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Windows Forum / Windows XP / Hardware / August 2005Boot from a External Drive - Possible?
Hi, I was running a three-computer workgroup: Win2kPro, Win2kAS and WinXP-Pro. I stupidly hosed the latter two machines. I wrecked the XP machine by making a mistake when trying to use Partition Magic to expanded XP partition. The AS machine somehow lost NTLDR. All machines have multiple NT partitions. I bought an external hard drive with goal of installing an OS on that drive using my still-working machine, then moving it successively to each of dead machines in order to recover important data from their hard drives before trying to reinstall OSs on them. If that seems workable, I assume I should install Linux on the external drive because it could read NT partitions. Id rather put XP on the external drive when attached to my 2K machine, but fear that HAL from the 2K machine qould be inappropriate when installing the external drive and booting from it on the other machines. Does any of this make any sense? Thanks in advance, Richard Windows XP, or any other operating system, cannot be installed on an external drive. How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm  SignatureCarey Frisch Microsoft MVP Windows XP - Shell/User Microsoft Newsgroups ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Hi, | [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] | Thanks in advance, | Richard Linux can. SignatureThe best live web video on the internet http://www.seedsv.com/webdemo.htm NEW Embedded system W/Linux. We now sell DVR cards. See it all at http://www.seedsv.com/products.htm Sharpvision simply the best http://www.seedsv.com > Windows XP, or any other operating system, > cannot be installed on an external drive. [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > | Thanks in advance, > | Richard No it cannot. Please do not make unsubstantiated claims! SignatureCarey Frisch Microsoft MVP Windows XP - Shell/User Microsoft Newsgroups ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Linux can. Linux will boot and run from a thumbdrive, cd, external, internal, and network drive. Because YOU don't know how does not make it wrong. Booting Linux off of a USB drive. http://www.simonf.com/usb/ Other links Knoppix Live Linux CD : http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=44 Red Hat Linux : http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=7 Mandrake Linux : http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=29 Fedora Project : http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=64 www.google.com/linux www.distrowatch.com SignatureThe best live web video on the internet http://www.seedsv.com/webdemo.htm NEW Embedded system W/Linux. We now sell DVR cards. See it all at http://www.seedsv.com/products.htm Sharpvision simply the best http://www.seedsv.com > No it cannot. Please do not make unsubstantiated claims! > > | Linux can. USB booting must be supported by the mobo and BIOS. SignatureThe people think the Constitution protects their rights; But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome. some support http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm | Linux will boot and run from a thumbdrive, cd, external, internal, and | network drive. Because YOU don't know how does not make it wrong. [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] | > | > | Linux can. Hi Jim, Thanks for the input. My mother boards are all Intel's running Pentium 5, so my guess (hope?) is they're ok. But I'll check the BIOS setup on the target machines. Regards, Richard > USB booting must be supported by the mobo and BIOS. > [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > | > No it cannot. Please do not make unsubstantiated > claims! > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > | > > | > | Linux can. Where did you get a mobo and proc from the future? There is no such thing as a Pentium 5. Bobby > Hi Jim, > [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] >> | > >> | > | Linux can. Hi Bobby, > Where did you get a mobo and proc from the future? There is no such thing > as a Pentium 5. I got it by moving faster than light :-). I just did that from memory. My oldest machine (which thankfully is still running) says in System Properties/General: Computer: x86 Family 6 Mode 7 Stepping. Hell, that sounds like a Pentium 6 :-) Actually, I think its a 550MHz Pentium. My crashed XP system is a 2GHz Pentium. My crashed Win2kAS system is maybe a 400 MHz. Pentium. On the bright side, I got a 160GB external drive with a USB2 interface. I'll post when I have something to report. Regards, Richard I don't know about Mac OS6.x, it's been so long since I used it but Macintosh operationg systems from 7.0 to 9.x could all be booted from external SCSI hard drives. I believe OS10.x can also be booted from external devices. Carey, Thank you very much for your response. Did you see the reply to your response from "pcbutts1" suggesting that I could boot Linux on an external hard drive? Should I interpret "any other OS" to mean "any other Windows OS", ro do you think "pcbutts1" is incorrect and I wouldn't have any success. I'd like to get a concensus on this before going to all the trouble on this $150 1.6GB USB-interfaced drive. If my prospects of getting this to work are dim, I'd rather take the drive back to Radio Shack. Again, thanks for your response. I