Can you launch Windows XP from an external hard drive? Actually, my
internal hard drive is broken, but I have my external drive. Thanks.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Can you launch Windows XP from an external hard drive? Actually, my
> internal hard drive is broken, but I have my external drive. Thanks.
>

No.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Can you launch Windows XP from an external hard drive? Actually, my
> internal hard drive is broken, but I have my external drive. Thanks.
>

Nope - or if you can I'd love to know how!!

[[Current versions of Windows should not be installed to USB hard disk
drives because Windows does not support USB hard disk drives as the primary
boot device.]]

[[Windows as it exists today is currently not optimized to run as an
installed operating system from USB attached mass-storage or CD. ]]

[[Hard disk drives shouldn't report themselves as removable media drives
because Windows will not put a page file on a removable media device. ]]
from...
Recommendations for Booting Windows from USB Storage Devices
Updated: August 23, 2004
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device.../usb-boot.mspx

However, this is claimed to work.
http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

This is supposed to work also.
Windows In Your Pocket | Tom's Hardware
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/09/...n_your_pocket/

No, Microsoft does *NOT* support it.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In news:(E-Mail Removed),
Maincat <(E-Mail Removed)> hunted and pecked:
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Can you launch Windows XP from an external hard drive? Actually, my
>> internal hard drive is broken, but I have my external drive. Thanks.
>>
>
> Nope - or if you can I'd love to know how!!

Thanks everyone for their input.

Welsley, thanks for the link. I'll let you know if I've tried anything.