Can I install Win 7 to an External Hard Drive

[john40131]

The problem I have is, I have a Dell inspiron which was dropped and it landed on the corner where the hard drive is installed and rammed the drive against the sata connector of the drive and broke the connector that the hard drive plugs into I tried a repair and found all the pins make contact with the hard drive but it will not detect there is a drive installed even with a new HD. The original HD was damaged.
I was wondering if I could install a USB external hard drive and install Win 7, I have seen a posting to install Win 7 on an external hard drive but not sure if the computer needs to have an internal HD to make this work.

Would be grateful for any help.

John M

 

[MindoverMaster]

The short answer, no. You can install Linux on an external, though.

 

[KSoD]

Microsoft has removed the functionality of Windows being able to be installed to any external device by default. You would have to hack the install media in order to be able to do such as task. Something we here can not assist you with.