boot froom external hd

  • Thread starter Thread starter R. Guitoneau
  • Start date Start date
R

R. Guitoneau

hello,

I have a P4P800 motherboard.
Does anyone know if it is possible to boot up from an external HD like a
Maxtor or Western Digital either by USB or Firewire.
I couldn't find anything in the motherboard reference.
I would like to have a separate operating system on the external HD only to
use for Video capturing.

TIA, Ronald
 
"R. said:
hello,

I have a P4P800 motherboard.
Does anyone know if it is possible to boot up from an external HD like a
Maxtor or Western Digital either by USB or Firewire.
I couldn't find anything in the motherboard reference.
I would like to have a separate operating system on the external HD only to
use for Video capturing.

TIA, Ronald
Click to expand...

There is an item in the BIOS called "USB mass storage".
That implies the BIOS understands USB storage devices.
It is hard to find useful information, so you'll have
to experiment with it. Not all motherboards support this,
and even if it shows in the BIOS, that doesn't mean that
it actually works.

If you try it and are successful, please post back with
what was required to make it work.

HTH,
Paul
 
Paul said:
There is an item in the BIOS called "USB mass storage".
That implies the BIOS understands USB storage devices.
It is hard to find useful information, so you'll have
to experiment with it. Not all motherboards support this,
and even if it shows in the BIOS, that doesn't mean that
it actually works.

If you try it and are successful, please post back with
what was required to make it work.

HTH,
Paul
Click to expand...

Haven't tried it, but I would think it would work similar to installing
a separate OS to any other partition (i.e. dual booting) other then the
active primary partition, C:\.

Try fdisking/formating the external hard drive, so it's seen as a usable
drive/partition (D:\; E:\; F:\; G:\; etc.), then during the OS
installation point it to the drive/partition. The boot loader/manager
and other critical startup files will be installed on the active primary
partition, C:\, but the operating system should be able to be installed
on the removable drive/partition??

Please note that you must install OS's in a proper order for the MS boot
loader/manager to be installed. Example, the boot loader will not be
installed if you try installing Windows ME while Windows 2000
Professional is installed, however, it will be installed if you try
installing Windows 2000 Professional while Windows ME is installed.

Please let us know the outcome,

Steven
 
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