BOOTICE utility is designed specifically to emulate the continuation of the installation of the Windows 7 operating system, while creating and overwriting the boot sector. For this purpose, the unpacked distribution contains the bootmgr folder. First of all, you need to change the boot MBR entry on GRUB4DOS. However, there is one thing to consider here. The problem is that the utility requires you to create a bootloader name of no more than five characters. You need to rename the bootmgr file to GRLDR, and then run the utility itself. It will be immediately visible in the menu here new entry. Therefore, you need to check the box, and then click on the button to change the setting. In the configuration you need to select saving to disk. Now all that remains is to reboot the device. After this, the installation of Windows 7 will be activated. Installation from the hard drive will immediately follow. As a rule, problems do not arise at this stage.

Installing the Windows 7 operating system on an external hard drive

Despite all the features of installing Windows 7 on a hard drive, some users try to install the system on removable media, such as USB-HDD. It is worth saying that such a decision is fundamentally wrong. A completely logical question arises: why create unnecessary problems for yourself? Booting from any USB device is much slower than booting from a hard drive. The external drive itself is more susceptible to physical impacts. It is not immune to errors and failures. "Particularly gifted" users will have to use virtual machine. Many of them have no idea what it is. For the rest, we can say that using the built-in Hyper-V or WMWare module it can be done very simply. However, the matter does not stop here automatic settings. You will have to set parameters that match the system configuration. Those who claim that you can create a virtual machine with an operating system installed in it in just a few minutes and a couple of mouse clicks are completely wrong. None of this is true.

Possible failures and errors

Now let's talk about the saddest part. Let's assume that when installing Windows 7, the hard drive is not visible. As a matter of principle, we will not consider issues of equipment failure. The external hard drive must be enabled in the BIOS, as well as boot priority from the main device. If you encounter problems with the file system, you can use the sfc /scannow or chkntfsx /c command. If the hard drive has, as they say, “crumbled,” then there is nothing you can do here. We'll have to change it. Although many experts recommend trying HDD program Regenerator. Some claim that this utility remagnetizes the surface of the disk, but this method is hard to believe. On the other hand, without utilities like ImageX when installing the system on external storage not enough. The PW Boot module does not recognize Cyrillic characters at all; it works on the command line principle. Is it worth doing? And that's not all... When you start selecting multiple simultaneous installations, you have to choose between a regular removable device and a standard VHD container format. It is believed that the VHD format is read much faster, but the problem with including this type of media lies precisely in the use BIOS settings. When switching from BIOS to UEFI, there can be many more problems. However, for Windows 7, installation can be done using any of the methods listed above. However, in most cases it will not be possible to format partitions. Thus, we can make a completely logical conclusion that this simplest solution is ideal. It is unlikely that the average user will use specific methods to create boot sectors. This is already clear. The system update method looks much simpler, but it also has its drawbacks. In general, it is better to perform a “clean” installation, first copying all necessary information to removable media.

03.02.2009 02:26

Windows 7 can be installed in two ways:

  • The so-called “clean installation”, when the operating system is installed on a formatted hard drive partition;
  • Installation in the form of an upgrade to Windows 7 from an earlier version of Windows (for example, Vista) that is already installed on the computer.

Today we will look at the first option - “Clean Installation”.

If this is your first time installing Windows yourself, print this article before you begin the installation.

1. Turn on your computer and boot menu(or in the BIOS - section Boot Device Priority) designate your DVD-ROM as the boot device.

  • If you changed the boot sequence in the BIOS, press F10 to save the changes and restart the computer. Don't forget to return everything BIOS changes after Windows 7 installation is complete.

2. Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD into the DVD-ROM.

3. When the message appears on your monitor Press any key to boot from CD/DVD.., press any key to start installation.

4. Wait until the Windows 7 setup program loads, select the installation language, input language and Windows interface language.

5. Click .

6. On the next page, read the License Agreement and click “I accept the license terms” to continue installing Windows 7.

7. On the “Type of installation” page, you need to select “Custom”.

8. On the next page you need to select an existing hard drive partition or create a new partition on which Windows 7 will be installed.

  • Installing Windows 7 on a partitioned hard drive

If your hard drive is partitioned (that is, it contains logical drives, also called partitions), then proceed to step 9 of this guide.

If your hard drive has, for example, two partitions, and one of them has more than early version Windows (for example, you have XP installed on drive C), then select another partition (for example, D) and press Next(Further). Please note that the hard drive partition on which you want to install Windows 7 must have enough free space to install this operating system.

