# Possible to install Windows from external DVD drive?



## Blindsay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Naota*
> 
> Title says it all, I have searched Google a lot before anyone asks, but it's mainly people mistaking the question for Hard Disks. I don't have one to test but I was thinking I would use one instead of using an internal drive to free up space for modding.
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> Something like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005N2UE2O


As long as your machine supports booting from an external dvd drive then yes its quite possible


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## Rian

I have before, But who even uses a disk drive now anyway?

My rig hasn't had one for years, Just install off flash memory and benefit from faster install.


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## james_ant

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Rian*
> 
> I have before, *But who even uses a disk drive now anyway?*
> My rig hasn't had one for years, Just install off flash memory and benefit from faster install.


I have stacks of unused blank DVD's that have been sitting around for years, I gotta use them for something lol. Blu-ray drives are what I would call useless.

To the OP, just enable USB booting in your bios and install it like you would an internal drive.


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## Blindsay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *james_ant*
> 
> I have stacks of unused blank DVD's that have been sitting around for years, I gotta use them for something lol. Blu-ray drives are what I would call useless.
> To the OP, just enable USB booting in your bios and install it like you would an internal drive.


How are blu-ray drives useless? never watch a movie?


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## Naota

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Blindsay*
> 
> As long as your machine supports booting from an external dvd drive then yes its quite possible


Are you referring to enabling USB boot devices like james says? I'm not sure a mobo would be as specific to say it supports external dvd drive booting.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Rian*
> 
> I have before, But who even uses a disk drive now anyway?
> My rig hasn't had one for years, Just install off flash memory and benefit from faster install.


Most of my apps will install from discs so I would need a dvd drive of some kind any way.









Quote:


> Originally Posted by *james_ant*
> 
> To the OP, just enable USB booting in your bios and install it like you would an internal drive.


This is what I thought I would need to do, I was reading a support forum for branded netbooks though and the employees said it wouldn't work "it won't be recognised by BIOS because it is an external device, only Windows can see it." which is what is putting the doubt in my head.









Could it be they have some dumbass BIOS? I would be buying either an ASRock Extreme4 or 6 Z77 board not some crappy netbook board, obviously.

Thanks for the replies guys.


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## james_ant

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Blindsay*
> 
> How are blu-ray drives useless? never watch a movie?


I don't buy blu-rays, for the few that I do own I have a PS3 for that.

Everything I watch is downloaded or streamed.

To the OP, whoever told you that the bios would not recognise it does not know what their talking about. Every modern motherboard should have USB boot as an option, a Z77 motherboard with a UEFI bios will most certainly have that option. I even have a 5 year old P5N-E SLI motherboard that has USB boot functionality.


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## Blindsay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *james_ant*
> 
> I don't buy blu-rays, for the few that I do own I have a PS3 for that.
> Everything I watch is downloaded or streamed.
> To the OP, whoever told you that the bios would not recognise it does not know what their talking about. Every modern motherboard should have USB boot as an option, a Z77 motherboard with a UEFI bios will most certainly have that option. I even have a 5 year old P5N-E SLI motherboard that has USB boot functionality.


To each their own, but streaming is crap compared to blu-ray when it comes to quality.


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## james_ant

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Blindsay*
> 
> To each their own, but streaming is crap compared to blu-ray when it comes to quality.


Well netflix isn't all that bad. I get plenty of quality stuff from my other sources though.


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## Blindsay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *james_ant*
> 
> Well netflix isn't all that bad. I get plenty of quality stuff from my other sources though.


compared to a blu-ray it is. a blu-ray is on either a 25 or 50GB disc and somehow a 4 or 5 gig rip is gonna be the same quality?


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## Onex

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Blindsay*
> 
> compared to a blu-ray it is. a blu-ray is on either a 25 or 50GB disc and somehow a 4 or 5 gig rip is gonna be the same quality?


Ive never found much of a difference in quality between a good stream, a dvd and a blueray disc.


