one external HD with multiple computers

[Spoon2001]

Is it possible to use a single external hard drive as a boot drive with
several different computers? For example, consider an external SATA drive.
I read that external SATA ports will soon be common on motherboards. It
would be great if we could just move our external SATA drive to whatever
computer we happened to be using, plug it in, and boot up. Of course, the
computer must be set up to boot up from that external drive, or allow you to
select the boot drive. And then, when you boot from the external drive, you
must be able to tell WinXP which computer you are booting from, or WinXP
must auto-detect the computer, so that the appropriate drivers for that
computer's hardware can be loaded. Could the XP Hardware Profile feature
handle this sort of thing? Obviously it would work much better if XP
already knows what hardware is on a given computer, rather than having to
search for components and install drivers every time.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Is it possible to use a single external hard drive as a boot drive with
several different computers? For example, consider an external SATA drive.
I read that external SATA ports will soon be common on motherboards. It
would be great if we could just move our external SATA drive to whatever
computer we happened to be using, plug it in, and boot up. Of course, the
computer must be set up to boot up from that external drive, or allow you to
select the boot drive. And then, when you boot from the external drive, you
must be able to tell WinXP which computer you are booting from, or WinXP
must auto-detect the computer, so that the appropriate drivers for that
computer's hardware can be loaded. Could the XP Hardware Profile feature
handle this sort of thing? Obviously it would work much better if XP
already knows what hardware is on a given computer, rather than having to
search for components and install drivers every time.

You can use an external hard disk as a data disk on several
different PCs. However, you cannot use it as a system disk,
for these reasons:
a) You cannot boot from an external hard disk, and
b) Windows won't run properly when you move the disk to different hardware.

 

[Anna]

You can use an external hard disk as a data disk on several
different PCs. However, you cannot use it as a system disk,
for these reasons:
a) You cannot boot from an external hard disk, and
b) Windows won't run properly when you move the disk to different
hardware.

Pegasus (and Spoon2001):
Just one clarification re your comment above...

Note the OP is referring to an external SATA HD, *not* the typical USB
external HD. Under these circumstances the system will treat the SATA HD as
an *internal* HD even though it's physically located outside the computer's
case. This *external* SATA drive will be connected either via an eSATA (note
the "e" for "external") port on the motherboard, or directly connected to an
internal SATA port on the motherboard.

Thus, under these circumstances the SATA drive *will* be bootable on its
original system. However, as you have pointed out, this does *not* mean that
drive will be portable in the sense that a user could transport it to
another XP system and it will automatically boot to that system. It would be
analogous to transferring an internal HD from one system to another.

However, even with this latter limitation, there are enormous advantages to
an "external" SATA HD. Unlike a USBEHD, the SATA drive *will* be bootable
with respect to the system on which it is installed. This capability has
eluded us with USBEHDs. And the performance (read speed) of the SATA drive
is vastly superior to a USB or Firewire EHD.

The eSATA motherboard ports are coming online. I know ASUS & ECS have
released MBs with this capability, and I believe Gigabyte as well. And
surely the eSATA port will become a standard feature on many, if not
virtually all, motherboards in the very near future.
Anna

 

[Al Dykes]

You can use an external hard disk as a data disk on several
different PCs. However, you cannot use it as a system disk,
for these reasons:
a) You cannot boot from an external hard disk, and
b) Windows won't run properly when you move the disk to different hardware.

XP, and the BIOS shouldn't know that a SATA disk on an external SATA
cable, right?


If you connect a SATA disk to one PC after another and install a fresh
XP instance in a seperate folder on each one it should work fine.

Boot.ini will have an entry for each and every XP instance and you'll
be able to pick the right one each time you boot. If you pick the wrong one
you could be f**cked.

You'll have to buy a seperate copy of XP for each machine.

LOL.

 

[Spoon2001]

Great replies, thanks very much.

I think it would be great if we take one external SATA drive on different
machines. Security - when not using the computer we could detach the drive
and lock it away. (On the other hand, it would also be easy for someone to
snatch your drive from your computer. Convenience - have your data
accessible no matter where you are.