If you want to install Windows 7 on a partition where Windows 7 or another is already installed Windows version, then all files and folders of the previously installed operating system will be moved to the folder Windows.old, after which the previously installed operating system will never work again, but you will be able to access its files or simply delete them along with the Windows.old folder.

If you want to create, delete or format a hard drive partition, select the required action from the menu.

Using the Drive options interface you can:

  • Create partitions on your hard drive, specifying the size of each of them;
  • Delete hard drive partitions;
  • Format existing or newly created partitions.

Please note that Windows 7 Setup only performs a quick format and cannot fully format a partition or hard drive. Therefore, if you have created a partition but have not yet formatted it, we recommend that you do a full format at least the first time.

  • Installing Windows 7 on an unpartitioned hard drive

If your hard drive is unpartitioned (that is, it does not contain logical drives and appears as an unallocated area), then you can create partitions using the menu Drive options Windows 7 installer.

To create a new partition on an unpartitioned hard drive, click the button New. After this the message will appear:

(To guarantee correct work everyone Windows functions, the installer may create additional partitions for system files). If you press OK, then Windows 7 Setup will create a 200 megabyte boot partition. However, creating this section is optional.

Notes.

  • During the process of formatting the partition, all data stored on it will be destroyed.
  • Deleting a partition will result in complete removal all data stored on this partition.

9. After completing all necessary actions with hard drive, press Next(Next) to begin installing Windows 7.

During the installation of Windows 7, the computer will restart several times, and the monitor screen may go dark for a short time (no more than a few seconds).

10. Once the files have been copied, the Windows 7 setup program will configure the video card settings, test the computer hardware, and start the services necessary for the operating system to function. Depending on the power of the hardware, the process of checking the equipment and setting up the video adapter may take several minutes.

11. After completing hardware settings and starting services, Windows 7 Setup will ask you to enter a username to create account administrator and computer name. After filling in the required fields, click Next(Further).

12. The next window will ask you to enter the password for your administrator account. You need to enter a password in the top field, a confirmation password in the middle field, and a hint in the bottom field in case you forget your password. If you want to use an unsafe, but more quick login in Windows 7 without a password, leave the fields blank and click Next(Next) to proceed to the next installation step.

13. The next window will ask you to enter your 25-digit product key. To skip this step, click Next(Further). You will be able to enter your product key for 30 days after you install Windows 7. After you enter your product key, you must Windows activation 7, otherwise the operating system will be blocked.

When you enter your product key, you do not need to enter hyphens; they are inserted automatically.

14. Next Windows window 7 will prompt you to set security settings, or automatically accept the recommended settings. In particular, it will be proposed to include automatic updates Windows 7 (makes sense if you have an Internet connection), configure security settings Internet browser Explorer. To skip this installation step and configure these settings later, choose the third option: Ask me later.

15. After saving your security settings, you can change the time and time zone settings, and enable or disable the Automatically adjust clock for Daylight Saving Time feature.

16. In the last window of the Windows 7 setup program, you can configure the network security level. If you don't plan to create home network(Home network) or enterprise network (Work network), then install Public network ( public network) for all networks. Otherwise, select the desired option and follow the instructions.

Windows 7 installation typically takes about 20 minutes to half an hour on computers that meet the recommended system requirements Windows 7. If your computer hardware meets the recommended system requirements, but the Windows 7 installation process takes you an hour, an hour and a half, or more, then you need to check the integrity of the installation Windows disk 7 and check the integrity of the hard drive, otherwise the installed operating system may not work correctly.


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Comments (18) to “Clean install Windows 7”

I wanted to consult on installing w7 - I have two hard drives. Can I disconnect the xp disk, install w7 on the second disk, and then connect the first disk. The systems will work correctly (naturally, I will change the boot through the BIOS. And secondly, do I need to run upgrade.

Can I ask a question not related to w7?

After installing w7, XP does not start for me! More precisely, it is not even provided in the OS selection!
Installed two Windows on one hard drive! Help with the problem

Alexander, if you installed Windows 7 on the same partition where Windows XP was installed, then all XP files and folders during the installation of Windows 7 were moved to the Windows.old folder and you will no longer be able to use XP.

If you installed Windows 7 on the same physical disk, but in a different section, then adjust by setting the display time of the system selection menu.