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## Blindsay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Onex*
> 
> Ive never found much of a difference in quality between a good stream, a dvd and a blueray disc.


usually its the screen isnt good enough, you sit too far away from the screen, the screen is too small, or you have poor vision. its fact the quality is better, wether you can see it or not is usually controlled by the above


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## james_ant

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Blindsay*
> 
> compared to a blu-ray it is. a blu-ray is on either a 25 or 50GB disc and somehow a 4 or 5 gig rip is gonna be the same quality?


You need to understand what h.264 is and what mkv is before you go start talking about something you don't sound like you really know anything about.

I'm well aware of the quality differences. But for the most part the difference between your average mkv/h.264 rip and a blu ray disk is not all that obvious. In most instances, a mkv/h.264 rip is far above the quality of an HD tv broadcast, which is good enough for me. I have blu-rays of my favorite movies and shows, for everything else its just not worth paying 20$ per disk for a single movie.


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## Blindsay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *james_ant*
> 
> You need to understand what h.264 is and what mkv is before you go start talking about something you don't sound like you really know anything about.
> I'm well aware of the quality differences. But for the most part the difference between your average mkv/h.264 rip and a blu ray disk is not all that obvious. In most instances, a mkv/h.264 rip is far above the quality of an HD tv broadcast, which is good enough for me. I have blu-rays of my favorite movies and shows, for everything else its just not worth paying 20$ per disk for a single movie.


I understand it quite well thank you very much.

Again, like i said in my last post the differences can be very obvious depending on the quality of the screen, size of the screen, viewing distance etc. Sure if you sit 12FT away from your 40" tv you are not going to notice a difference..

further, 99% of the time rips are illegal.....

and last just because its good enough for you doesnt mean it is for everyone else. Some people do not wish to sacrifice quality


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## james_ant

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Blindsay*
> 
> I understand it quite well thank you very much.
> Again, like i said in my last post the differences can be very obvious depending on the quality of the screen, size of the screen, viewing distance etc. Sure if you sit 12FT away from your 40" tv you are not going to notice a difference..
> further, 99% of the time rips are illegal.....
> and last just because its good enough for you doesnt mean it is for everyone else. Some people do not wish to sacrifice quality


Ya, you don't understand at all. BTW I'm not guilty of anything.


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## Naota

Whoever is saying there is no difference to be seen between DVD and Bluray is on a different planet, I work in 2D animation and I can tell you the difference is huge. Streaming however I don't see too much difference, mostly it's just down to number of frames so you will get a ghosted image when you pause the stream where on a bluray disc it would have so many frames that you could pause a high speed movement and still get a crisp image.

Here is a screenshot of Studio Ghibli's Ponyo comparison between 480p (DVD) and 1080p (BD). I know the colour is washed on the DVD and it CAN be corrected in settings, but both are running at default settings, no sharpening etc, to show the difference.









*Click on them to view full size!*
_
Size comparison - you can imagine the horror when it upscales for DVD..._


_Image overlay comparison - DVD/BD/DVD/BD/DVD._


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## Blindsay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *james_ant*
> 
> Ya, you don't understand at all. BTW I'm not guilty of anything.


seems to me you are the one who does not, and i highly doubt you got your rips from legal sources...


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## james_ant

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Blindsay*
> 
> seems to me you are the one who does not, and i highly doubt you got your *rips from legal sources...*


Not that I'm admitting to anything, but I have no judgement towards people who choose to share their media.

But like I said before, you really do not understand what your talking about here. First is your assumption that all mkv's are from illegal sources, second was your assumption that mkv's are only 4-5gb.

h.264 is a compressed video format and as such does not require the same amount of space to get the same amount of quality. Blu ray is an uncompressed format that makes it much easier for blu ray players with weak hardware to play 1080p content at high quality.

What you need to understand is that there are a wide array of programs that allow people like myself to rip a blu ray and compress it into an MKV. Obviously the smaller the file is, the lower the bitrate will be, but that does not mean it wont look and sound great. H.264 significantly increases the quality/size ratio which allows me to store a 12-15gb mkv rip on my hard drives without taking up insane amounts of space.


