Reinstalling windows

[annonymous]

Is it true that computer can't be booted by an external CD drive having the
windows xp cd and connected with the computer through USB cable?
thanks.

 

[Big Al]

Is it true that computer can't be booted by an external CD drive having the
windows xp cd and connected with the computer through USB cable?
thanks.

Your BIOS has to support booting from a USB device first.
This is not standard on older motherboards. Check your BIOS.
Then it has to be first in the list of boot devices.

 

[Anna]

Your BIOS has to support booting from a USB device first.
This is not standard on older motherboards. Check your BIOS.
Then it has to be first in the list of boot devices.

"annonymous"...
We have never been successful in booting to a USB-connected external HDD in
the XP environment (at least in any reliable way). And we've worked with a
large variety of systems that ostensibly had USB boot capability. However, a
number of users have reported that they have indeed been successful in
booting to a USBEHD containing a potentially-bootable XP OS. But as I've
indicated we have never been able to duplicate this capability.

Having said all that, if you want to pursue the matter further...

Take a look at this Fred Langa article where Fred purports to have come up
with a process to achieve this "bootability". See
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticleSrc.jhtml?articleID=177102101

Also, a poster to one of the MS XP newsgroups claimed that he too has come
up with a methodology to do this as well. See
http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

And here's another one...
http://www.vandomburg.net/installing-windows-xp-from-usb/

(I haven't checked the above links in some time to determine if they're
still active.)

No doubt a Google search will reveal a good deal of information on this
issue.

What we recommend should a user desire boot capability from an external HDD
is to use a SATA external HDD that provides SATA-to-SATA connectivity
(between the external enclosure-SATA HDD and the PC). Naturally the system
must have SATA capability to begin with and a connection must be made to one
of the motherboard's SATA connectors or through a SATA or eSATA ("e" for
"external") port on the PC, or through a SATA adapter on the desktop PC's
case. (It's a different type of system where a laptop/notebook is involved).
Anna

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

In order for the BIOS setting to make any difference Windows has to support
booting from the usb bus. It doesn't.

 

[Big Al]

In order for the BIOS setting to make any difference Windows has to
support booting from the usb bus. It doesn't.

I agree that Microsoft says it won't work but this link seems to suggest
someone has been able to overcome that limitation.
http://www.ngine.de/article/id/8
Granted they have modified the standard XP CD files to make things work.
It is not an 'out of the box' CD.
Still it looks like more work than its worth.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

What is going on is a bit of hedging. MS has been part of the standards
group working on standards for booting from usb devices. It has been the
lengthy standards process that has held them back. Microsoft's position in
the enterprise computing market, however, makes them very conservative about
adopting preliminary standards in this area and they did not do so for XP or
Vista.

I believe they are past that now and I expect Windows 7 to have the support
for polling the usb bus for bootable devices. The interest, of course, is
being able to boot a usb optical device because there are a host of uses in
technical work (diagnosis, repair, etc). There is not much attraction as an
alternative for running a system drive off of the usb bus because of the
slow transfer rates. With newer machines supporting external eSATA that is
a much more attractive option for mounting a boot drive externally (and in
fact I do this already).

That is not to say that there are no operating systems that can already boot
from usb because there are (in the Linux world). For those OSs that can
already boot from usb the BIOS option is vital.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Is it true that computer can't be booted by an external CD drive having the
windows xp cd and connected with the computer through USB cable?
thanks.

No, it's not - general - true. It depends entirely upon the
capabilities of the specific computer. Most newer machines are
perfectly capable of booting from USB devices, including external drives
and even thumb drives.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Unknown]

Yes you can boot from an USB device. BUT, Can you boot Windows XP OS from an
USB port?
Who does it?????

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

IIRC there are some Linux distros that can boot from usb. Windows could be
written to but until recently the international standards have been
preliminary and I suspect that MS cannot risk adopting preliminary standards
for something like that because of its enterprise customer base. The
support is offered in BIOSs on newer machines because development cannot
move forward without that step.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Yes you can boot from an USB device. BUT, Can you boot Windows XP OS from an
USB port?

Microsoft designs its operating systems so this cannot be done.

Who does it?????

I've read of hacks to make it possible, but don't know any specifics
try Google.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[C.Joseph S. Drayton]

Yes you can boot from an USB device. BUT, Can you boot Windows XP OS
from an USB port? Who does it?????

Yes you defintely can. I did so a few months ago when testing some
questions that were asked in another Usenet group about ExpressCARDS.
While I was verifying the express cards, I decided that I would try
from a USB hard disk. The only problem of course was that you have to
do a repair install before the system is usable. Not very practical for
a technician if they have to do a repair install every time they
connect to a customers machine to work on it.

--

Sincerely,
C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T

CSD Computer Services

Please excuse the TEMPORARY web site

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