I have already refused a DVD drive for a year, and the trends of netbooks indicate the correctness of the decision. But I had a question how to install an OS without DVD. A flash drive died out of place, and when I went to the store for a new one, Seagate Expansion external drives accidentally caught my eye, a 250Gb version of which cost literally 500 rubles more than an 8Gb flash drive (2323 rubles). And the size and the whole of which did not greatly embarrass the pocket of the jacket.

Dimensions: 141 x 18 x 80 mm
Weight: 0.16 kg

But as it turned out, installing Windows 7 with a USB HDD does not work in the same way as with USB FLASH. Having understood and checked the operability, I am sharing information with you.
It works for both desktops, laptops, and netbooks.

• HDD preparation
• Cutting and preparing HDD partitions;
• Copy Windows 7

HDD preparation

You can make a boot disk, install Windows 7, and then erase it and continue to use the HDD for your needs. Or make it much more convenient:
If you do not mind 4 gigabytes of space on the External HDD, then the Disk can be cut into two parts, in our case I did just that, giving one part to the Windows 7 distribution, which will always be at hand.

HDD partitioning and preparation

1. Go to:
Панель управления - Администрирование - Управление Компьютером (управление дисками)
Find Disk 1 (if you have several hard disks in the system, find the one that is equal to the size of your External HDD)

2. Select our External HDD:
- Right-click - Delete volume;
- Right-click - Create a simple volume;
In the window that appears, select the volume size of 4300 Megabytes (Under the Distribution section), and click next.

In the next dialog, if necessary, select the drive letter, and click next. In the new dialog, you need to format our new section (FAT 32), click on and you're done.

After that, you need to make the created partition active, for this:
- right-click on the partition - make the partition active.
Now our External HDD is as follows:

By the same principle, we format the second partition on the disk, best of all in NTFS. but do not make it active .

Copy Windows 7

Copying a Windows distribution to a boot disk has never been so easy.

If you have a DVD:
- Just open your installation DVD, select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition of your External HDD;

If you have an ISO image:
- Simply open your installation ISO image through Total Commander or Daemon Tools, select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition of your External HDD;

Everything, your External HDD is ready to act as a Bootable medium , it will reboot enough, and in the BIOS Set as Primary Boot Device. a specific External HDD, or simply a USB HDD, depending on the type of BIOS. Save the changes and proceed with the installation of your Windows 7.


UPD: For lovers of cmd (thankstheproof )
diskpart

list disk
select disk №
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32 quick