Trying to boot up windows 7 from external hard drive

[davids2004]

I have installed an additional laptop hard drive in my laptop and installed Windows 7. I have since put back in my old hard drive that has XP on it. I have changed the boot sequence to boot from the usb drive. It tries to boot up but I get nothing and it restarts. What do I need to do. I am guessing maybe remove the HD that is in to not even boot from?

[sgtspector]

If that is going to work (and I am not sure it will) you need to install to the external drive from the start. Swapping does not allow the pc to build the necessary multi-boot file to allow either system to be booted at startup, unless you want to swap hardrives every time you want to switch to the other OS.

[davids2004]

Originally Posted by sgtspector If that is going to work (and I am not sure it will) you need to install to the external drive from the start. Swapping does not allow the pc to build the necessary multi-boot file to allow either system to be booted at startup, unless you want to swap hardrives every time you want to switch to the other OS.

Do you mean I need to install windows to the external to start off with?

[sgtspector]

Yes. Connect the drive and then do a dual boot install to the external drive while it is in the external housing. The install routine will then create the necessary boot config file on the internal hdd (C that will allow you to choose which boot configuration to use each time you boot with one as the default. If you google the subject I am sure you can find numerous articles on how to successfully complete the setup the way you want it.
During the install be sure to read all the options that are presented so as not to install over your present OS install.
P.S. I would suggest you image the hdd before you begin. That way if the operation goes south you can restore the image and start over.