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## Blindsay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *james_ant*
> 
> Not that I'm admitting to anything, but I have no judgement towards people who choose to share their media.
> But like I said before, you really do not understand what your talking about here. First is your assumption that all mkv's are from illegal sources, second was your assumption that mkv's are only 4-5gb.
> h.264 is a compressed video format and as such does not require the same amount of space to get the same amount of quality. Blu ray is an uncompressed format that makes it much easier for blu ray players with weak hardware to play 1080p content at high quality.
> What you need to understand is that there are a wide array of programs that allow people like myself to rip a blu ray and compress it into an MKV. Obviously the smaller the file is, the lower the bitrate will be, but that does not mean it wont look and sound great. H.264 significantly increases the quality/size ratio which allows me to store a 12-15gb mkv rip on my hard drives without taking up insane amounts of space.


Blu-ray is not uncompressed lol. And even ripping a blu-ray that you own technically isnt legal. And compressing a file you always give up some quality, you gonna tell me an mp3 sounds as good as a wave file?


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## james_ant

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Blindsay*
> 
> Blu-ray is not uncompressed lol. And even ripping a blu-ray that you own technically isnt legal. *And compressing a file you always give up some quality*, you gonna tell me an mp3 sounds as good as a wave file?


Yes, blu ray is an uncompressed lossless format. That's the whole point of having 50gb disks.

It is perfectly legal to rip a dvd or blu ray. Also, I do not use MP3 or Wave in my rips, so I would not be able to tell you.

I already talked about the bolded part, I guess you did not read my comment. Do us all a favour and stop talking about something you know nothing about, either that or use google and educate yourself on the topic.


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## Blindsay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *james_ant*
> 
> Yes, blu ray is an uncompressed lossless format. That's the whole point of having 50gb disks.
> It is perfectly legal to rip a dvd or blu ray. Also, I do not use MP3 or Wave in my rips, so I would not be able to tell you.
> I already talked about the bolded part, I guess you did not read my comment. Do us all a favour and stop talking about something you know nothing about, either that or use google and educate yourself on the topic.


Blu-ray uses either MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC, or SMPTE VC-1. Not uncompressed. Some of the movies have uncompressed audio, but not many.


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## james_ant

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Blindsay*
> 
> Blu-ray uses either MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC, or SMPTE VC-1. Not uncompressed. Some of the movies have uncompressed audio, but not many.


Semantics, blu ray is still a lossless format. It's funny how you completely ignored the rest of my post over a misused word. If you feel like spending thousands of dollars on a massive blu-ray collection that's your prerogative.

Blu-ray drives in a computer are still useless 98% of the time, most people will buy a blu-ray player or a ps3 anyway. Where I live there are actually no places where you can rent blu rays and the corner stores still rent mostly dvd's.

I never argued that the quality is equal. I was arguing that for a random film that I deicide to pick up at wallmart the quality is not worth the 20$. Hence why netflix is a far better option for someone who just wants to watch a lot of content.


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## AngeloG.

What in the world, the topic is "Can you install Widnows from an external DVD drive".

Please use PM's guys.

OP, It is very possible, your motherboard should be able to handle it. Put the disk into the drive, restart, press F8 (In most cases..Look for a button that says "Boot select", then pick your DVD Drive. It should work. Report any problems.


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## Blindsay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *james_ant*
> 
> Semantics, blu ray is still a lossless format. It's funny how you completely ignored the rest of my post over a misused word. If you feel like spending thousands of dollars on a massive blu-ray collection that's your prerogative.
> Blu-ray drives in a computer are still useless 98% of the time, most people will buy a blu-ray player or a ps3 anyway. Where I live there are actually no places where you can rent blu rays and the corner stores still rent mostly dvd's.
> I never argued that the quality is equal. I was arguing that for a random film that I deicide to pick up at wallmart the quality is not worth the 20$. Hence why netflix is a far better option for someone who just wants to watch a lot of content.


You were the one that said i had no idea what i was talking about and now you say im trying to argue semantics, get real.....

