Booting win98se from a usb 2.0 external HDD?

[spodosaurus]

Hi all,

I currently have a win98se and winxp home dual boot setup on my
computer. There have been some annoyances with programs defaulting to C:
drive (win98se) and not giving me the option to install to F: drive
(WinXP Home). I'd like to have the entire hard drive devoted to WinXP
Home and have win98se on an external hard drive for infrequent use.
However, before I buy the hardware, I have a couple of questions:
1. Assuming this is possible, is it as easy as setting the BIOS to boot
from the USB device? (The XP installation on the system's internal hard
drive won't be seen because win98se cannot see NTFS).
2. Can I install windows98se directly to the USB2.0 external drive, or
will I have to install it to an internal hard drive, then remove that
drive and place it into a USB2.0 external enclosure?

Cheers,

Ari

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[Art]

Hi all,

I currently have a win98se and winxp home dual boot setup on my computer.
There have been some annoyances with programs defaulting to C: drive
(win98se) and not giving me the option to install to F: drive (WinXP
Home). I'd like to have the entire hard drive devoted to WinXP Home and
have win98se on an external hard drive for infrequent use. However, before
I buy the hardware, I have a couple of questions:
1. Assuming this is possible, is it as easy as setting the BIOS to boot
from the USB device? (The XP installation on the system's internal hard
drive won't be seen because win98se cannot see NTFS).
2. Can I install windows98se directly to the USB2.0 external drive, or
will I have to install it to an internal hard drive, then remove that
drive and place it into a USB2.0 external enclosure?

Cheers,

Ari

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

Ari:
To the best of my knowledge there is no way to install Win98 directly to a
USB external hard drive. At least I've never been able to successfully
achieve this, either using the bootable Win98 installation disk or using a
Win9x/Me startup disk with CD-ROM support. I have seen a number of postings
in various newsgroups that the user was able to make a direct install of
Win98 onto a USB EHD, but I've never been able to verify this.

You can, as you've suggested, install your Win98 OS on an internal HD and
then install it in a USB enclosure. That will work. But let me suggest
another, perhaps more practical alternative in your situation. Since you
already have Win98 (with all your programs & data) installed as a separate
partition on your single internal HD, why not use a disk imaging program,
e.g., Ghost, Acronis True Image, etc., to simply clone that partition to the
USB EHD? In addition to its simplicity as compared with the previous method,
it would have the added advantage of retaining all of your programs & data
presently on the Win98 OS's partition.

With respect to booting from a USB EHD - I have never been able to achieve
this capability, notwithstanding reports I have read that it can be done. I
have worked with a number of motherboards whose BIOS presumably provided
this capability, i.e., booting from a USB device, but it hasn't worked for
me and as well as others who I've consulted. If anyone responding to this
posting has successfully booted from a USB EHD (particularly involving the
XP OS), I would be anxious to hear the details of this achievement,
including the make/model of motherboard and USB device. BTW, you *can* clone
the contents of the USB EHD back to an internal HD and it will be bootable
under those circumstances.
Art

 

[spodosaurus]

Ari:
To the best of my knowledge there is no way to install Win98 directly to a
USB external hard drive. At least I've never been able to successfully
achieve this, either using the bootable Win98 installation disk or using a
Win9x/Me startup disk with CD-ROM support. I have seen a number of postings
in various newsgroups that the user was able to make a direct install of
Win98 onto a USB EHD, but I've never been able to verify this.

You can, as you've suggested, install your Win98 OS on an internal HD and
then install it in a USB enclosure. That will work. But let me suggest
another, perhaps more practical alternative in your situation. Since you
already have Win98 (with all your programs & data) installed as a separate
partition on your single internal HD, why not use a disk imaging program,
e.g., Ghost, Acronis True Image, etc., to simply clone that partition to the
USB EHD? In addition to its simplicity as compared with the previous method,
it would have the added advantage of retaining all of your programs & data
presently on the Win98 OS's partition.

With respect to booting from a USB EHD - I have never been able to achieve
this capability, notwithstanding reports I have read that it can be done. I
have worked with a number of motherboards whose BIOS presumably provided
this capability, i.e., booting from a USB device, but it hasn't worked for
me and as well as others who I've consulted. If anyone responding to this
posting has successfully booted from a USB EHD (particularly involving the
XP OS), I would be anxious to hear the details of this achievement,
including the make/model of motherboard and USB device. BTW, you *can* clone
the contents of the USB EHD back to an internal HD and it will be bootable
under those circumstances.
Art

Thanks for the reply Art. I wonder if booting from a removeable caddy
will accomplish what I want? Any ideas on this? I would assume it would
not, because of jumper settings :-(

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[Spajky]

I have a couple of questions:

is it possible to do it to USB external enclosutre, BUT VERY
complicated /bios supporting booting from USB ext.drive, legacy USB
dos drivers needed - shareware etc./ so is good that you tossed the
idea & go with a removeable caddy !

