Leon5178
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Installing an OS onto an external USB Hard Drive
Hi all
I have recently purchased an external HDD of 160GB and was wondering if it is possible to install an OS onto the drive?
It is USB 2.0 compatible and I have partitioned it with 20GB for the OS and the remainder to be allocated via Partition Magic at a later date.
However, after installing XP on the partition, I have tried to boot my PC from it and after the initial screen suggesting that the OS is loading (The black XP screen with the moving bar at the bottom), I get a blue screen which suggests that I reboot.
Many thanks
Leon
I have recently purchased an external HDD of 160GB and was wondering if it is possible to install an OS onto the drive?
It is USB 2.0 compatible and I have partitioned it with 20GB for the OS and the remainder to be allocated via Partition Magic at a later date.
However, after installing XP on the partition, I have tried to boot my PC from it and after the initial screen suggesting that the OS is loading (The black XP screen with the moving bar at the bottom), I get a blue screen which suggests that I reboot.
Many thanks
Leon
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The problem is that while it is booting up, When Windows starts loading the device drivers, It will briefly re-initialize the the USB ports. At that split second, the drive that the OS is booting from will become off line. That is the reason you get a BSOD. I really don't think there is a way you can run a Windows OS off a USB device.
<<However, after installing XP on the partition, I have tried to boot my PC from it and after the initial screen suggesting that the OS is loading (The black XP screen with the moving bar at the bottom), I get a blue screen which suggests that I reboot.>>
Does the XP you installed have SP1 installed or SP2?
Does the XP you installed have SP1 installed or SP2?
I found this on another site
Someday is today! SureBoot Corporation (www.sureboot.com) already has this functionally working for Windows 2K and XP. Their technology allows Win 2K/XP to boot and run from any USB or 1394 storage device. Not just external hard drives, but also storage devices such as USB key drives. Imagine XP running on a 256MB USB drive key or 2K on a 128MB key. They are able to do all of this on legacy machines that don’t support USB or 1394 devices in the ROM BIOS.
Additionally they have technology that allows Win 2K/XP to boot and operate from read-only CD or DVD media without requiring any writeable disk storage. They’ve been demonstrating a related product that automatically generates a bootable Win 2K/XP CD from any existing end-user Win 2K/XP configuration. The generated CD becomes a fully functional Win 2K/XP disaster recovery environment for the machine from which it was created. Their technology to automatically generate a protected Win 2K/XP rescue environment on the hard drive is also pretty cool.
Source:
http://weblogs.asp.net/oldnewthing/archive/2004/04/15/113811.aspx
It's about 1/2 way down the page. So I guess it could be possible , I wont have time to contact sureboot about it till tommorrow.
There is alot of info about USB from Microsoft here:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/bus/USB/default.mspx
Someday is today! SureBoot Corporation (www.sureboot.com) already has this functionally working for Windows 2K and XP. Their technology allows Win 2K/XP to boot and run from any USB or 1394 storage device. Not just external hard drives, but also storage devices such as USB key drives. Imagine XP running on a 256MB USB drive key or 2K on a 128MB key. They are able to do all of this on legacy machines that don’t support USB or 1394 devices in the ROM BIOS.
Additionally they have technology that allows Win 2K/XP to boot and operate from read-only CD or DVD media without requiring any writeable disk storage. They’ve been demonstrating a related product that automatically generates a bootable Win 2K/XP CD from any existing end-user Win 2K/XP configuration. The generated CD becomes a fully functional Win 2K/XP disaster recovery environment for the machine from which it was created. Their technology to automatically generate a protected Win 2K/XP rescue environment on the hard drive is also pretty cool.
Source:
http://weblogs.asp.net/oldnewthing/archive/2004/04/15/113811.aspx
It's about 1/2 way down the page. So I guess it could be possible , I wont have time to contact sureboot about it till tommorrow.
There is alot of info about USB from Microsoft here:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/bus/USB/default.mspx
ASKER
Wow that sounds pretty good. You say you are going to contact them tomorrow ? I'd love to hear from you soon on the update..
I looked over the site and didn't quite get it. There is no items to purchase so I never e-mailed them to find anything out. I thought they would have some type of hardware (USB Ports) that you could purchase. Sry...
ThanQ
There are few details missing though:
1. What is the exact first line of the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) says?
2. A model of the mobo may be useful.
Cyber