Licensing is a bugaboo. Currently the license is tied to the computer -
move it to a different computer, and XP detects it and requires a new
activation. Maybe a license to use the OS copy could be tied to the USER,
so that he could use the same OS copy on any machine - that copy would be
used on one computer at a time!

I wouldn't want to buy a Firewire or USB drive now, with eSATA arriving. I
looked over at Fry's the other day - tons of Firewire/USB external drives.
The only external SATA drive available was one made by Acomdata. Of course
there should also be kits to put an internal SATA drive into an external
enclosure.

 

[Al Dykes]

Great replies, thanks very much.

I think it would be great if we take one external SATA drive on different
machines. Security - when not using the computer we could detach the drive
and lock it away. (On the other hand, it would also be easy for someone to
snatch your drive from your computer. Convenience - have your data
accessible no matter where you are.

With external drives of any type, what scares the sh*t out of me is a
power glitch with whatever cheapo wall wart is powering the backpack.
At the very least I need to plug it into the same UPS as powers the
system.

I'd want heat monitoring if it was going to be used full time.

What you are doing is *not* a backup strategy.

 

[Anna]

Great replies, thanks very much.

I think it would be great if we take one external SATA drive on different
machines. Security - when not using the computer we could detach the
drive and lock it away. (On the other hand, it would also be easy for
someone to snatch your drive from your computer. Convenience - have your
data accessible no matter where you are.

Licensing is a bugaboo. Currently the license is tied to the computer -
move it to a different computer, and XP detects it and requires a new
activation. Maybe a license to use the OS copy could be tied to the USER,
so that he could use the same OS copy on any machine - that copy would be
used on one computer at a time!

I wouldn't want to buy a Firewire or USB drive now, with eSATA arriving.
I looked over at Fry's the other day - tons of Firewire/USB external
drives. The only external SATA drive available was one made by Acomdata.
Of course there should also be kits to put an internal SATA drive into an
external enclosure.

Re your last comment...

Note that one would not need a type of enclosure for the external SATA HD
similar to that of a USB/Firewire external HD. As I previously mentioned, an
external SATA HD is, for all practical purposes, treated identically as an
*internal* HD by the system. That's the beauty of a external SATA HD. As
such, it will ordinarily be powered by the computer's power supply, rather
than an external PS as is needed by a USB/Firewire device. While I'm not
recommending this setup, you could just as easily plop the drive in a cigar
box or even place the bare drive on your computer desk adjacent to your
computer should that be convenient. In our case, since we generally work
with removable HDs in their mobile racks, we've been using the removable
tray/caddy used in these devices to contain the external SATA HD.
Anna

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Anna

A SATA drive needs as much protection as any other drive, and would indeed
require a cooled enclosure..

While it may be ok to have a SATA port on the outside of the computer case,
I can't see a SATA power outlet appearing any time soon.. there would be too
much chance of the external drive screwing up the computer's own PS.. power
would, therefore, have to come via a power brick..

Seems to me that this idea is becoming messy.. cables, external power
supplies, the problem of an OS not booting because of changes in base
hardware, certainly re. Windows..

 

[Al Dykes]

Anna

A SATA drive needs as much protection as any other drive, and would indeed
require a cooled enclosure..

While it may be ok to have a SATA port on the outside of the computer case,
I can't see a SATA power outlet appearing any time soon.. there would be too
much chance of the external drive screwing up the computer's own PS.. power
would, therefore, have to come via a power brick..

Seems to me that this idea is becoming messy.. cables, external power
supplies, the problem of an OS not booting because of changes in base
hardware, certainly re. Windows..

Yup. Depending on what you are doing, a SATA disk carrier may be a
*much* more robust solution.

 

[Anna]

Anna

A SATA drive needs as much protection as any other drive, and would indeed
require a cooled enclosure..

While it may be ok to have a SATA port on the outside of the computer
case, I can't see a SATA power outlet appearing any time soon.. there
would be too much chance of the external drive screwing up the computer's
own PS.. power would, therefore, have to come via a power brick..

Seems to me that this idea is becoming messy.. cables, external power
supplies, the problem of an OS not booting because of changes in base
hardware, certainly re. Windows..

