windows xp on an external hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

is it possible to install windows xp on an external usb hard disk? when i
tried to do so by booting the windows xp cd, it said that it could not
communicate with the drive i selected and that i might need special software
to do so.
 
Windows XP cannot be installed on an external drive,
only an internal drive. External drives are designed for
file storage and backups only.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| is it possible to install windows xp on an external usb hard disk? when i
| tried to do so by booting the windows xp cd, it said that it could not
| communicate with the drive i selected and that i might need special software
| to do so.
 
It can't be done!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Not completely true! I believe that only two types of "external" drives can
be used. External SATA and SCSI drives can be set up as "boot" drives
since they will behave as internal drives.
 
Have you done it - or do you only believe it can be done?

I have not found an external drive yet that will allow you to install and
boot Windows XP. As the necessary drivers needed during the very early
stages of the boot process have yet to be installed, any necessary drivers
needed for the hardware would have to be permanently encoded in silicon on
the M/B or on the drive itself.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
I believe that Yves meant that those two types could be "mounted"
externally but can be "accessed" as they were internal. There is nothing
that prevent one from having an IDE drive outside the PC case and
"calling" it an "External drive" either, but the "connections" are still
internal as would be with the SATA and SCSI drives Yves mentioned. Fine
point but theoretically correct.

Richard said:
Have you done it - or do you only believe it can be done?

I have not found an external drive yet that will allow you to install and
boot Windows XP. As the necessary drivers needed during the very early
stages of the boot process have yet to be installed, any necessary drivers
needed for the hardware would have to be permanently encoded in silicon on
the M/B or on the drive itself.
Click to expand...
 
Like Richard, I would also be surprised to learn that Windows, and
especially XP, can be installed to an external drive. It seems to me that
such a thing wouldn't be good for Microsoft's bottom line.
 
There you go! Why would they want to allow people to have one hard drive
that they could use between 4 or 5 computers. It would not be a good
business decision to do that!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
No, he did mention "boot drives"!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Back
Top