appreciate it very much. Regards, Richard > Windows XP, or any other operating system, > cannot be installed on an external drive. [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > | Thanks in advance, > | Richard > Windows XP, or any other operating system, > cannot be installed on an external drive. > > How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install > http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm snip So you can't boot DOS from a floppy, interesting. I and so many others have been booting DOS from external media since Noah was a lad :). Hi Edward, > > Windows XP, or any other operating system, > > cannot be installed on an external drive. > snip > So you can't boot DOS from a floppy, interesting. I and so many others have > been booting DOS from external media since Noah was a lad :). Good point !! Thanks for weighing in. Regards, Richard Pardon me...last time I checked this newsgroup was about the Windows XP operating system. SignatureTed Zieglar "You can do it if you try." > > Windows XP, or any other operating system, > > cannot be installed on an external drive. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > So you can't boot DOS from a floppy, interesting. I and so many others have > been booting DOS from external media since Noah was a lad :). He Ted, Why are you following this thread if you think the posts here are inappropriate? Since the title of this NG is ...WindowsXP.Hardware, it's about HARDWARE used to run XP, not about XP per se. Don't you agree? Regards, Richard > Pardon me...last time I checked this newsgroup was about the Windows XP > operating system. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > have > > been booting DOS from external media since Noah was a lad :). My post was a follow on from Carey's post. There are no 'rules' for what this or any newsgroup can discuss, but if you want to expose your question to a forum where you are most likely to find the greatest number of people who are knowledgable on your topic, it wouldn't be here. SignatureTed Zieglar "You can do it if you try." > He Ted, > [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > have > > > been booting DOS from external media since Noah was a lad :). Hi Ted, I'm sorry, I interpreted the comment as flaming. It seems to me the a discussion about mounting an external drive, intializing it with WinXP, and trying to boot from it is very much relevant to this NG. What NGs do you think would elicit a greater response? BTW, notice that there have been dozens of responses in this thread. Regards, Richard Muller > My post was a follow on from Carey's post. > [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > > have > > > > been booting DOS from external media since Noah was a lad :). What external drive: SATA? Firewire? --PA > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > Thanks in advance, > Richard Hi Pavel, Thanks for the response. I've got a 160GB USB-interfaced drive with its own power adapter. Regards, Richard > What external drive: SATA? Firewire? > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > Thanks in advance, > > Richard Richard, WinXP can not run off USB drive. Never, ever :( A setup of WinXP or recovery console can run from a CD, so you can use it to repair the installed system. External SATA disk in a box, connected to internal controller, is actually an internal disk, like SCSI, so it will work. Good luck, --PA > Hi Pavel, > [quoted text clipped - 41 lines] >> > Thanks in advance, >> > Richard Thanks for the additional info, Pavel. Based on various comments, I checked to see whether any on my BIOSs would let me specify booting from a USB port. None would. So even though I bought the 160GB external drive, I've abandoned that idea. (I'll use it for off-site backup of key data and software.) I just ordered a 200GB Maxtor that has both ATA and EIDE interfaces. I've got a card that matches it for both interfaces and the 133mbps transfer rate. The only wrinke is the card doesn't support the full 120GB, but I can switch it to another another drive and use the motherboard for the 200gb connection (maybe with a bios upgrade). Anyway, I can get that disk set up with an OS using my Win2000Pro computer, which thankfully I haven't screwed up. Then I can transfer the disk and card to each dead computer successively and get them running again without any loss of data. I see just one problem: If I install Win2kPro or WinXP-Pro on the Maxtor, it will include the HAL appropriate to my Win2KPro machine. Will that disk work correctly on my dead WinXP-Pro and Win2kAS machines. If not, then I'll install Linux on the Maxtor and create some NT partitions, copy data from one of the dead machines onto it and then install the appropriate Windows setup disk on the machine to reinstall Windows on that machine. How's that sound? I hope this diatribe wasn't too long winded for you. Regards, Richard My co > Richard, > [quoted text clipped - 53 lines] > >> > Thanks in advance, > >> > Richard A very simple solution is to perform a "repair install" on the computer that is having problems. How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm SignatureCarey Frisch Microsoft MVP Windows XP - Shell/User Microsoft Newsgroups ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Thanks for the additional info, Pavel. | [quoted text clipped - 95 lines] | > >> > Thanks in advance, | > >> > Richard Hi Carey, Thanks