Install Windows 7 on external HDD

Hi all, Im trying to install windows 7 on to a external HDD so that i can take it to a friends and just swap out the HDD's and have his computer with a fresh install of windows 7. Can someone link me to a walk though of how to do this? I know I can just install it from his computer but I need to do it this way instead. Thanks!

 

That's not going to be feasible anyway because the hardware you'd be installing the OS to will be different and could cause all kinds of conflicts. Why do you "need" to do it that way?

 

His cd drive wont boot the disk. Error when using usb. And boot manager is missing when I have the hdd installed and try install from within the computer. Any obvious fix?

 

Only to put your hard drive in his machine and install windows there, but you'll only be able to use the HDD in that one machine.

If you just want to use his machine without touching his hard drive, the easiest way would be to run a live linux CD or USB stick.

As saturnotaku asked, what are you trying to do?

 

What kind of error are you seeing when trying to use USB? Did you create a bootable flash drive properly with a Windows 7 .iso and Microsoft's free utility?

 

Says basicly its not bootable media. Yes I used the iso and windows utility.

Is boot manager part of the bios or something? I get boot mngr is missing. When I install the new hdd and trt to boot from windows install disk.

Im trying to switch out his hdd and put windows 7 on it.

 

What is the make and model of the system you're trying to recover? If it was made in the last 5 years, there should be a key you can press at the power up splash screen to get into a menu that allows you to select what media you want to boot from.

 

I did the f12 thats how I got errors. Even went into bios and set furst boot usb and cd rom when I tried those. Id really like to know what and how to fix "missing boot manger" is and how to fix it when I have just the fresh hdd installed in it.

 

If you are getting bootmgr is missing, then is to do with the existing OS.

Insert your Windows Vista or Windows 7 disk into your DVD player and restart your computer.
The next screen you see should have the Language, Time and Currency and Keyboard boxes.
In the lower left side there are two options: “What to know before installing Windows” and “Repair your computer.”
Click on “Repair your computer”
Windows will then try to find the installation directory for Vista or Windows 7, depending on what you have.
Next up is a screen with a box called Recovery Options. Click the first option, Startup Repair.
You’ll see a Startup Repair box with the message “Startup Repair is checking your system for problems…”
When it’s done, it will prompt you to reboot. If there is more than one problem it may reboot again to continue repairing.
At this point, you can remove the DVD, reboot and everything should be working.

 

So ill have to f12 and boot from cd with the vista disk?

 

Read... This worked for me. It should work for your situation. Never say anything is impossible. And don't make it more complicated then it needs to

 

Ill give a try too if I cant do try bootmgr missing fix. Thanks!