Boot from External USB drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter amneelvan-googl
  • Start date Start date
A

amneelvan-googl

Hi:
I have 2 hard drives for my laptop. Both of them have XP installed on
it. I swap them when I need to boot from the other.

I am wondering if I can boot directly from external USB hard drive
which already has a operating system on it.

Can some on help?
Thanks,

AM
 
Yes, I know there is a whole lot involved.
I am ready to follow any instructions.
The Microsoft link you sent, is 2 Year old and I have came accross it
for 5 times. It does not talk about booting windows XP from external
hard drive. It is intended to only boot (not windows) for
troubleshooting purpose or so and guidelines for manufacturer etc.

I need step by step direction to make 2nd hard drive with Windows XP to
boot using USB case.
 
When you find those "step-by-step" instructions, please post them here. As
of right now, there are not any that actually work.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Hi:
I have 2 hard drives for my laptop. Both of them have XP installed on
it. I swap them when I need to boot from the other.

I am wondering if I can boot directly from external USB hard drive
which already has a operating system on it.

Can some on help?
Thanks,

AM
Click to expand...


AM:
We have never been successful booting the XP OS from a USB external HD. Over
the years there have been many newsgroup contributors and others who have
claimed to have done so. Usually their claim is couched in phrases like "as
long as the motherboard's BIOS supports this capability", or some such.
We've worked with a large variety of motherboard's that presumably had this
"capability" but as I've indicated, we've never been able to boot an XP OS
from a USB/Firewire EHD. And, I might add, we've never come across a single
*confirmed* report where this capability was achieved.

Having said this, you might want to take a look at this fairly recent Fred
Langa article where Fred purports to have come up with a process to achieve
this "bootability". See
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticleSrc.jhtml?articleID=177102101

Also, a recent poster ("emanuel") to a XP newsgroup claimed that he too has
come up with a methodology to do this as well. See
http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

Let us know how you make out.
Anna
 
Hi:
I have 2 hard drives for my laptop. Both of them have XP installed on
it. I swap them when I need to boot from the other.

I am wondering if I can boot directly from external USB hard drive
which already has a operating system on it.

Can some on help?
Thanks,

AM
Click to expand...

As it seems that this is asked every month, it seems that no one ever scans
this newsgroup in order to see the previous post. Here is a summary:

1) Normally, you can not install XP onto a USB/Firewire drive and make it
boot. Microsoft does not "seem" to permit this.

2) It has been "theorized" that if you "clone" a bootable XP internal
IDE/SATA drive to an external USB drive, you may be able to get this to boot.
However, I have yet to see proof of this.


Please note that this limitation may not exist for SCSI, external SATA or
eSATA drives.
 
I thought a Microsoft MVP would be able to help.
I am sure you guys can aome up with some work around..
May be boot to a floppy or Jumpdrive and load required drivers.. then
boot XP from external USB drive???
 
AM said:
I thought a Microsoft MVP would be able to help.
I am sure you guys can aome up with some work around..
May be boot to a floppy or Jumpdrive and load required drivers.. then
boot XP from external USB drive???
Click to expand...


Well, "AM", did you take a look at those sites you were referred to?

"you might want to take a look at this fairly recent Fred Langa article
where Fred purports to have come up with a process to achieve this
"bootability". See
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticleSrc.jhtml?articleID=177102101

Also, a recent poster ("emanuel") to a XP newsgroup claimed that he too has
come up with a methodology to do this as well. See
http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176"

What do you think?
Anna
 
If you want External bootable capability, forget USB. Go to
CompUSA and buy a Acom external SATA kit. Includes a
PCI Card, Cable and an Aluminum encased WDC 250 Gig
disk drive. I use one on my system and the average transfer
rate exceeds 66 Megabytes a second. (3X a USB2.0 drive).
Price is around ~$190 US - biggest issue is finding one in
stock.
 
Just put a bootable CD in the drive and boot to it. Your external USB hard
drive will be available. That's the way DriveImage 7.0 works. I just put
the DI 7.0 CD in the drive, boot to it, and my USB drive (where I keep my
images) is available to re-image my hard drive to a backup version if it
becomes necessary. The program to re-image my hard drive is on the DI 7.0
CD.
 
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