Installing Windows on an external hard drive without interfering with bootloader

Question

I want to install Windows on an external hard drive (connected via USB). Then I want to connect this drive to another computer via SATA. The problem is that when I did the same thing with Ubuntu I was able to choose the device where the bootloader is supposed to be - Windows 7 installation does not have such an option. I don't want to end up with my computer having two systems in the bootloader.

How can I do it?

Answer 1

I concur with Alex McKenzie's response that you should disconnect other drives in the system when creating the new boot image on the USB-connected drive, but I think you may still have issues from the fact that that drive was connected one way (via USB) when created, and another way (via SATA) in the second system when being read.

However, if you do create Boot Configuration Data issues, there is a free tool I've used that adjusts this configuration very easily: EasyBCD.

Answer 2

The safest way is to disconnect all hard drives except for the USB drive before the install. You also need to make sure that your BIOS is set to boot to USB before hard disks.