During a “clean” installation on a hard disk partition, the installer displays the message “The computer’s boot configuration could not be updated. Installation cannot continue."
Although Vista can be easily installed on the same disk.
The same error appears when installing Vista to Windows 7 in upgrade mode.

To make it clearer, I have WINDOWS XP and I want to install WINDOWS7 on the same disk without formatting so that the data is not lost.

Sergey, Windows 7 needs to be installed on another physical or logical drive. If you install Windows 7 on the same physical or logical drive where another OS (even Windows 7) is already installed, then all folders and files previously installed Windows During the installation process, Windows 7 will be moved to the Windows.old folder and you will no longer be able to use this OS. The data will not be lost - you can get it from the Windows.old folder.

“Please note that Windows 7 Setup only performs a quick format and cannot fully format a partition or hard drive. Thus, if you have created a partition, but have not yet formatted it, we recommend that you do a full format at least the first time” - Could you tell us in more detail what's what? Is it necessary to perform a full format at all?? (and how to do this if win 7 only performs quick formatting?)

I have two hard drives divided into 2 and 3 partitions, respectively; when installing Win 7, one partition from the hard drive is lost, so physical. disk on which windows is not installed. And I tried to bet on one physical. hard drive or another, in any case, one partition is lost. Is there any way to overcome this?

During the “Clean Installation” I formatted the partition of the hard drive on which I am going to install Windows 7 (there is already 219Gb of free space), I select this partition and click “Next”, to which they answer me: “The installation program was unable to install on the existing system partition due to - for lack of free space.” Can you help?

Nick, Windows 7 Setup only performs a quick format. Format your drive using Windows XP Setup (select full formatting). And after that, try installing Windows 7. If it doesn’t work, then register on our forum and tell us in detail what you did and how.

I have this problem after installing Windows 7. I couldn’t use the Internet. the modem is connected and Can't access the Internet. My modem is INTERCROSS IDxDSL 5633E, but I can log in to XP without any problems after installation. Why?

Try looking for a driver for Windows 7 on the modem manufacturer's website. Also look for setup instructions for Vista or Windows 7.

Is it possible to install w7 on a hard drive with XP, then register the moved windows.old in boot.ini to be able to boot from XP?

No. Only one Windows should be installed on one partition.

It is possible to restore a system moved to Windows.old, but not in the way you write, but much more difficult. However, restored Windows will no longer work the same as before.

Many of those who have encountered the installation or re-installation of Windows systems know that in most cases external media such as USB drives are used to carry out this operation. If you try to run from a hard drive, the user will not get the desired result. Therefore, for Windows 7, installation from a hard drive must be done using completely different techniques. For the average user, there are five main options, which we will now discuss.

Windows 7: installation from hard drive. Installation options

So, let's look at some directions in installing the seventh version of the system. Among the main options are the following:

  • installation on top of the old “seven”;
  • installation as a second OS;
  • installation using the command line;
  • use of special utilities;
  • installing the system on an external HDD.

Each of these methods has its own advantages and disadvantages, but for all of them one common rule is the presence of an image of the installation distribution of the system, which you will subsequently have to work with. In addition, if your computer already has hard drive partitions created, you can leave them alone when installing Windows 7. Otherwise they will need to be created. But more on that later.

Preliminary information

Now let's look at some initial conditions that must be met when installing the system.

The system requirements are such that a system with 32-bit architecture requires at least 16 GB of free disk space, and for an x64 system - about 20 GB. And this is provided that there is an already installed system, the directory of which will be renamed to Windows.old after installation. Under no circumstances should you delete it manually (unless you do a disk cleanup). Then it will simply be impossible to roll back.

Installation over the old system

Using this technique, you immediately need to understand that formatting your hard drive when installing Windows 7 will not work, even if it is a system partition. But we will rely on the fact that the distribution is on drive C when the partition is done. How to partition the disk will be discussed later.

As is already clear, the downloaded distribution must first be placed on an independent partition (usually drive D). You can, of course, start the installation from there, but then errors will appear. Now we simply select the installation file Setup.exe from the Archive directory, after which the installation of Windows 7 follows, no different from the standard procedure.

In this case, for Windows 7, installing from a hard drive is more of a means of updating system files, since the new configuration may inherit errors from the old one. It is not comfortable.

Alternative method for installing Windows 7 as a second OS: what might you need?

However, you can do it differently. There is a way to install it not on top of the existing OS, but as an additional OS, which can then be loaded when selected from the boot menu. The main thing is to create a boot partition on the source volume.

