XP: Boot off a memory card? Thumb drive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter FrankEdwards
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FrankEdwards

Is this easily done? Just configure the bios to boot of that external
device and should it work? Do I need special drivers for the boot device?
 
You may INSTALL XP FROM an external device IF the motherboard supports
booting from it. XP doesn't support RUNNING from an external drive if
that's what you are asking.
 
Is this easily done?  Just configure the bios to boot of that external  
device and should it work?  Do I need special drivers for the boot device?
Click to expand...

PC will boot off a USB flash / hard drive but only if it it not a
Windows XP.
 
I said boot. I meant boot. :) Running an OS off a USB device would have
horrible performance I would think, wouldn't it? We're talking USB 2 here
not USB 3. USB 3 will be a different matter. That will really change a
lot of interconnectivity issues.
 
Is this easily done? Just configure the bios to boot of that external
PC will boot off a USB flash / hard drive but only if it it not a
Windows XP.
Click to expand...

What? Can you try that again? (Proof reading works.)
 
What?  Can you try that again?  (Proof reading works.)
Click to expand...

You can get most standard PCs to boot off a USB hard drive only if the
drive is not boot a Windows directly. Microsoft has purposely made
most Windows to not permit to boot off a USB device. Their only
exceptions are USB floppy drive access for additional drivers and USB
CD / DVD drives for the "true" Windows install disks.

Several other operating systems (aka Linux) can directly boot up from
a USB drive. And some "ingenious" Windows users have been known to be
successful in "cloning" a valid XP onto a USB drive and got it to boot.
 
Upon rereading this I think I may have used the wrong wording. To
clarify, I want to install WinXP from a USB drive or another Sata drive.
When I said "Boot off" I should have said "Boot and Install off a memory
card". I'm pretty sure most Bioses these days allow one to boot of a USB
external device, right?
 
Have a look here:

http://www.ubcd4win.com

This project, based on BartPE, allows you to boot a PE version of XP from a
CD, DVD, or USB (if your BIOS supports it). There are some limitations as to
what you can do with the PE version of XP, but for most things it works
pretty well.
 
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