A device driver for a USB hard drive

[Dan]

Hi,

I have not yet has any success installing any version of Windows on my
external USB hard drive, an 80 GB Seagate FreeAgent Go, but I have been able
to install Linux, Linpus and Fedora Core 10 on it. I need a device driver
for Windows. Can someone please identify the device driver I need. Thanks in
advance.

d.

 

[LVTravel]

Hi,

I have not yet has any success installing any version of Windows on my
external USB hard drive, an 80 GB Seagate FreeAgent Go, but I have been
able to install Linux, Linpus and Fedora Core 10 on it. I need a device
driver for Windows. Can someone please identify the device driver I need.
Thanks in advance.

d.

You can't install Windows on a removable drive. It is prevented from doing
so by the Windows installation program. There is a posters on one of these
newsgroups that said it can be done but that poster has never produced
documentation of that success.

 

[Paul]

You can't install Windows on a removable drive. It is prevented from
doing so by the Windows installation program. There is a posters on one
of these newsgroups that said it can be done but that poster has never
produced documentation of that success.

There is a recipe here.

http://www.vandomburg.net/installing-windows-xp-from-usb/

Paul

 

[LVTravel]

There is a recipe here.

http://www.vandomburg.net/installing-windows-xp-from-usb/

Paul

That is installing Windows FROM a USB drive, not onto a USB drive to be able
to boot from it and use it as the OS drive.

 

[Dan]

Hi,

That is installing Windows FROM a USB drive, not onto a USB drive to be
able to boot from it and use it as the OS drive.

Perhaps a bit of clarity is in order. I have installed WinXP Pro on my USB
drive. There is nothing to prevent installation and no warning is given.
When I tried to install Vista Home basic on my USB drive I was confronted
with a warming that Vista would not install on a USB drive.

The problem with installation of WinXP Pro on my USB drive comes at boot
time. Boot proceeds then panics and halts with code and a blue screen. I've
seen the same OS panic when I neglected the proper device driver when
installing Vista on an internal HD, not USB.

I think this is strong evidence that with the proper device driver WinXP
could be installed on a USB drive. If Vista would accept WinXP drivers then
maybe it would work for Vista too.

 

[David Craig]

Try using an eSATA disk drive. I don't think there are boot time drivers
for USB or 1394. I also don't think all you need to know is well documented
enough for you to write your own. You would need to understand the USB
chipset well enough to permit the system to boot and then get everything
switched over to the standard USB drivers while using them. Sounds nasty.
Maybe you could look at the sources for the Linux you are using and see how
it works. If you have been writing storage drivers for at least five years,
it should be fairly easy to get it working except for the switch over.

 

[Pavel A.]

Usual versions of Windows don't supports installation on USB drive.
Some _unusual_ versions (WinPE, Windows embedded) can be
installed on USB disk - yes, with special drivers - but not WinXP.
Why? Windows is not Linux.

--PA