To carry out all operations, you only need to have an application that can work with images and create a utility that creates an MBR boot sector on the selected partition. As an example, we use Daemon Tools and the EasyBCD program.

Creating a section

It may be impossible to simply download the installation distribution, even if it is located on the system disk. This is only due to the fact that the system itself does not recognize it, and if it sees it, it sets a ban on downloading. Here you need to go to the disk management section, which can be accessed through computer administration.

Fortunately, Windows 7, like all subsequent versions, has such a tool. First, we look at virtual partition D. Call up the menu and select volume compression (the specified size should slightly exceed the volume of the distribution). Next, right-click to open the menu and use the command to create a simple volume (without this, the system will not determine that this partition is operational).

It’s clear how to partition a hard drive when installing Windows 7. Let's get to the most important part.

System installation

Now we are directly interested in installing Window 7. The hard drive systems are such that they still do not see the distribution.

We launch the Daemon Tools program and mount the image using the appropriate command, specifying the path to the saved file. We copy it to the newly created partition (unpacked image file).

Now we launch the EasyBCD application and click the add entry button, after which we indicate the WinPE tab at the bottom, and then enter “New Volume” in the name field, and in the path line we determine the location of the boot.wim file.

After the entry is added, simply restart the computer or laptop. At the same time, the standard installation of the “seven” starts.

Installing Windows 7 using the command line

Again, this option cannot be used when the initial system is damaged or buggy. But in case of restoration it will do.

When Windows starts, press the F8 key ( standard method unlike Windows 10) and select the troubleshooting line from the menu (first in the list). In the additional parameters we indicate the same thing, after which we use what we need in the language selection window and proceed to system recovery, where we select the command line.

We write two lines in the console:

  • X:\>windows\system32>E;
  • E:>setup.exe

Don't be afraid to make mistakes. The drive letters in DOS and Windows do not match. In extreme cases, it will simply throw an error, after which you will need to correct the corresponding symbol, but, as a rule, this is not required. Well, then the process begins, no different from the standard one. Please note that in this case there is no need to even reboot the system.

Installation on top of any system using the BOOTICE utility

Now let's say we want another installation of Windows 7. We have a formatted hard drive. The catch is to create a boot device in the form of a HDD partition.

The BOOTICE utility is designed to emulate the continuation of the installation of Windows 7, creating and overwriting the boot sector (for this purpose, there is a bootmgr folder in the unpacked distribution).

To begin installation, you need to change the MBR boot record to GRUB4DOS. But here you need to take into account one feature. The fact is that the utility requires creating a bootloader manager name of no more than five characters (letters).

Rename the bootmgr file to GRLDR, and then launch the utility itself. A new entry is immediately visible in the menu, so put a checkmark there (destination disk), and then press the change installation button and select saving to disk in the configuration. All that remains is to reboot the device, after which it will be activated Windows installation 7. Installation from your hard drive will follow immediately. As a rule, there should be no problems.

Installing Windows 7 on an external hard drive

But, despite all the nuances of installing the “seven” on a hard drive, some users try to install the system on removable media, in particular USB-HDD. What to say? This is fundamentally wrong!

The question arises: why create problems for yourself out of the blue? Booting from any USB device is much slower than from a hard drive. The external drive itself (hard drive) is subject to stronger physical impact and is not immune to failures and errors. However, “especially gifted” users will have to use (at a minimum) a virtual machine. And many of these “prodigies” have no idea what it is.

Of course, for the rest we can say that any virtual emulation, for example, using WMWare or the same built-in Hyper-V module can be done quite simply. But the matter will not be limited to automatic settings. Here you will have to set the parameters corresponding to the system configuration. And all those who claim that with the operating system installed in it can be created in a couple of clicks and in five minutes are absolutely wrong. Nothing like this!

Possible errors and failures

Now the saddest part. What to do if installation Issues of equipment failure are not considered as a matter of principle. The external hard drive must be enabled in the BIOS, as well as boot priority from the main device.

If you have problems with the file system, you can always use a command like sfc /scannow or chkntfs x/ c (if partition C is selected as the system drive). Well, if the hard drive “crumbles”, there’s nothing you can do about it. We'll have to change it. Although... Many experts advise first using a program that supposedly reverses the magnetization of the disk surface, but this method is hard to believe.

On the other hand, when installing the system on an external drive without utilities like ImageX, included with the kit Windows package AIK, there's no way around it. In addition, the PWBoot module does not recognize Cyrillic characters at all, but works like a command line. So is it worth doing?