Mike:
It's really not terribly "messy". Actually (from a physical point of view)
there's very little difference between a SATA HD residing outside the
computer's case vs. a USB/Firewire external hard drive. In the case of the
USB/Firewire device a separate power supply is needed; in the case of the
SATA drive the computer's PS supplies the power. With respect to the latter,
there's really no appreciable difference between the computer's PS supplying
power to that device or any other computer component. The sole difference is
that the power cable running from the external SATA drive to the computer's
PS connector would be (partially) outside the case. Is this really so
different from the PS situation involving a USB/Firewire EHD?

We've been working with the ASUS P5WD2 motherboard which contains a eSATA
port (again, "e" for "external") which, of course, provides signal cable
support for the SATA HD. Unfortunately, ASUS did not provide an external
power connector adjacent to the eSATA port, necessitating running the power
cable from the drive directly to one of the PS connectors. It's an omission
that puzzles us and I would make book that future motherboards containing
the eSATA port *will* also include an external SATA power connector.

I'm at a loss to understand your comment that "there would be too much
chance of the external drive screwing up the computer's own PS.. power
would, therefore, have to come via a power brick.". As I mentioned above,
supplying power to the external SATA drive from the computer's PS is no
different than the PS supplying power to any other powered component in the
computer.

We've been working with the above-noted ASUS motherboard and various
external SATA HDs over the past three months or so. Aside from the minor
inconvenience of snaking a power cable from the drive to the computer's PS
connector, we've found no downside to using this hardware arrangement.
Indeed, in our view, it is far, far superior to using a USB/Firewire
external HD for the reasons I've previously mentioned, to wit...
1. The significantly superior performance of a SATA HD compared to a
USB/Firewire EHD.
2. The fact that a user can now have a *bootable* XP operating system on an
external HD since the system treats this "external" SATA HD as an internal
one.
3. The external SATA HD is (in most cases) "hot-pluggable".

As to enclosures for the external SATA HD - it is unnecessary that any
elaborate enclosure be used since no built-in PS is necessary, nor any
internal "conversion" system is necessary since there's a *direct* signal
(data) cable connection between the drive and the computer's SATA connector.
Since we've been testing out a number of SATA HDs in this configuration, we
frequently use a bare drive sans enclosure without any problems, although
obviously we would *not* recommend this for the average user. As I've
previously mentioned, since we generally work with removable HDs in their
mobile racks, we've been using the removable tray/caddy used in these
devices to contain the external SATA HD. We have encountered no heat-related
problems running these devices 8 - 16 hrs. daily.

BTW, there's another device we came across that users may be interested in
to connect an external SATA HD. It's called the SATAPOWPLAT1, manufactured
or distributed by StarTech. It's available from http://www.cwol.com for
about $19 (incl shipping) - at least the last time I looked. buy.com shows
it for much cheaper, but it's never in stock. I assume the device is also
available from other online vendors. Based on our limited experience with
this device, it seems to work just fine.

This device is simply attached to the I/O bracket on the computer case's
backplane. It comes with two external connectors - the SATA signal/data
connector and the 15-pin SATA power connector. Internally (the other side of
its slot plate) is, of course, the SATA data connector and the normal 4-pin
Molex power plug. So it's a simple matter to connect the device to one of
the
power leads of your PS. Why ASUS didn't use the same simple
(power)configuration with its eSATA connector is beyond me. Note that the
SATA data connector on this SATAPOWPLAT1 device is a standard SATA data
connector; it is not an eSATA connector.

As I've previously indicated, the advantages of an external SATA HD over
other storage devices are so substantial that I foresee the not-too-distant
day when it will be the device of choice for most users. I know we have
purchased our last USB/Firewire external hard drive.
Anna

 

[Anna]

Yup. Depending on what you are doing, a SATA disk carrier may be a
*much* more robust solution.

Al:
Please see my recent response to Mike Hall's post re this issue.
Anna

 

[Spoon2001]

Great stuff Anna - especially good to hear about your real-world experience.

Googling up SATAPOWPLAT1 turns up lots of links.

Here's the first one, $13 for the SATAPOWPLAT1.

http://www.aboutcomputerparts.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?ProductID=SATAPOWPLAT1

 

[kenny]

swapping hard drives with win98 was far easier... you could use the same
installation on both computers, without blue screens and activation
problems...

of course you needed 2 liscences then too.. since the eula was the same