Booting from external hard drive

[the wharf rat]

You got to be kidding. Have you read all of them. How many people do you
think have a Bios that has the option of booting from USB2

Yeah, it's not like every computer built since 2001 can do that.
It's probably pretty rare. I'd be surprised if as many as 95% of the
Vista systems in the world are capable of such a feat.

*********So the answer remains. NO you cannot boot from an outside
drive*********

So if it can't be done how did you do it? Sprinkle the case with
pixie dust? Click your ruby slippers three times and repeat there's
no place like Redmond? Or did you still have one wish left from the time
you rubbed that lamp until the genii came?

 

[Peter Foldes]

Go ahead. Purchase a USB external HD and install your Vista on it and boot from it. Tell us how you made out. This should be interesting. Do tell us that you will not because the articles say so. Until you have done it personally then you do not know.
BTW 2 of those articles that you posted are full of it only one of them is correctly described as how it is done

 

[Snidley W.]

BTW 2 of those articles that you posted are full of it
only one of them is correctly described as how it is done

"wharf rat" belongs in everyone's KF anyway.

 

[Chad Harris]

Peter and Carey are correct. This is not just a MSFT "line"--there is a
reason behind it. Early on there was a decision by MSFT to prevent this
from happening. It was a security decision to prevent a USB device from
being easily stolen.

Yes it's true that if someone has access to your pc that they can remove
non-USB HDs given a few minutes, but MSFT made a conscious decision to
prevent loading Vista onto an external USB HD or external USB device.

CH

Go ahead. Purchase a USB external HD and install your Vista on it and boot
from it. Tell us how you made out. This should be interesting. Do tell us
that you will not because the articles say so. Until you have done it
personally then you do not know.
BTW 2 of those articles that you posted are full of it only one of them is
correctly described as how it is done

 

[Earle Horton]

One is allowed to "upgrade" or "repair" even OEM computers. I don't know
whether the OS license specifically requires one to purchase repair parts
from the OEM or not. I would tend to think not. Otoh, putting a hard drive
from a Dell into an HP is a bit of a stretch for the concept of "upgrade".

I upgraded the HD in my Dell and kept the old HD around as a data backup
device or emergency spare for the Dell. After reading this thread I put it
in an external enclosure and tried to boot it, with the original OS still on
the old disk. It blue-screened of course. Now I am not denying that there
are ways around this but it will take some tinkering.

 

[Earle Horton]

I suspect this has something to do with licensing too. If you could boot
Windows from a USB drive, you could buy two identical or at least similar
computers, and share one copy of Windows between them. Also how does it
prevent a USB device from being stolen, that it doesn't have an operating
system on it?

A remember one time a Microsoft developer was working on his computer with
the case open, with an IDE hard drive hooked up and sitting on top, with all
the Windows source code on it. At that time you could fit all the Windows
source code on one hard disk, small by contemporary standards, and build the
binaries in a couple hours. He went out for coffee and someone, who had
access to the building but shouldn't have, couldn't resist the temptation to
unplug the drive, while it was still running, and take off with all the
Windows source code in his pocket. Now that generated a bit of excitement
in Redmond...

I have a Dell that boots from USB. I bought it from Wal-Mart for $550 last
year. The number of people who own similar machines must be in the tens of
millions, billions maybe. I can't think of a reason to implement one of the
solutions posted by "the wharf rat", except for maybe just plain fun.

 

[Brian W]

Vista or XP won't boot from USB, and most of the external drive enclosures
you are likely to see nowadays are USB.

Many are -Sata now as well, which will support booting from an external
drive. Won't help in this case though

 

[Tobias Weber]

Early on there was a decision by MSFT to prevent this
from happening.

Can you link an official source for this?

If there's really no technical reason this'd be pretty hostile towards
customers. All Macs and MacOS versions boot from FireWire since 2000 and
from Ubiquitous Shitty Bus since 2006, which has saved my ass on several
occasions.