And that is not all! When you start selecting multiple simultaneous installations, you will have to choose between the standard VHD container format and a regular removable device. It is believed that the VHD format is read faster, but the problem of enabling this type of media lies precisely in the use of BIOS settings. And when switching from BIOS to UEFI (which is not always supported), there can be significantly more problems. However, for Windows 7, installation can be done using any of the above methods. But in most cases, formatting partitions will not work.

Thus, the conclusion suggests itself that the simplest is the ideal solution. The average user will not use specific methods to create boot sectors. It's obvious. But the method of updating the system looks much simpler, but it also has its drawbacks. In general, it is better to perform a “clean” installation, having first copied the necessary information to another medium.

An interesting situation happened the other day, I’ll tell you now.

I needed to reinstall Windows 7 on my computer. It would seem like the most banal thing, is the author really having a crisis of the genre and he decided to talk about how to put a seven? Calm down, I won’t stoop to that level, I just wanted to create some intrigue :)

So, we have a completely working computer on which Windows 7 lived happily for about a year without any reinstallations. In connection with the sale of the computer, it was necessary to fill in a clean system to the delight of the new owner. The distribution is the same, the equipment is also unchanged, but the seven stubbornly does not work.

Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer.
This error can be caused by unplugging a removable storage device such as an external usb drive while the device is in use, or by faulty hardware such as a hard drive or cd-rom drive that is failing. Make sure any removable storage is properly connected and then restart your computer.
If you continue to receive this error message, contact the hardware manufacturer.
Status: 0xc00000e9
Info: An unexpected i/o error occurred

Here's my verdict: 0xc00000e9- 100% hardware problem, in my case the DVD drive, which was last used to install Windows a year ago, was faulty (the problem also occurs when the quality of the disc itself is poor or the mutual dislike of a particular drive for a particular disc). Yes... everything is going to the point that DVDs, like CD drives, are becoming obsolete. On my new Mac mini, for example, is no longer there, just like on a netbook.

The situation was aggravated by the fact that the two blanks with the Windows distribution were no longer girls, and even on a known working drive they refused to install and crashed with the same error - so how can you not believe in coincidences.

I would like to note that from the official licensed Windows 7 Pro disc, I was able to install the system even from my own DVD drive. Apparently stamped discs, no matter how you look at them, are read better than self-written ones. Enough with the introductions, because the story is actually about something else.

I was faced with the question of how to install an operating system without a DVD?

There are no blank discs at hand, nor flash drives, but there is an image of the distribution disk in the format ISO, a hard drive from some old laptop and an adapter for connecting the latter to USB (i.e., in other words, an external hard drive).

It turned out that installing Windows 7 from a USB HDD is even easier than from a USB FLASH and much faster than from a DVD. The entire installation took me about 10 minutes (the time here, of course, depends on the performance of your computer). The installation is suitable for both desktop PCs and laptops with netbooks.

Preparing a boot HDD

Everything is simple here. We will need to create a primary partition (approximately 4Gb) on our external USB drive and make it active. The remaining space can be taken by another section and used for its intended purpose (for example, to organize a file dump).

I will describe in detail the process of creating a partition without third-party software, using exclusively Windows tools. ALL DATA ON THE EXTERNAL HDD WILL BE DELETED!

1. Control Panel -> Administration -> Computer Management (Disk Management)

2. Choose your USB HDD

(cry right click mouse) - Delete volume;

(right click) - Create a simple volume;

In the window that appears, select the volume size of 4200 Megabytes (distribution size), and click next. If asked, select any free drive letter. After which we need to format our new partition FAT 32, click next and you're done.

Now we make the created section active (right-click) - make the section active. The second section (if you created it) does not need to be made active.

3. Copying Windows 7 on USB HDD

This stage should be taken very seriously. To do this, simply click LMB on the icon with binoculars and open the data volume. In the “Sources” section, select the “boot.wim” file. In the EasyBCD application window, click on “Add”. If all of the above steps were completed without errors, then you can safely proceed to the final stage of the entire installation process.

Final stage

Find the "Edit Boot Menu" tab. Here you need to click on the “Save” item. Be sure to restart your personal computer. This will eliminate the risk of various errors occurring and the system simply freezing. On the operating system selection screen, find the Data tab for the Windows 10 installer to start.

