installing os onto a usb external hdd then swapping??

[jam_zhou]

So, I have a crazy idea!! I only have one htpc and it cannot have any real down time, so I thought of an idea of how to do a fresh install using the same machine with minimum down time:

I do a fresh install onto an external usb HDD bits at a time. For example:
Day 1 - install OS
Day 2 - install software
Day 3 - install codecs
Day 4 to 30 - tweak and test nightly
Day 31 - when I get everything ready, I just take out the old OS drive and put in the new OS drive.

I make sure I map the secondary data disk to the same drive letter and we should be good to go?

Can anyone see a flaw in this?

This can also be used as a "trial machine" in that I have to disks with the same install but one of them I do crazy things with like update windows and check the stability. Similar to imaging and re-imaging but somewhat different.

[Snooze]

If you have two hdd's, couldnt you just swap the disks to the one you always been using when you are done for the day? If it was me I would still image at points (much faster to restore) where your happy with what you got so you dont have to redo anything but have a backup if you want to go back a step/day or two plus you maintain your original setup.

[johnsonx42]

this should work, if you're careful. you'll have a better chance of success if you use Windows vista or 7 on the new drive - the windows 6.x device mapper is a little smarter about drive letter assignments than windows 5.x. you'll probably have to mess with bcdedit when the time comes to make the windows 7 drive boot by itself.

[Snooze]

this should work, if you're careful. you'll have a better chance of success if you use Windows vista or 7 on the new drive - the windows 6.x device mapper is a little smarter about drive letter assignments than windows 5.x. you'll probably have to mess with bcdedit when the time comes to make the windows 7 drive boot by itself.

That would be one large leap... LOL

[pBS]

have you tried installing to a usb drive? it doesn't always go well...
plus there's the speed issue,having same drive internally will be much much faster...
usually bios can be told to boot one or the other from cmos post screen...or in bios itself..
that way windows is setup on the proper controller and won't have to change it's parent device when swapping out..

[jam_zhou]

It looks like my enthusiasm has been quelled a bit. Installing to USB is quite difficult. How about if I have two HDDs and I change the boot order of the HDDs - each HDD will have a different install of XP for instance?

As for imaging. I don't have much time to tinker so this would be a much faster route. For me, imaging takes 20 min to create the image and 20 min to reinstate, which is a lot of tinkering time. Note that, this is what i'm doing now I just want to be able to do things a bit faster.

[johnsonx42]

Installing to USB is quite difficult.

Trying to get XP onto a USB drive is not trivial. I believe it is quite a bit easier with Vista/7, though I've not attempted it myself.

How about if I have two HDDs and I change the boot order of the HDDs - each HDD will have a different install of XP for instance?

You can do that. When you initially install the new xp onto the second drive, I suggest you have the original drive disconnected. You may still run into some device id issues, I'm not sure. The only way to find out is to try.

[pBS]

i've actually got a program that can change a usb win drive into a regular and vice-versa...
it is a lot of stuff that needs to be changed to be done correctly...
but i've had some that just worked...but i did tweak them a bit..
even if you get it booting without the real fix, it's really slow in first part of boot, then speeds up when almost into windows....
the proper method involves moving usb drivers into scsi sections and the exact volume changed in registry...while not in windows..
win7 is supposed to fix all that but i had it not work on one disk...but fine on another..
[there may be restrictions to putting win7 on usb...no sticks, must be real drive,etc..]

doing it the bios boot method is best..i do it all the time without problem...windows actually deals with it fine..
you just don't want both disks to have same signature..imaging software can change it for you usually..
[2 disks-same signature really freaks windows out, but almost all image software adjusts it because of that. but make a backup]