Boot from external hard drive if PC won't boot?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Patti Barden
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Patti Barden

Running XP Sp3, OE6, IE8
I recently bought an external hard disk which is attached to my desktop pc
with USB.
I also have a program called Acronis which is supposed to copy or clone,
backup, etc.
It has you create a Bootable Rescue Media Builder which I put on a USB key.

My idea was to copy my entire pc disk to the external hard disk and then
periodically
back it up and if my pc went (it is old) I could restart from my external
hard disk.

In talking with a guy who owns a computer shop, he tells me I cannot reboot
from a
USB. He insists that is the case. If so I have been wasting a lot of time
trying to
insure I don't have to reinstall everything or lose my data.

Perhaps I should just copy my data and figure I will have to reinstall all
the programs,
settings, etc.?
I am getting more confused.
Patti
 
Running XP Sp3, OE6, IE8
I recently bought an external hard disk which is attached to my desktop pc
with USB.
I also have a program called Acronis which is supposed to copy or clone,
backup, etc.
It has you create a Bootable Rescue Media Builder which I put on a USB key.

My idea was to copy my entire pc disk to the external hard disk and then
periodically
back it up and if my pc went (it is old) I could restart from my external
hard disk.

In talking with a guy who owns a computer shop, he tells me I cannot reboot
from a
USB. He insists that is the case. If so I have been wasting a lot of time
trying to
insure I don't have to reinstall everything or lose my data.

Perhaps I should just copy my data and figure I will have to reinstall all
the programs,
settings, etc.?
I am getting more confused.
Patti
Click to expand...

Patti, I believe you need a special USB key. I have a Cruzer with
partition which has a zipped "LaunchPad, autorun.inf & "LaunchU3.exe.
It appears on the PC setup as two drives(?). One is Cruzer (labeled
"M") & the other as "U3 System (L). This, I have been told (but never
tried!) can be used for your purpose. I also have two external HDD's &
know that I can't boot from either.
 
you did not give us any info on your mobo so we could check if it was capable of
booting
from USB...not all are capable of this but if it is it would be listed in your
BIOS settings
under boot devices...
you could just remake the Resue Media onto a CD/DVD.
You can still image/backup your HD to the USB connected external drive.
The Rescue Media will see all of the drives connected internal or external.
I use Acronis True Image and have made the Rescue Media but I made it on a CD.
I image my HD to an external USB connected HD.I have tested and it works.

peter
 
You cannot boot from an external USB drive or any external drive. Your computer guy
was correct in advising you
 
The Acronis bootable rescue media is designed to boot from, obviously, then
use its tools to recover the image you have stored on your external drive.
You can also boot from the Acronis cd, then recover
 
This is by no means a "fact"!

Whether or not you can boot from a USB source depends on the PC's BIOS and is not
some sort of "golden rule".

Just because most PCs are not able to, still doesn't mean you are right in saying
that...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
 
Patti Barden said:
Running XP Sp3, OE6, IE8
I recently bought an external hard disk which is attached to my
desktop pc with USB.
I also have a program called Acronis which is supposed to copy or
clone, backup, etc.
It has you create a Bootable Rescue Media Builder which I put on a USB
key.

My idea was to copy my entire pc disk to the external hard disk and
then periodically
back it up and if my pc went (it is old) I could restart from my
external hard disk.

In talking with a guy who owns a computer shop, he tells me I cannot
reboot from a
USB. He insists that is the case. If so I have been wasting a lot of
time trying to
insure I don't have to reinstall everything or lose my data.

Perhaps I should just copy my data and figure I will have to reinstall
all the programs,
settings, etc.?
I am getting more confused.
Patti
Click to expand...

I could have sworn we went over this before, but maybe it was someone
else.

You can make the Acronis Rescue Media on a CD or on a USB stick (key).

To use the Rescue Media, you must set your Boot Options in the BIOS
setup of the computer to boot first from the media you are
using...either CD drive or USB memory media.

Your computer BIOS must have the option to boot from USB memory media in
order to use Rescue Media on your USB key.

Your external hard drive, if you are using Acronis True Image to make
images of your hard drive, will be holding Acronis True Image image
files. You CANNOT boot the computer using the image files (which have a
..TIB file extension). You must boot the computer with your Rescue
Media, then in the Acronis program that starts from that media, you can
RESTORE your image from the external hard drive TO your internal
computer hard drive. Once an image is successfully restore to the
internal hard drive, then you can boot from your internal hard drive
again.

It is a moot point whether or not an external hard drive is bootable.
Your external hard drive, if it contains True Image backups, will not of
itself be bootable ....as explained above, it contains only image files
to be used for restoring to the internal drive. The image file is just
that, and exact image of the entire hard drive and everything on it at
the moment the image was made. If you are periodically using Acronis to
do an incremental update to the image, then it will contain multiple
images, updating the original.
 
Indeed, but some may like to challenge Patti's seeming assumption that, if
she can't boot her PC from a Bootable Rescue Media on a USB key, she's been
wasting her time and will ditch Acronis and "copy my data and... reinstall
all the programs, settings, etc"

Patti, the chap in the computer shop may well be right *in your case*, that
*your* machine can't boot from a USB device (though as a generalisation he's
wrong - and, has he actually *seen* your machine, or was it just talk?). In
which case, can you not create your rescue media on CD instead of a USB key,
boot to that, then restore image files from the external hard drive, as
others have suggested?

DL said:
And use the Acronis clone file to do so
Click to expand...

<snip>
 
Before we all get involved in 'boot from usb' maybe think of the context in
which she was asking, ie using Acronis
 
Thanks to all who responded.

peter said:
you did not give us any info on your mobo so we could check if it was
capable of booting
from USB...not all are capable of this but if it is it would be listed in
your BIOS settings
under boot devices...
Click to expand...
I looked on the Bios today (a mystery to me) The Setup utility page comes up
Boot Order: RAID, 1st boot device: CD Rom, 2nd boot device: HDD-1, 3rd:
boot device: disabled, Floppy Disabled. Should I change this??

I will make an Acronis Rescue Media on a CD.

If my PC does not start (like in Oct. and my PC disk failed) will my PC boot
up
from the Acronis Rescue Disk? Is that how you tested it.
Thanks for your patience.
Patti
 
Yes I made the Acronis Rescue Disk on CD
I inserted the Rescue disk and rebooted
A message came up to push any key to boot off CD
I did and it booted off the CD
The Acronis interface came up and I found both Images I had created.
One on a USB connected External drive and the other on one of the 4 HD I have
installed
which has the Acronis Secure Zone on it.
I used the Image on the external drive and restored it.
The Same Rescue disk also boots on my Laptop and the same External HD is
accesible
from my Laptop.

peter
 
Thanks to everyone for responding. You have given me a lot to think about.
Thanks again. Patti
 
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