By: Kulbir Kaur

Kulbir Kaur — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:50:24 +0000

Yes, It is possible to install Windows 7 from external hard drives (pen drives). You need only about 5GB of free space in your hard drive. Steps to install Windows 7:
1, Download the Windows 7 Release Candidate from Microsoft.
2. Connect your external hard drive to your PC.
3. In Vista: Click Start, type, In XP: Head to the Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, and then open Computer Management.
4. Click Disk Management, then find your external hard drive in the list on the right. Right-click the drive and choose Mark Partition as Active. Approve whatever warnings Windows issues.
5. Now you need to extract the Windows 7 ISO file to your drive. If you go with Undisker, click File, Open, navigate to the folder containing your ISO, then open it. Click Image, Extract To, then navigate to the root folder of your external hard drive. Click Extract and wait a few minutes for the process to finish.
6. Safely remove your external drive, then plug it into your netbook and power up. It may be necessary to venture into the BIOS to change the boot order so that USB drives are detected first, but many netbooks let you bring up a boot menu by hitting a function key.
7. Assuming the USB drive boots correctly, the Windows 7 installer should start right up.

Comments on: Is it possible to install Windows® 7 from a external hard drive?

By: Kulbir Kaur