Important: if you need to perform a clean installation of the OS, you need to completely clear the system partition. To avoid errors and other troubles later, create it again and be sure to format it.

Windows 10 on a virtual machine

With this I would like to conclude this article. Don't forget to tell your friends on social networks and subscribe to my blog. And you won’t even notice how more and more new, interesting and, most importantly, the most useful articles for you will appear every day.

Sincerely, Victor

Even non-advanced Windows users have probably heard at some point that there are several ways to reinstall this operating system: using a DVD and a USB drive. These two options are now most common among users. However, there is another one that allows you to perform a “clean” installation of Windows OS or update it to a more recent one.

Hello admin! I have regular computer with Windows 10 installed on an MBR disk, the BIOS is normal, that is, not UEFI. Also available portable HDD USB capacity 1 TB. Tell me, how can I install Windows 7 on this external USB drive, but so that the 7 has a separate bootloader and is located on the portable USB hard drive itself? I want Windows 7 to be a portable operating system that will boot on any computer or laptop that I connect an external USB drive to. On your website, but appear in all of them hard disks GPT style.

Hi all! So, the question is clear, let's get straight to the point.

I have a simple computer with Windows 10 installed, this computer We connect a portable USB hard drive with a capacity of 700 GB.

Computer disk management

Disk 0- this is a hard drive ( MBR), desktop computer with Windows 8.1 installed, drive letter (C:) ( if you have Windows 10 installed, then you need to do everything exactly the same).

Disc 1 is a portable USB hard drive, drive letter (D:), 700 GB, MBR. To install Windows 7 on a portable USB hard drive, be sure to connect the drive to USB port 2.0 (black).

The portable USB hard drive has important files and it cannot be formatted.

Download and install it, then launch it.

In the main program window, right-click on the external USB drive (D:) and click on the “Resize” button

We move the delimiter to the right, releasing free place(100 GB) at the very beginning of the portable hard drive USB and click OK. 100 GB is just enough to install Windows 7 (you can allocate more or less).

Click "Apply" and the program starts working.

"Go"

Operation completed successfully!

Launch the command line as administrator.

diskpart

lis vol (we display all partitions of storage devices connected to the computer in a list).

lis dis (we display a list of disks connected to the computer, we see that Disk 1 is our external USB drive with a capacity of 700 GB)

sel dis 1 (select Disk 1 - external USB drive)

create par primary size=100 (create hidden section System Reserved size 100 MB on which we will place the files Windows boot 7).

format fs=NTFS (format it to file NTFS system)

activ (make active)

assign (assign a letter)

create partition primary (we create a partition from the remaining free space, we will install Windows 7 on this partition)

format quick fs=NTFS label Win7(format it in file system NTFS and assign a Win7 volume label)

assign (assign a drive letter to the partition)

exit (exit diskpart)

Disk management

Click on it double click and connect it to the virtual drive (L:).

WinNTSetup3

Now it's the program's turn.

We launch the program and in the main window, in the first field (Path to installation files Windows) click on the "Select" button,

in the explorer window that opens, find the virtual disk drive (L:) with Windows files 7, go to the L:\sources folder and select the install.wim file with the left mouse, click “Open”.

Note: Please note that you can choose to install any edition of Windows 7.

In the middle field (Disk on which the bootloader will be installed), click "Select".

In this window, select the one we created in command line partition hidden partition System Reserved size 100 MB (the system assigned it the drive letter E:), click on the "Select folder" button.

In the lowest third field (Disk on which Windows will be installed), click “Select”.

In the explorer window that opens, select the 100 GB partition we created (F:) and click the “Select folder” button.

Installation

In the "Use BootSect for boot loader" field, select BIOS.

Check the box next to "Allow native USB boot of Windows 7".

The process of installing Windows 7 begins on the partition (F:) of the portable hard drive. USB drive.

And it ends successfully.

Restart your computer or laptop.

We enter the computer boot menu and select a portable USB hard drive to boot.

We are entering the final phase of installing Windows 7.

Windows 7 installed on a portable USB hard drive.

Disk management.

Installed this way on an external drive USB Windows 7 has its own separate bootloader.

On this Windows computer 7 will boot from external drive just like a regular operating system.

When connecting a USB hard drive to another computer or laptop, you will need to set the priority to boot the computer device from the external USB drive and Windows 7 will boot on this computer device, all you have to do is install the drivers. But I want to note that it is best to use Windows 8.1 as a portable operating system, since it is compatible with almost any computer hardware.

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