How to install OS in external USB HDD

[churin]

I connected a USB HDD to my PC where Vista is installed in its internal
SATA HDD, formatted a partition in the USB HDD, and attempted to install
WXP by booting from CDROM and pointing to the partition, but at the
first reboot, "ntldr is missing" was reported. Windows Vista became
unbootable so I had to repair it to make it bootable again.

Could anyone help me to install Windows XP in an external USB HDD in the
above situation?

 

[Malke]

I connected a USB HDD to my PC where Vista is installed in its internal
SATA HDD, formatted a partition in the USB HDD, and attempted to install
WXP by booting from CDROM and pointing to the partition, but at the
first reboot, "ntldr is missing" was reported. Windows Vista became
unbootable so I had to repair it to make it bootable again.

Could anyone help me to install Windows XP in an external USB HDD in the
above situation?

XP can't boot from an external hard drive, so this isn't going to work for
you. It might be able to boot from an external e-SATA drive if your
motherboard has e-SATA connections and your BIOS supports booting from an
e-SATA device.


Malke

 

[churin]

XP can't boot from an external hard drive, so this isn't going to work for
you. It might be able to boot from an external e-SATA drive if your
motherboard has e-SATA connections and your BIOS supports booting from an
e-SATA device.

Malke

Thank you for enlightening me about it. The BIOS appears that USB drive
can be placed in the boot order list. Does this mean that Windows Vista
can be installed in an external USB HDD?

 

[Malke]

churin wrote:

Thank you for enlightening me about it. The BIOS appears that USB drive
can be placed in the boot order list. Does this mean that Windows Vista
can be installed in an external USB HDD?

No. As I said, XP will not boot from an external hard drive. There have been
reports that it has been done with hacks, but I've never seen it reported
successfully with full details. You'll need to Google around if you want to
pursue that.

An e-SATA drive is held in an external drive enclosure but connects directly
to the motherboard. So even though it is physically outside of your
computer, it is technically inside your computer. I don't know whether XP
will boot from an e-SATA drive - and I expect you'd need to provide drive
controller drivers (F6) during installation. If you want to pursue this
avenue, then Google around for something like "XP boot from e-SATA drive"
and see what you come up with.


Malke

 

[andy]

I connected a USB HDD to my PC where Vista is installed in its internal
SATA HDD, formatted a partition in the USB HDD, and attempted to install
WXP by booting from CDROM and pointing to the partition, but at the
first reboot, "ntldr is missing" was reported. Windows Vista became
unbootable so I had to repair it to make it bootable again.

Could anyone help me to install Windows XP in an external USB HDD in the
above situation?

If you really want to do it, you can try using the procedure detailed
at
Installing and booting Windows XP from USB drive -- Guide
<http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176>.

 

[churin]

If you really want to do it, you can try using the procedure detailed
at
Installing and booting Windows XP from USB drive -- Guide
<http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176>.

Thanks for the info.

 

[churin]

churin wrote:



No. As I said, XP will not boot from an external hard drive. There have been
reports that it has been done with hacks, but I've never seen it reported
successfully with full details. You'll need to Google around if you want to
pursue that.

An e-SATA drive is held in an external drive enclosure but connects directly
to the motherboard. So even though it is physically outside of your
computer, it is technically inside your computer. I don't know whether XP
will boot from an e-SATA drive - and I expect you'd need to provide drive
controller drivers (F6) during installation. If you want to pursue this
avenue, then Google around for something like "XP boot from e-SATA drive"
and see what you come up with.


Malke

Thanks for the follow-up. The link in Andy's post seems to be what I
want to try.