for responding again. I looked briefly at the "repair install" site, but it looks to me that I need to be able to boot with my WinXP-Pro CD on my dead machine. The BIOS Boot Sequence is set to Removble/CDROM/HardDrive. The floppy drive is empty. The primary CDROM drive has my CD in it (and I've booted from it in the past when I had an OS running on the machine.) After I click F10 in BIOS Setup I get the Intel graphic and then a blank black screen for a minute until "Boot Failure: System Halted" in white letters appears. So it looks like I can't implement that approach. Do you agree? Regards, Richad > A very simple solution is to perform a "repair install" on > the computer that is having problems. [quoted text clipped - 101 lines] > | > >> > Thanks in advance, > | > >> > Richard Hi Carey, I've got just two questions: 1. It looks to me like I can burn the slipstream disk with the WinXP-Pro and SP2forXP CDs' content on my Win2kProSP4 machine, i.e. there'll be no XP stuff trying to interfere with my Win2kProSP4 OS. 2. After burning that CD, is there any hope that it will boot, given that my current WinXP-Pro CD won't boot? If you think this'll work, I'm off to the races!! Regards, Richard > A very simple solution is to perform a "repair install" on > the computer that is having problems. [quoted text clipped - 101 lines] > | > >> > Thanks in advance, > | > >> > Richard If your cd is not bootable then it will not work. Follow the instructions here for creating one. http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html SignatureThe best live web video on the internet http://www.seedsv.com/webdemo.htm NEW Embedded system W/Linux. We now sell DVR cards. See it all at http://www.seedsv.com/products.htm Sharpvision simply the best http://www.seedsv.com > Hi Carey, > [quoted text clipped - 142 lines] >> | > >> > Thanks in advance, >> | > >> > Richard Hey Carey and PC, I thought because the disk started up whenever I installed on a working Windows system, it was bootable. I just looked at the disk in Windows Explorer and recalled that it's the autorun.inf that a running system looks for but there no executable image on the disk. Considering I'm a retired software developer, it's pretty sad that I didn't realize that a long time ago. Thank you, guys, for persisting in getting me on the right track despite my stubborn ignorance. I'll follow the "...Create a bootable CD" guidance. Regards, Richard > Thanks for the additional info, Pavel. > [quoted text clipped - 34 lines] > > My co If you only want to copy some files why not just boot from a CD with the Ultimate Boot CD, BartPe, Knoppix etc. Any of these could be used to copy files to a USB drive. This will be much easier than your proposed solution. Your way unless the motherboards are very similar you will probably have to do a repair install with each system just to get it to boot. Kerry >> Richard, >> [quoted text clipped - 62 lines] >> >> > Thanks in advance, >> >> > Richard OK guys, I'm going to try building/booting an external Linux drive. To one and all, many thanks. And I'll be back bragging about my success or whining about my failure. Thanks to the Universe for Newsgroups. Regards, Richard Hi, Just curious why you don't take an easier route to getting your files back, like installing your old drives as slaves? ---==X={}=X==--- Jim Self AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository. http://avanimation.avsupport.com Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans. http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Technical Counselor Hi Jim, I thought having a bootable external drive would be the neatest solution in the long term. I thought anytime a system crashed in the future, I'd have a painless solution at recovery. I just bought a 200GB internal hard drive and a controller card for it which I'll use shorty on both dead systems, just as you suggest. (I don't think I'll even have to change the jumpers on the two existing hard drives.) Regards, Richard > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) > Technical Counselor > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > Thanks in advance, > Richard XP can be booted from an external device if the motherboard supports it. There are very few motherboards that support this. If yours are among them only the manufacturer of the boards in question can tell you. If you can change the boot device in the BIOS to USB it may work. More than likely it will not. I have tried it successfully on an Intel D915GMHL BTX motherboard. I have not seen it work on any other motherboard. Kerry Thanks Kerry for perhaps the most positive and helpful post to my question. I've picked up a 160GB external drive with a USB2 interface. I'll see how it goes. Regards, Richard > > Hi, > > [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > > Kerry > Thanks Kerry for perhaps the most positive and helpful post to my > question. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Regards, > Richard Your welcome. Hope it works for you. If not then you have a great backup drive. You could always use BartPe or the Ultimate Boot CD to repair the partitions and copy files to the USB drive from the corrupted drives. I think you may have more luck with this method. http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ Kerry >> > Hi, >> > [quoted text clipped - 40 lines] >> >> Kerry |
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