Boot PC from External HD

[Fred]

I have a damaged HD on my Gateway Profile 1B desktop. Rather than replace
the 6 gig HD, which is expensive, I want to buy an external HD, load it with
Windows XP, connect it to the Gateway via its USB 1 port and operate from
the external HD. Can I do this?

 

[philo]

I have a damaged HD on my Gateway Profile 1B desktop. Rather than replace
the 6 gig HD, which is expensive, I want to buy an external HD, load it
with Windows XP, connect it to the Gateway via its USB 1 port and operate
from the external HD. Can I do this?

If your bios has an option to boot from USB then yes...
you should be able to do it

*however* an external drive is more expensive and an internal drive...
replacing a harddrive should not be too difficult

 

[mxh]

I have a damaged HD on my Gateway Profile 1B desktop. Rather than replace
the 6 gig HD, which is expensive, I want to buy an external HD, load it
with Windows XP, connect it to the Gateway via its USB 1 port and operate
from the external HD. Can I do this?

Your USB drive would perform as a bottleneck on the system. External drives
also cost more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148096

 

[Gerard Bok]

I have a damaged HD on my Gateway Profile 1B desktop. Rather than replace
the 6 gig HD, which is expensive, I want to buy an external HD, load it with
Windows XP, connect it to the Gateway via its USB 1 port and operate from
the external HD. Can I do this?

No, you cannot.

Windows is designed in such a way that you can only run it from
an internal harddisk.

That is not to say, that there are no ways to circumvent this
behaviour but it would be a foolish thing to do, just to run a
normal PC

 

[DaveW]

Will not work. External harddrives REQUIRE the use of USB 2.0. USB 1 is
too slow for a harddrive to transfer data to the CPU.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Will not work. External harddrives REQUIRE the use
of USB 2.0.

Not if they're Firewire drives. If you have SATA
drive (which the OP does not), you can use an
external enclosure (preferably with a fan and power
supply) to house the drive and connect it with a
SATA cable from a SATA interface strip on the
back expansion panel. The PC will consider the
drive to be just an internal SATA drive.

*TimDaniels*

 

[kony]

Will not work. External harddrives REQUIRE the use of USB 2.0. USB 1 is
too slow for a harddrive to transfer data to the CPU.

No, no, NO.

The absolutely do not require it. It would be very slow
with USB1 but that's all.

 

[kony]

Not if they're Firewire drives. If you have SATA
drive (which the OP does not), you can use an
external enclosure (preferably with a fan and power
supply) to house the drive and connect it with a
SATA cable from a SATA interface strip on the
back expansion panel. The PC will consider the
drive to be just an internal SATA drive.

*TimDaniels*

Yes, or SCSI, or even serial if anyone were crazy enough to
put out such an interface. DaveW was mistaken about the
"need" for a particular speed beyond what the user "likes"
for performance reasons. Nobody should settle for USB1 for
an external drive if it's avoidable, and SATA is better than
USB2 if there is that choice.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

"kony" sniffed:

Yes, or SCSI, or even serial if anyone were crazy enough to
put out such an interface. DaveW was mistaken about the
"need" for a particular speed beyond what the user "likes"
for performance reasons. Nobody should settle for USB1 for
an external drive if it's avoidable, and SATA is better than
USB2 if there is that choice.

As just a socket-to-socket adapter, here is one for a single socket:
http://www.xpcgear.com/sataptbracket.html

Here is one for two sockets:
http://www.usb-ware.com/sata-dual-internal-external-adapter.htm

Looking at PCIEx host adapters (i.e. controllers) here is one for
2 ports:
http://siig.com/product.asp?catid=4&pid=1041

Here's a PCI-X eSATA controller for 8 SATA ports:
http://www.barefeats.com/hard45.html

The list goes on and on. The bottom line is that it's quite practical
now with SATA drives and eSATA cables to put multiple drives
in external enclosures, and they will be as fast and accessible to the
OS as if they were inside the case. With eSATA cables, you don't
even have to worry about emitting EMI because eSATA cables
are shielded w/the shielding connected via the socket to ground.

 

[kony]

The list goes on and on. The bottom line is that it's quite practical
now with SATA drives and eSATA cables to put multiple drives
in external enclosures, and they will be as fast and accessible to the
OS as if they were inside the case. With eSATA cables, you don't
even have to worry about emitting EMI because eSATA cables
are shielded w/the shielding connected via the socket to ground.

It's usually EMI pickup that's a problem on data cables
rather than suppression.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

"kony" picked:

It's usually EMI pickup that's a problem on data cables
rather than suppression.

With eSATA cables the problem is also with EMI *emission*.
One reason is the very high frequency clock rate - when the bits
go serially, the clock rate also has to be much higher than if they
are transmitted in parallel. Also, the eSATA cable can be up to
2 meters long and may be external to the case. These two
features could make an external SATA cable a reasonably good
transmitting antenna for electromagnetic interference (EMI).
Here is a white paper about External SATA:
http://www.sata-io.org/docs/External SATA WP 11-09.pdf

Here are a couple quotes regarding the new eSATA cable itself:
:
"In addition to the mechanical aspects of the cable and connector,
several electrical issues were addressed to ensure that the external
connected drive meets regulatory requirements for electrostatic
discharge (ESD) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) emissions
and susceptibility."

"The ground paths provided will help to minimize any EMI emissions
from the external drive, but additional steps were taken to modify the
cable by adding an extra layer of shielding surrounding both of the
differential signal pairs in the cable. In a standard internal cable,
each pair is shielded individually. This shielding remains in the
external cable, but an additional over wrap is also provided."

*TimDaniels*