I wonder if booting from a removeable caddy
will accomplish what I want? Any ideas on this?

IMHO yes! (if the caddy has IDE interface to PC!)

Hide the first primary HD (winXP) in the Bios setup!
The second drive mount it in with caddy, set it as slave/jumper &
enable it in Bios; make it bootable & sistem & partition it if desired
with tools on Win98-bootFD when bios booted first from FD to DOS
enviroment. Restart & format the drive using that Win98-bootFD, do a
sys C: to HD & start a setup of Win98-install it !

If the PC would be left so after installing, would boot with HD&caddy
inserted right to W98.

If you restart a PC, go to Bios immedietely & change/reverse
hidden/unhidden drives, you can chose which OS will be booted w/o any
bootmanager/loader... its Ok if you need that second OS once in a
while (like once a week or so & not every day) ...

 

[spodosaurus]

is it possible to do it to USB external enclosutre, BUT VERY
complicated /bios supporting booting from USB ext.drive, legacy USB
dos drivers needed - shareware etc./ so is good that you tossed the
idea & go with a removeable caddy !




IMHO yes! (if the caddy has IDE interface to PC!)

Hide the first primary HD (winXP) in the Bios setup!
The second drive mount it in with caddy, set it as slave/jumper &
enable it in Bios; make it bootable & sistem & partition it if desired
with tools on Win98-bootFD when bios booted first from FD to DOS
enviroment. Restart & format the drive using that Win98-bootFD, do a
sys C: to HD & start a setup of Win98-install it !

If the PC would be left so after installing, would boot with HD&caddy
inserted right to W98.

If you restart a PC, go to Bios immedietely & change/reverse
hidden/unhidden drives, you can chose which OS will be booted w/o any
bootmanager/loader... its Ok if you need that second OS once in a
while (like once a week or so & not every day) ...

Thanks Spajky! It's for the very rare (once a month or once every two
months) use that I need win98.

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[Art]

Thanks for the reply Art. I wonder if booting from a removeable caddy will
accomplish what I want? Any ideas on this? I would assume it would not,
because of jumper settings :-(

Ari:
When you mention "removeable caddy" I assume you're referring to a hard
drive installed in a mobile rack. I'm a strong proponent of removable hard
drives. As a matter of fact virtually all of the desktop computers we build
are equipped with *two* removable hard drives. The peace of mind and
flexibility you get from this hardware configuration cannot be
overestimated. With this arrangement, you have, at your fingertips, an
inexhaustible number of hard drives that you can install in seconds from the
comfort of your computer chair. And the ability to clone (using a disk
imaging program) your day-to-day working HD to the second HD simply,
relatively quickly, and effectively for a near-failsafe backup system is
another enormous advantage, not to mention the added advantage that you can
easily create multiple (limitless) backups that are portable in that they
can be removed from the premises, if desired, for added safekeeping. With
removable hard drives you can "play around" with programs and configurations
in ways you would never dream of when you worked with fixed internal hard
drives, secure in the knowledge that whenever something goes awry you will
always have at your near-instant disposal a working clone to fall back on.

With two removable HDs in their mobile racks, we usually configure them as
Primary Master (your day-to-day working drive) and Secondary Master. This
allows a boot from the second drive without having to physically move that
drive (after turning the keylock on the PM to the OFF position). Simple and
effective.

In your situation, with two removable drives you can simply clone your Win98
system to the second HD in its removable tray (caddy). So anytime you want
to boot to that OS you simply insert the tray in its mobile rack (if it's
not already inserted in its rack), turn on its keylock and turn off the
first removable drive's keylock.

Assuming you have available two 5 1/4" bays on your case, seriously consider
installing two removable drives. You'll never regret it. I take that back.
Yes, you'll have but one regret - that your current and previous desktop
computers weren't equipped in this fashion! It's that good.

If you're limited to installing a single removable drive because you do not
have two available 5 1/4" bays to house the two mobile racks, consider
configuring the single removable drive as Primary Master and your day-to-day
working HD as Secondary Master. With this configuration you can easily boot
to whatever disk you have in your removable tray. And when you want to boot
to your SM drive, simply turn the rack's keylock to the OFF position.
Art