Make external hard drive bootable
If you don't have a CD drive, you can make an external hard drive bootable for the Windows installation. You can then copy the Windows installation files to the hard drive and use it to install the operating system.
Make external hard drive bootable: Step 1 - Secure hard drive
Before you make the external hard drive bootable, you should save all files on another data carrier. Otherwise they will be lost. To do this, copy all files to another hard drive.
Step 2: format hard drive
When you have backed up all the files, you can format the hard drive:
- Connect the hard drive to your computer and open the "My Computer" in Explorer.
- Right click on the drive and select "Format".
- Leave all settings as they are and click "Start".
Step 3: make the hard drive bootable
If the hard drive is formatted, make it bootable using the command prompt:
- Open the "CMD" program on your computer. Alternatively, press [WINDOWS + R] on your keyboard, type cmd.exe and press Enter or read this practical tip again.
- Enter "diskpart" in the prompt and then "list disk" and confirm with Enter.
- Select your hard drive, which you can recognize by its capacity. To do this, enter "select disk [number of the data carrier]" and confirm with Enter.
- Now enter "list partition" and confirm with Enter. Select the primary partition with "select partition [partition number]". Press enter.
- Enter "active" and confirm with Enter one last time.
If you have the operating system you want to install on CD or DVD, copy all the files on it to your now bootable hard drive. You can unpack an ISO file with the IsoBuster and then copy it to the hard disk. Now you can boot from the hard disk and install the operating system.