Ok... so I had an external HDD that stopped working. When I plugged it into Windows it would always say there was an issue with it and it would like to format it. I did, some months later it did the same thing but this time it keeps asking over and over (like it is turning off and on) to format it, and when I accept it says the drive is not available.
I am guessing the connection to the external HDD is bad, but the drive is still good. (This is a VERY rough assumption). Instead of purchasing a new HDD I picked up a tower and plan to replace the internal HDD of the tower with my external HDD. (It is compatible, they are both IDE).
My question is how do I load Windows onto the extenal HDD? I've always had Windows come pre-ready to just operate... and when doing a format on a laptop of computer it just needs the disc inserted and format the drive... but in this situation there is no pre-existing OS to work with when formatting. So I just throw the drive in, thow the windows OS disc in and it will work?
Just boot off the windows disc and you should be fine. That said, IDE HDDs usually don't have connector problems (unless one of the pins broke off). The data cable might be bad, or it might just be a dead hard drive...it is certainly old enough.
Once windows is installed tie hoe on going the full hog & installing everything until you've run it for a few days,no point wasting time if the hdd fails detection,would pay to enable POST screen so on boot up you can see the hdd is detected
macrium reflect is a free imaging program it will come in handy for making one time images
,much better than system restore
