Gaming install vista to external

[WW3]

so i just recently did a fresh install to our home pc and was wanting to install to my external HDD*hence the title* useing my instasll disk that came with the pc so i scowered Google and came up with this pretty much.. i get to step 4 * i do not need to perform step 5* and i don't seem to have the necessary software or whatever to perform that step and dont have the money to buy additional software at this time so i scowered google looking to mount it found win image and was able to convert it to .VHD from the .VMDK file still cannot mount it so i go scowering yet again and find win mount 3 and was able to mount it to drive Z:\so i perform step 6 from the guide linked above and it backs it up into part files. so i extract the file and that is all it is just a 20 GB 'FILE' no extension im about to scream, i cant open the FILE as an archive i have been doing this all the last few nights does anyone have any idea what i can try next? thanks ahead of time

-andrew a.k.a. WW3

 

[p1ngpong]

Im a little confused here, your trying to make a Vista virtual machine on an external drive? After already making a fresh install on your PC?

With VMware you can just specify that you want the virtual machine folder on your external. Failing that you can make it on your PC HDD and just copy it over.

What exactly are you trying to do here?

 

[WW3]

Im a little confused here, your trying to make a Vista virtual machine on an external drive? After already making a fresh install on your PC?

With VMware you can just specify that you want the virtual machine folder on your external. Failing that you can make it on your PC HDD and just copy it over.

What exactly are you trying to do here?

no im sorry i should have been more clear but i thought i had to leave and was in a rush...
a bit of a back story

my parents wanted me to get rid of everything our pc'the stuff on the hard drive 'because it' made it run slow' even though i defraged it on a regular basis and cleaned it's insides regularly for dust and such.. i backed up everything on to my external and did a fresh reformat and install..

so i found that link and made a virtual drive/install to copy the os 'like in the guide' to my external so i wont 'make the pc run slow' as my dad would put it lol..

that and have my files on the external so it wont be my fault when one of my siblings screw something up :\

and a side note i do not think i can just copy the install files from the virtual hd to my external inside VMware...

i hope that clears some things up

 

[p1ngpong]

Ok Im just going to go nuts here, have you tried this?

Make an installation partition on your external drive (I would go for at least 30 gig)

Plug the drive in your PC and turn the drive on.

Turn on your PC and boot from your Vista disk.

When it asks you where you want to install select the partition you made on your external.

Install to that partition.

Make sure you have enabled USB booting in your BIOS.

Any time you want to boot from your external plug it into your PC while its turned off.

Turn on your PC and boot from the external.

Or am I just completely wrong here?

 

[WW3]

Ok Im just going to go nuts here, have you tried this?

Make an installation partition on your external drive (I would go for at least 30 gig)

Plug the drive in your PC and turn the drive on.

Turn on your PC and boot from your Vista disk.

When it asks you where you want to install select the partition you made on your external.

Install to that partition.

Make sure you have enabled USB booting in your BIOS.

Any time you want to boot from your external plug it into your PC while its turned off.

Turn on your PC and boot from the external.

Or am I just completely wrong here?

yea vista does not allow that

why in the world would i go to this extreme when i could have easily did that?

why microsoft had to be so stupid to implement such a thing is beyond me i mean i heard that you could install xp onto an external why not vista :S

 

[p1ngpong]

lol ahh I see, never tried to instal Vista on a USB drive like that.

Anyway if you manage it all I have to say is if you think Vista is slow on your PC now, just wait until you try running it off a USB drive!

 

[Jiggah]

Ah...yes blame Microsoft for doing what they are suppose to do. They don't allow USB loading of hard drives because it's unbelievably slow. The max at USB 2.0 can go is about 480 Mbps in theory, the max that a SATAI can go is 1.5 Gbps and SATAII can go up to 3.0 Gbps.

You need to just install Vista back onto the internal disc and either use limited accounts to stop people from installing crapware or run defragging, error check, registry cleaning software every now and then. Other alternatives are to install another operating system like Linux which can be booted off an external, if you really must.

 

[p1ngpong]

Or make a second partition on your PC's hdd just for your Vista, should have just suggested that in the first place lol.

 

[WW3]

ok, on dsi xD cant type to much. i know it would be god awfully slow but it would be for emergencies and such, i was actually considering linux but the problem there is the OS selection that pops up when i had installed linux before all i heard was get rid of it and other things i do believe it would be the same with another partiton with vista on it... i have a friend who uses linux as his main OS ill shoot him an email over live and ask him if i can use his computer to install it to my HDD i dont see any other problems with it. btw i wasn't the one complaining about the speed all i meant was that with usb 3.0 comeing about soon microsoft should have just left the option open for certain situations and/or perdicuments such as my own obviously people will still install it to there external

thank you all for the help and have a good one

keep on a temping
-WW3