How-To Geek

I've finally gotten to the point of being able to install Windows 7 from a USB device after formatting my external hard disk and using command prompt to copy all the files to boot the os from the hard disk.

However when i enter the BIOS and choose my Boot Options to boot from USB it said NTLDR is missing press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart.

I would love to try Windows 7, and i have spent days using my friend optical drive to burn the image onto a disk properly (the first attempt was a failure). I really hope i can get some good news

When i inserted the disk and chose to install in the partition i made in my external hard disk it gave me the following message:

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. Setup does not support configuration of or installation to disks connected through a USB or IEEE 1394 port.

Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu."

What must i be doing wrong?

1. yeah
2. in the boot tab i shifted USB up to first above the rest but i get the same NTLDR is missing message, so back to second it went

ive seen elsewhere people have succeded in installing 7 on external devices so i wont give up until the reg key expires

I don't know how you created your bootable USB stick. Here is a website that gives some guidance.
NTLDR is the Boot Loader that apparently somehow did not make it onto your USB stick.

by the way, i found exactly the same instructions on http://windows7forums.com but when the bootsect bit didnt help someone else, another had posted instruction how to go on and i followed those