Just because apparrently you live in the sticks and cannot rent blu-rays doesnt mean the rest of the world cant. Not worth it doesnt mean its not better. bottom line you are too cheap to spend the money, which is fine, you can spend your money on whatever you want. but streaming and rips are not as good, i dont care if they are close. i want the best available


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## james_ant

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Blindsay*
> 
> *You were the one that said i had no idea what i was talking about and now you say im trying to argue semantics, get real.....*
> Just because apparrently you live in the sticks and cannot rent blu-rays doesnt mean the rest of the world cant. Not worth it doesnt mean its not better. bottom line you are too cheap to spend the money, which is fine, you can spend your money on whatever you want. but streaming and rips are not as good, i dont care if they are close. i want the best available


When it comes to mkv's and H.264 files you do not know what you are talking about. If you still do not thing blu ray is a lossless format then that is just further evidence that you have no idea what you're talking about in that area too.

I never said its not better, I said its not worth it and that's it. When it comes to my favourite tv shows and movies, I am not to cheap not to buy them on blu ray, like I already said. I do have a small collection of blu rays, I just choose to not buy the majority of the crap that gets made today.

I don't live in "the sticks," it's happening everywhere encase you haven't noticed. Blockbuster went out of business and so did every other rental store in my city. But you go right ahead and spend all your money on every blu ray that comes out just because you want the "best," rich people don't get rich by spending wasting money.

Bottom line is a blu ray drive IS useless, you are in the minority. I actually do have a blu ray drive in my computer just to let you know, I haven't used it in years.

You're just butt hurt that you've spent thousands on blu rays when other people get the same experience for much cheaper using other methods.


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## Blindsay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *james_ant*
> 
> When it comes to mkv's and H.264 files you do not know what you are talking about. If you still do not thing blu ray is a lossless format then that is just further evidence that you have no idea what you're talking about in that area too.
> I never said its not better, I said its not worth it and that's it. When it comes to my favourite tv shows and movies, I am not to cheap not to buy them on blu ray, like I already said. I do have a small collection of blu rays, I just choose to not buy the majority of the crap that gets made today.
> I don't live in "the sticks," it's happening everywhere encase you haven't noticed. Blockbuster went out of business and so did every other rental store in my city. But you go right ahead and spend all your money on every blu ray that comes out just because you want the "best," rich people don't get rich by spending wasting money.
> Bottom line is a blu ray drive IS useless, you are in the minority. I actually do have a blu ray drive in my computer just to let you know, I haven't used it in years.
> You're just butt hurt that you've spent thousands on blu rays when other people get the same experience for much cheaper using other methods.


You said blu-ray was uncompressed, i never said blu-ray was not lossless.

They dont get the same experience lol, get real noob. Even if it is close, close does not mean the same. Maybe on your tiny 40" tv or whatever you cant see the difference.... I buy about 100 blu-rays a year and you know what i couldnt care less about the money. Just sick of morons like you you say blu-ray is no better (and for the record your last statement there about people getting the same experience for much cheaper indicates that)


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## ./Cy4n1d3\.

You can install Windows from an external DVD drive, or a USB flash drive. I used the USB flash drive, and with a little utility from Microsoft, it is extremely easy to set up if you have the .iso of the file. Even if you don't have it, you can go download it from Microsoft's partnet Digital River.


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## VoiceOfReason

Old post, but I can't let misinformation slide, lol.

Blu-ray is MOST DEFINITELY compressed, and it is MOST CERTAINLY NOT lossless. I make Blu-rays constantly for my job. Blu-ray can use a number of different compression algorithms, ALL of which are lossy. Most newer Blu-rays use H.264 compression. Which is NOT a lossless compression. It's just an amazing compression algorithm. When you create an H.264 or MPEG-2 source file for a blu-ray, you have to set the MBPS rate, which is the level of compression. Blu-rays are generally between 20-30 MBPS. Compare that to a YouTube H.264 file in 1080, which is around 6 MBPS. That's actually lower than the average DVD. But the H.264 compression scheme is far better than MPEG-2.

HOWEVER, most consumer 1080p TVs won't stream more than 10 MBPS anyway, and the average consumer HDTV won't show any noticible difference at all between a 25 MPBS blu-ray, and 6 MPBS Netflix stream, assuming the buffer is full, and the internet connection is solid.


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