Booting XP to external HD

[Grey]

Suppose I have a laptop and I want to bypass booting the C: drive by booting
off an external USB HD with WinXP Pro on it. I know by default this cannot
be done, but is there something I can run off a bootable CD which would then
allow XP to run of the external HD?

Graham

 

[Guest]

(From [Tsuniper-X])
Apparently, based on my learning, i haven't seen anyone have ability to boot
up with external HD. However, i can not say "YOU CAN'T BOOT!" because my
computer BIOS has an option saying something like "Enable Boot USB Drive".
This option has been killing me since i bought my Ext. HD because i just
couldn't boot! Well, the "common sense" for booting is that the computer(Not
OS) must have enough information about drives and stuff to boot successfully.
This means, if your Ext. HD has to be installed by the plug&play stuff, i
don't think you can boot with it. I'm guessing if computer manufacturers
start adding drives to BIOS, you "might" be able to boot with Ext. HD.
--
[W]hat''s
[C]hris''s
[D]ecision
for
[C]ompany?
Tsuniper-X -> ID -> 1.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Windows Vista cannot be installed on a USB drive.
It can only be installed on an internal drive.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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

:

| Suppose I have a laptop and I want to bypass booting the C: drive by booting
| off an external USB HD with WinXP Pro on it. I know by default this cannot
| be done, but is there something I can run off a bootable CD which would then
| allow XP to run of the external HD?
|
| Graham

 

[Malke]

Suppose I have a laptop and I want to bypass booting the C: drive by
booting off an external USB HD with WinXP Pro on it. I know by default
this cannot be done, but is there something I can run off a bootable
CD which would then allow XP to run of the external HD?

Graham

Because you've presented your question as a hypothetical, you're going
to get those sort of research-oriented answers. If that's what you
wanted, great. However, if you have a problem that you're trying to
solve post back with details to get focused troubleshooting.

As others have told you, although some people have claimed to be able to
boot XP from an external drive, the only way it has been done is with
an external SATA drive that appears to the system to be an internal
drive.

You cannot run XP off a "live" cd as you can some Linux distros. You
cannot run XP off a usb drive.

Malke

 

[Grey]

Windows Vista cannot be installed on a USB drive.
It can only be installed on an internal drive.

Fortunately, I have XP Pro - not Vista.

Graham

 

[Malke]

Fortunately, I have XP Pro - not Vista.

Graham

While it is true that Carey made a mistake in his posting, you still
can't boot XP from a usb drive. See previous posts and do a Google
Groups search for this topic to find lots of discussions about the
subject.

Malke

 

[Brian]

Have a look at BartsPE Builder - create CD Boot disk - it creates a sort of
mini XP on the CD disk. Plug in your USB drive and boot from the CD. There
is a programme on there called A43 which will let you access the files on
your C drive. It's perhaps the nearest to what you want to achieve. Perhaps
some more knowledgeable contributors to this NG can shed more light on this
facility than I can - I'm no expert!!

http://65.24.134.81/KipSolutions/BootableCDrom/BartsPE.htm

Brian.

Suppose I have a laptop and I want to bypass booting the C: drive by
booting
off an external USB HD with WinXP Pro on it. I know by default this cannot
be done, but is there something I can run off a bootable CD which would
then
allow XP to run of the external HD?

Graham




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[Yves Leclerc]

While it is true that Carey made a mistake in his posting, you still
can't boot XP from a usb drive. See previous posts and do a Google
Groups search for this topic to find lots of discussions about the
subject.

Malke

Although the rule of thumb is that XP can not be setup as bootable on a
USB/Firewire external hard drive, there has been reports, via this very
newsgroup, that if you "clone" a booting internal XP drive to a USB/Firewire
external drive, you can make it bootable. However, I never needed to do this
(yet??)