Hi all - I'm trying to setup a USB drive as my boot drive and load WinXP on
it. Does anyone have any tips for me?

Appreciate any help here.

Thanks,
David.

Is it a hard drive, CD Rom drive or floppy drive???

If it is a hard drive, you may not be able to use it as your XP boot drive.
You need to have Windows working is order to have the USB drivers works. I
do not think the USB drivers can be loaded during the boot phase.

Y.

"David Codish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%23BHd%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi all - I'm trying to setup a USB drive as my boot drive and load WinXP
> on it. Does anyone have any tips for me?
>
> Appreciate any help here.
>
> Thanks,
> David.
>

New BIOS's have the ability to boot from a USB device (like a "disc on
key"). I've seen DOS and LINUX operating systems do this (can boot a
computer without a HD).
"Yves Leclerc" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Is it a hard drive, CD Rom drive or floppy drive???
>
> If it is a hard drive, you may not be able to use it as your XP boot
> drive. You need to have Windows working is order to have the USB drivers
> works. I do not think the USB drivers can be loaded during the boot
> phase.
>
> Y.
>
> "David Codish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:%23BHd%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi all - I'm trying to setup a USB drive as my boot drive and load WinXP
>> on it. Does anyone have any tips for me?
>>
>> Appreciate any help here.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> David.
>>
>
>

>> "David Codish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:%23BHd%(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Hi all - I'm trying to setup a USB drive as my boot drive and load WinXP
>>> on it. Does anyone have any tips for me?
>>>
>>> Appreciate any help here.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> David.


David:
If I understand your question correctly, you're raising two issues...
1. Can you directly install XP on your USB external hard drive? (I assume
you're referring to a USB external hard drive and not a jump (flash, pen)
drive.), and,
2. Will that USB external hard drive be bootable?

Based on my own experience as well as other users with whom I've been in
contact, the answer is "no" to both questions.

I have never been able to install XP directly onto a USB EHD. I've tried to
do so using a variety of USB EXHs but have never been able to do so. In my
experience, XP will not recognize the EXH for the purpose of installing the
OS. I must admit that a number of users have told me that they (or someone
they knew) could achieve this, but I've never been able to verify this.

Now I am able to "clone" the contents of an internal hard drive (containing
the XP OS) to the USB EHD using a disk imaging program such as Symantec's
Norton Ghost 2003 program. I do this routinely. However, I've never been
able to boot the USB EHD. I can clone the contents of the EHD back to the
internal HD (which will be bootable) should the need arise, but the
capability of booting from the USB EXH has eluded me. I'm sure you will
receive responses to the effect that the USB EXH is bootable as long as the
motherboard's BIOS supports this capability. All I can say is that I have
worked with a fairly large variety of modern motherboards presumably having
this capability but I've yet to boot from a USB EXH.

Art

Thanks alot for your detailed response. I've seen Linux boot from a USB
drive. I will try cloning a OS and see if I can get it to boot from a USB -
that is a good direction to try.

I'll let you know if I succeed.

Thanks,
D.




"Art" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> "David Codish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>> news:%23BHd%(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>> Hi all - I'm trying to setup a USB drive as my boot drive and load
>>>> WinXP on it. Does anyone have any tips for me?
>>>>
>>>> Appreciate any help here.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> David.
>
>
> David:
> If I understand your question correctly, you're raising two issues...
> 1. Can you directly install XP on your USB external hard drive? (I assume
> you're referring to a USB external hard drive and not a jump (flash, pen)
> drive.), and,
> 2. Will that USB external hard drive be bootable?
>
> Based on my own experience as well as other users with whom I've been in
> contact, the answer is "no" to both questions.
>
> I have never been able to install XP directly onto a USB EHD. I've tried
> to do so using a variety of USB EXHs but have never been able to do so. In
> my experience, XP will not recognize the EXH for the purpose of installing
> the OS. I must admit that a number of users have told me that they (or
> someone they knew) could achieve this, but I've never been able to verify
> this.
>
> Now I am able to "clone" the contents of an internal hard drive
> (containing the XP OS) to the USB EHD using a disk imaging program such as
> Symantec's Norton Ghost 2003 program. I do this routinely. However, I've
> never been able to boot the USB EHD. I can clone the contents of the EHD
> back to the internal HD (which will be bootable) should the need arise,
> but the capability of booting from the USB EXH has eluded me. I'm sure you
> will receive responses to the effect that the USB EXH is bootable as long
> as the motherboard's BIOS supports this capability. All I can say is that
> I have worked with a fairly large variety of modern motherboards
> presumably having this capability but I've yet to boot from a USB EXH.
>
> Art
>