Is there a way to install Vista on a USB external HDD

[blackjack]

1 Is this impossible or is it just me, I have tried several times to no prevail, if it is can someone tell me how to do it,2 then the next trick is making it bootable.
The second thing will not matter if i cant do the first.

 

[ssc456]

umm are you on about a memory stick or an external hardrive

i know some1 who has installed it on external hardrive he just ran through the vista setup and chose his external hardrive then rebooted and put usb drive above hardrive in boot order

 

[dude_se]

you need to check if you can boot from an external usb drive in the bios. if so make sure its in the boot sequence. then put in the vista dvd and during setup it should detect the drive. install and it should then be bootable

 

[blackjack]

It is a 250g external hdd drive that i partitioned 60g to install it on. I tried running the disc but when it gets to the destination part when i select the drive I get this error that says vista can not be installed on a usb or IEE external drive it is rather annoying.

 

[lhuser]

Your external drive firmware should also ave bootable properties on it.

 

[dude_se]

why do you want to do this anyway lol? unless its a cracked vista wont it ask you to activate if used on several other pc's. anyway theres some links on this page that may be of interest. its mainly to do with xp but its the same idea

 

[blackjack]

I don't currently hav a OS on that drive, i have XP on my internal 40g but the reason I'm not putting it on that (as i have already several times) is because that has a 10g partition on it with my xp back up so I'm only left with about 28g now every time i put Vista on that i only have 14g to play with minus all the progams to reinstall so I'm down to about 10g.
what happens when when install Vista even clean install is it stores your old folder in a untouchable folder so for e.g. the 6g of programs i have on now take me down to 20g then when vista installs it takes another 6g off me to store those xp files which i cant touch or delete, so now I'm left with 14g but still have to reinstall all my software(hope you are still with me)
After that I'm down to about 10g that is not acceptable to me, the only other way is to delete all my software down to just the OS and then install it.

 

[blackjack]

I'M off to work now so keep sending me your ideas and IL siv through them later.

 

[slayer322]

i'm pretty sure i've tried installing vista on a usb HDD and it told me right away that it cant be installed on one. im guessing it looks at what port its connected to the computer with to tell if it is or not. I didnt however try installing the HDD in the machine first, installing vista and then taking the HDD back out and trying to boot from USB, im guessing that will work providing your machine boots from USB but most do nowadays.

 

[blackjack]

This is my bios boot sequence

If i open secound boot device

and change it to usb hdd

will it boot into that so i can try and install a OS and if it fails when i rest the computer will i still be able to access the bios to change it back?