My company has purchased laptops that have hard drives that are difficult to change out. Our enviroment is very secure, all drives are encrypted, and we would very much like to provide the oppertunity for staff to use their laptops for home use. I am trying to determine if we could arrange to boot off an external USB device with XP so that the internal drive cannot be used or touched by any software. Is installing XP on a USB device possible? If not are there other alternatives?

Only if the BIOS of the motherboard supports booting from external devices.
Nothing to do with XP and everything to do with whichever motherboard the
notebook(s) have installed.

Cari
www.coribright.com

"Wayne" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6C25C172-622B-4F90-8B70-(E-Mail Removed)...
> My company has purchased laptops that have hard drives that are difficult
> to change out. Our enviroment is very secure, all drives are encrypted,
> and we would very much like to provide the oppertunity for staff to use
> their laptops for home use. I am trying to determine if we could arrange
> to boot off an external USB device with XP so that the internal drive
> cannot be used or touched by any software. Is installing XP on a USB
> device possible? If not are there other alternatives?

The systems are capable of booting off the USB device. It seems that Windows XP wants to install some files on C drive and will not boot off the external USB device. I am trying to find out if there is a way to install XP on the external device without reference to an internal drive.

Windows XP can only be successfully installed on an internal drive.

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

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

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"Wayne" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message:
news:7EDF5369-CED2-4F0D-92AC-(E-Mail Removed)...

| The systems are capable of booting off the USB device. It seems that Windows XP wants to install some files
on C drive and will not boot off the external USB device. I am trying to find out if there is a way to install
XP on the external device without reference to an internal drive.

"Wayne" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6C25C172-622B-4F90-8B70-(E-Mail Removed)...
> My company has purchased laptops that have hard drives that are difficult
to change out. Our enviroment is very secure, all drives are encrypted, and
we would very much like to provide the oppertunity for staff to use their
laptops for home use. I am trying to determine if we could arrange to boot
off an external USB device with XP so that the internal drive cannot be used
or touched by any software. Is installing XP on a USB device possible? If
not are there other alternatives?

Windows XP cannot boot from any removable media, whether USB, Firewire, CD,
DVD, etc. This is by design.

Glenn Fincher