Booting XP Off USB HD

[The7thColumn]

I just got a NexStar 2 Hard Drive Enclosure that is USB 2.0, I am
trying to boot Windows XP off of it. I have XP SP1 Installed on the
portable HD. When I boot I have the bios set to boot USB- HD (and only
that) It goes all the way to the loading screen with the moving blue
squares then reboots. It dose this over and over.

Can you help me?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I just got a NexStar 2 Hard Drive Enclosure that is USB 2.0, I am
trying to boot Windows XP off of it. I have XP SP1 Installed on the
portable HD. When I boot I have the bios set to boot USB- HD (and
only that) It goes all the way to the loading screen with the
moving blue squares then reboots. It dose this over and over.

Can you help me?

Is it possible. Conflicting stories out there.
Your best bet is to sort through the many articles and claims out there on
the Internet and see what you come up with..

 

[Guest]

Sorry, but you cannot install Windows XP
on an external hard drive....only an internal
hard drive.

 

[The7thColumn]

Is it possible. Conflicting stories out there.
Your best bet is to sort through the many articles and claims out there on
the Internet and see what you come up with..

I have but did not find anything usefull.

 

[Jan Alter]

I haven't heard of it being done myself at this point. It is an easy thing
to accomplish with an Apple machine with OS X.

 

[Rock]

I just got a NexStar 2 Hard Drive Enclosure that is USB 2.0, I am
trying to boot Windows XP off of it. I have XP SP1 Installed on the
portable HD. When I boot I have the bios set to boot USB- HD (and only
that) It goes all the way to the loading screen with the moving blue
squares then reboots. It dose this over and over.

Can you help me?

I haven't seen any clear evidence that it can be done to an external USB
2.0 drive. It can be done to an external SATA drive if the SATA is
connected to the motherboard so it is in reality an "internal drive"
placed in an external chassis.

 

[Alan]

I just got a NexStar 2 Hard Drive Enclosure that is USB 2.0, I am
trying to boot Windows XP off of it. I have XP SP1 Installed on the
portable HD. When I boot I have the bios set to boot USB- HD (and only
that) It goes all the way to the loading screen with the moving blue
squares then reboots. It dose this over and over.

Can you help me?

The USB drivers will need to be installed before the USB drive can be read
to install the OS. I doubt it is straight forward but may be possible. There
is a USB site with all kinds of help- a web search will bring help- air
usbman is the name.

 

[Guest]

There's a bootable CD offered regularly on EBAY that claims to sort out ALL
problems like this - might be worth investin a few $ and trying this.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I just got a NexStar 2 Hard Drive Enclosure that is USB 2.0, I am
trying to boot Windows XP off of it. I have XP SP1 Installed on
the portable HD. When I boot I have the bios set to boot USB- HD
(and only that) It goes all the way to the loading screen with
the moving blue squares then reboots. It dose this over and over.

Can you help me?

I haven't seen any clear evidence that it can be done to an
external USB 2.0 drive. It can be done to an external SATA
drive if the SATA is connected to the motherboard so it is in
reality an "internal drive" placed in an external chassis.

There's a bootable CD offered regularly on EBAY that claims to sort
out ALL problems like this - might be worth investin a few $ and
trying this.

People are charging for products like these:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
http://www.ubcd4win.com/
http://ebcd.pcministry.com/
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

And likely dozens of other examples - both Windows/*nix and DOS based
utility CDs/DVDs made to get you out of jams or easily made if you can
follow instructions.

It's called, "I know the consumer won't research or will and decide this is
not worth their time so I can make a buck."
In other words, people being lazy.

 

[The7thColumn]

I have it ON the drive allready!

it wont boot even with the BIOS set to USB HD

 

[R. McCarty]

How did you get XP onto the USB HD ? - Would assume you
transferred an existing XP image on to it, as XP setup won't do
an install to a "Removable" disk drive.

There are many web sites that have instructions on how to cobble
together a USB boot setup. It's really a non-supported config &
there are just too many variables/settings (Chipset Families), BIOS
....to give specific help. Even if you get it running, the performance
is going to be poor (~23-25 Megabytes-Per-Second = (DMA 2)).

As to your current issue, do you have the "Legacy" feature of USB
enabled. I would think you'd need that to be able to mount the HD
(Pre-GUI). Also would need to check the Boot.Ini on the USB to
see if it correct points to the USB-HD.

I experimented with it (USB Boot) a bit - but finally just took the
external SATA route, which works quite well.