booting from an external hard drive

[rwf99 via WindowsKB.com]

i found in the bios the option to boot from "USB-fdd" but cant find any info
on it. does it mean i could actually boot from an actual external drive? i
was hoping so. can anyone explain what usb-fdd means and how to go about
getting the os on one. thanks

 

[Bill James]

fdd = floppy disk drive

 

[rwf99 via WindowsKB.com]

thanks, i really missed that, guess its because we hardly use floppys any
more.

 

[Bill James]

I agree, they are almost a thing of the past. I have an external USB floppy, but rarely use it. About the only time it might matter is for booting from floppy for repair or other needs, but many systems will also boot from a USB memory stick or it's not a big trick to create a bootable CD for special needs.

 

[Rock]

i found in the bios the option to boot from "USB-fdd" but cant find any
info
on it. does it mean i could actually boot from an actual external drive?
i
was hoping so. can anyone explain what usb-fdd means and how to go about
getting the os on one. thanks

Windows XP will not install/boot from an external drive. There are some
that have posted work arounds to do this but I don't know of anyone who has
actually got it working.

 

[Rock]

i found in the bios the option to boot from "USB-fdd" but cant find any
info
on it. does it mean i could actually boot from an actual external drive?
i
was hoping so. can anyone explain what usb-fdd means and how to go about
getting the os on one. thanks

I meant in particular a USB connected external drive. You can boot from a
Sata drive that is external to the system but it connects to an internal
connector so it's essentially an internal drive outside of the computer.

 

[Poprivet]

i found in the bios the option to boot from "USB-fdd" but cant find
any info on it. does it mean i could actually boot from an actual
external drive? i was hoping so. can anyone explain what usb-fdd
means and how to go about getting the os on one. thanks

fdd; floppy of fixed disk drive; both meanings used.

IF your system CMOS settings allow you to specify a device as a boot device
(including any external drives), then you can boot from it. Plain and
simple as that. If you can't set it as a boot device, then you cannot boot
from it.
Look & see.

Pop`

 

[AJR]

"fdf" - floppy disk drive. XP cannot boot from a USB drive without
assistance from a third party boot manager because XP must boot from the
first partition (active) on first drive (Drive 0).
Besides the requirement of BIOS setting power must be supplied at boot to
the USB drive - not common.

 

[rwf99 via WindowsKB.com]

thanks to all that answered. i appreciate the input.