Boot Windows XP from external USB drive

[Emil Astrom]

Hi!

I just got an external harddrive that connects to my laptop via USB2. I now
want to boot Windows XP from that drive. Is that possible?

My BIOS supports booting from USB drives, so that's not a problem, but I
suspect that Windows doesn't like ut very much. I have started installing it
on the harddrive, but when it reboots to complete the installation I first
se the Windows XP logo on the black background, the hard drive spinning,
etc. But when I get to the point where the black screen with the progress
bar is finished I get a blue screen of death with something like the
following:

"A problem has been detected ...

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF894D63C, ..."

Am I lacking a driver or similar, or is the problem more profound than that?
All information or ideas are really welcome!

Thanks in advance,

Emil

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Windows XP can only be installed on an internal drive,
not an external drive. External drives are designed for
backups and file storage only.

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

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

--------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Hi!
|
| I just got an external harddrive that connects to my laptop via USB2. I now
| want to boot Windows XP from that drive. Is that possible?
|
| My BIOS supports booting from USB drives, so that's not a problem, but I
| suspect that Windows doesn't like ut very much. I have started installing it
| on the harddrive, but when it reboots to complete the installation I first
| se the Windows XP logo on the black background, the hard drive spinning,
| etc. But when I get to the point where the black screen with the progress
| bar is finished I get a blue screen of death with something like the
| following:
|
| "A problem has been detected ...
|
| *** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF894D63C, ..."
|
| Am I lacking a driver or similar, or is the problem more profound than that?
| All information or ideas are really welcome!
|
| Thanks in advance,
|
| Emil

 

[Alvin Brown]

Hello

What your trying to do won't work, must external devices
are for backing up data.

Al

 

[Emil Astrom]

No chance then? Too bad ;-(

I don't quite agree on your motivation though. The drive works fine for
booting so it seems to me that it's XP (rather than the drive) that's not
designed with this application in mind...

Still, thanks for your help!

/Emil

 

[Ant]

Same for Symantec products. Can't install them on external USB HDDs.

No chance then? Too bad ;-(

I don't quite agree on your motivation though. The drive works fine for
booting so it seems to me that it's XP (rather than the drive) that's not
designed with this application in mind...

Still, thanks for your help!

/Emil



installing it

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[Ron Reaugh]

Windows XP can only be installed on an internal drive,
not an external drive. External drives are designed for
backups and file storage only.

Internal vs external has nothing to do with it. The issue is whether a USB2
HD is bootable into XP. A USB2 CD will boot and run an XP and/or W2K3
install CD. I've done that but run an installed OS from such a HD I haven't
tried. If during the install XP didn't warn one then I'd consider that a
bug.

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

Sorry but it has everything to do with it. You cannot install WINXP or any
Windows OS that I know of, to a USB HDD whether or not the drive is
bootable. The Program simply will not install to an external drive. Now
if you have a method to circumvent the built in 'blocks' that prevent it
installing to a USB drive, please tell.

Running an installation CD from an external drive is not the same as
installing and running the OS. If you run the Windows installation CD and
point to the external drive, the installation process initially goes through
the installation 'motions' but does not install.

 

[Pavel A.]

Internal vs external has nothing to do with it. The issue is whether a USB2
HD is bootable into XP. A USB2 CD will boot and run an XP and/or W2K3
install CD. I've done that but run an installed OS from such a HD I haven't
tried. If during the install XP didn't warn one then I'd consider that a
bug.

You're right and nevetheless XP does not support boot from USB, even it BIOS supports this.
It can boot from some other external drives - SATA, maybe PCI Express too.
When XP or win2k3 setup boots off a CD, it is not the same as bootng the OS itself.
There are valid technical reasons not to boot XP from USB. If somebody is curious please FB to
microsoft.public.development.device.drivers

--PA

 

[Nathan McNulty]

It works on my external SATA drive, which isn't really an external
because of the way it is connected through a drive caddy. I just want
to know what you meant by maybe PCI Express. How does that correlate
with external drives? You don't even connect a regular hard drive to
PCI Express. Maybe you can use a SATA300 card in PCI Express and
connect a drive to that, but it is still internal. Just curious what
you meant by that