Can anyone answer some questions on partitioning a hard drive?

petamartt

New Member
hey everyone.
im using windows vista.
i just recently bought a 500gb western digital external hard drive. i would like to know, how can i install an operating system on the external hard drive and keep the one that's currently on my pc, i would like to use the external hard drive to keep different documents, games, applications and files on, and to randomly boot of. (so its like their are two computers.)
also will booting of another external hard drive have any affect on my computer or current files or hard drive. one last thing, could i use the external hard drive to store flies on like i normally would. so what im asking there is that, do you have to use the whole external hard drive as an operating system, or could you sort of partition the external hard drive, so you could boot of it, but also connect it to a computer and use it like a normal usb when your not booted of it.

sorry if this sound confusing i know a bit about computers but not too much. just ask any questions. thanks in advance.
 

My Computer

Hello,

What you are asking to do is just about possible, but is totally unsupported and cannot be done without much hacking and work. Therefore, I strongly recommend against doing this. I will now answer your questions, and if you need any help doing any of this, then just ask! I will explain as if it is a normal, internal hard disk, circumventing all the problems that the external drive would have.

You would just boot from your Vista DVD, and when it asks you where you want to install it, you choose your new hard disk, rather than your old, normal hard disk. This will not affect your currently installed operating system, as long as you select the correct hard drive. If necessary, you would add a second boot option so that you can always boot into either of your Operating Systems. Booting this would not affect your other files on the other hard disk. However, the other drive would show up in Computer of both Operating Systems for easy data transfer.

The file structure of the new hard disk would be almost the same as of the old hard disk, in that it will have a Windows folder, a Users folder etc. You could either just put backed up files into your User folder, or you could create a new partition, and call it "Data" or whatever. This would then act as two hard drives, just on the same hard drive.

So, what you are asking, you should not really do, just use it as a normal data drive. Sorry :(

For more details, see here: http://computer-drives-storage.suite101.com/article.cfm/can_you_boot_from_external_hard_disk_drive

Richard
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 420
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.50GHz
    Motherboard
    Stock Dell 0TP406
    Memory
    4 gb (DDR2 800) 400MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 3870 (512 MBytes)
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 x Dell 2007FP and 1 x (old) Sonic flat screen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 and 1280 x 1204
    Hard Drives
    1 x 640Gb (SATA 300)
    Western Digital: WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B0

    1 x 1Tb (SATA 600)
    Western Digital: Caviar Black, SATA 6GB/S, 64Mb cache, 8ms
    Western Digital: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device
    PSU
    Stock PSU - 375W
    Case
    Dell XPS 420
    Cooling
    Stock Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell Bluetooth
    Mouse
    Advent Optical ADE-WG01 (colour change light up)
    Internet Speed
    120 kb/s
    Other Info
    ASUS USB 3.0 5Gbps/SATA 6Gbps - PCI-Express Combo Controller Card (U3S6)
Instead of trying to get double duty from an external drive I would recommend getting a USB docking station. Stick an empty formatted internal Sata drive in the dock. Back up your C: partition using something like Macrium Reflect. Restore the Macrium image to the HD in the dock.

Someone on another board does this to have a couple of spares if the internal HD fails. But if your PC supports booting from USB it should boot from the docking station.

When booted to your internal HD as normal, put a different drive in the dock or use your external for data storage.

Since USB 3.0 came out you should be able to get a USB 2.0 dock pretty cheap.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
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