I just bought an external USB hard drive.

I have a computer that won't boot. It turns on, but nothing. Before
it died, it was giving me occasional system beeps. It has TWO
internal hard drives with an OS on each. The boot-up screen allowed
me to choose which to boot to.

I'm just a dumb fish, but I'm thinking it's unlikely that TWO internal
harddrives failed at the same moment. I'm afraid ... very afraid ...
that it may be a bad motherboard. Am I on the right track?

ANSWER: _________

Can I install an OS onto the external hard drive and use it to boot up
the dead computer? If so, how?

ANSWER: _________






Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain, yours truly,
<*(((>< ~~~
~~~~~

>
> I'm just a dumb fish, but I'm thinking it's unlikely that TWO internal
> harddrives failed at the same moment. I'm afraid ... very afraid ...
> that it may be a bad motherboard. Am I on the right track?
>
> ANSWER: _________
>
> Can I install an OS onto the external hard drive and use it to boot up
> the dead computer? If so, how?
>


If the mobo is dead...of course you CANNOT boot the machine from an external
drive...
I guess it's time to do some troubleshooting though.

Even if the mobo is alive you still cannot natively boot winxp from an
external hd

<*(((> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I just bought an external USB hard drive.
>
> I have a computer that won't boot. It turns on, but nothing. Before
> it died, it was giving me occasional system beeps. It has TWO
> internal hard drives with an OS on each. The boot-up screen allowed
> me to choose which to boot to.
>
> I'm just a dumb fish, but I'm thinking it's unlikely that TWO internal
> harddrives failed at the same moment. I'm afraid ... very afraid ...
> that it may be a bad motherboard. Am I on the right track?
>
> ANSWER: _________
>
> Can I install an OS onto the external hard drive and use it to boot up
> the dead computer? If so, how?
>
> ANSWER: _________
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain, yours truly,
> <*(((>< ~~~
> ~~~~~
>

Step1. Try to enter BIOS setup.
If you see the setup, go to step 2.
Otherwise, it can be lot of possibilities, including (duh) dead mobo.

Step2: get a WinXP or win2000 setup CD, or other bootable CD
( knoppix... ) and boot from it. Then you can examine your IDE disks.

--PA

"*(((" wrote:
> I just bought an external USB hard drive.
>
> I have a computer that won't boot. It turns on, but nothing. Before
> it died, it was giving me occasional system beeps. It has TWO
> internal hard drives with an OS on each. The boot-up screen allowed
> me to choose which to boot to.
>
> I'm just a dumb fish, but I'm thinking it's unlikely that TWO internal
> harddrives failed at the same moment. I'm afraid ... very afraid ...
> that it may be a bad motherboard. Am I on the right track?
>
> ANSWER: _________
>
> Can I install an OS onto the external hard drive and use it to boot up
> the dead computer? If so, how?
>
> ANSWER: _________
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain, yours truly,
> <*(((>< ~~~
> ~~~~~
>

<*(((>< wrote:

>I just bought an external USB hard drive.
>
>I have a computer that won't boot. It turns on, but nothing. Before
>it died, it was giving me occasional system beeps. It has TWO
>internal hard drives with an OS on each. The boot-up screen allowed
>me to choose which to boot to.
>
>I'm just a dumb fish, but I'm thinking it's unlikely that TWO internal
>harddrives failed at the same moment. I'm afraid ... very afraid ...
>that it may be a bad motherboard. Am I on the right track?
>
> ANSWER: _________

Who knows, at this point. It is one possibility, but there are
others.

>
>Can I install an OS onto the external hard drive and use it to boot up
>the dead computer? If so, how?
>
> ANSWER: _________
>
>

No. Windows XP will not repeat not boot from a removable drive. This
is by design.

What you can do is to download Bart's PE Builder from
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ and use it to create a bootable CD which
you can then use to boot the problem computer.

This will answer your motherboard question because if it is damaged or
failing then the computer will not boot from the CD. Assuming that
it does boot from the CD you can then examine the contents of the
drives to see if they are readable, run CHKDSK to fix any problems
with the logical disk structures, etc.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

if you have a spare pc (and you must since you're writting here), get a
copy of the Ultimate Boot CD For Windows, create it, and boot from that cd
in the dead machine. It will take a few mins to boot, but once up you can
do more troubleshooting.

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

Frodo --

Is that file really 170+ MG to download? (Hoping I've got the right file).



--
<*(((><
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> if you have a spare pc (and you must since you're writting here), get a
> copy of the Ultimate Boot CD For Windows, create it, and boot from that cd
> in the dead machine. It will take a few mins to boot, but once up you can
> do more troubleshooting.
>
> http://www.ubcd4win.com/
>
>