Bootable external HD

"PVR" <peterv666.RemoveThis@roadrunner.com> wrote in message
news:eXn0TP7LKHA.504@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl
> I have been mucking about with PCs since about 1982. However, I know
> very little about them. My question:
>
> Is it possible to format and make an external hard drive bootable? I
> would like to check out another OS without causing problems of any
> kind to the OS on my desktop PC.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Peter

Probably not. It will depend on how XP sees the external drive and
whether the BIOS has an entry for setting it to be the boot device. If
you can't select it in the BIOS you won't be able to boot from it.

HTH,

Twayne`

On Sep 7, 7:07 am, "PVR" <peterv....DeleteThis@roadrunner.com> wrote:
> I have been mucking about with PCs since about 1982. However, I know
> very little about them. My question:
>
> Is it possible to format and make an external hard drive bootable? I
> would like to check out another OS without causing problems of any
> kind to the OS on my desktop PC.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Peter

If the external device require drivers to be loaded to access it (like
USB drivers), you will have to come up with the method that is best
suited for your unspecified device. No drivers loaded = no access
(makes sense).

Plus your BIOS and motherboard must support booting from a device
other than a HDD, floppy, CD, etc. Some don't

So, you have some research to do.

Surely, this highly desirable feature would not be a new question to
the device manufacturers, so I would start with their Technical
Support or user forums after your verify your hardware is even
capable.

Somebody has probably already figured it out.

On Sep 8, 10:55 am, Jose <jose_e....TakeThisOut@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Somebody has probably already figured it out.

I hope somebody has.

I have been following this thread with great interest as the owner of
a Netbook with no optical drive.

I have cloned my Windows XP Home, SP3 to an external drive connected
by USB to my Netbook and have reordered the bios to put the external
HDD at the top of the list and when I do so, it just boots to a black
screen with a blinking cursor and will accept no keyboard input.

I have to shut the machine down, reorder the bios, put the internal HD
at the top and restart.

Major PITA. I backup my Macintosh once a week by cloning it and start
it from the clone each time to be sure I have a "valid" clone, and
each time it starts.

Just one more major annoyance from the Redmond boys.

Carl

On Sep 9, 7:07 am, Carl <carlhamm....RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sep 8, 10:55 am, Jose <jose_e....RemoveThis@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Somebody has probably already figured it out.
>
> I hope somebody has.
>
> I have been following this thread with great interest as the owner of
> a Netbook with no optical drive.
>
> I have cloned my Windows XP Home, SP3 to an external drive connected
> by USB to my Netbook and have reordered the bios to put the external
> HDD at the top of the list and when I do so, it just boots to a black
> screen with a blinking cursor and will accept no keyboard input.
>
> I have to shut the machine down, reorder the bios, put the internal HD
> at the top and restart.
>
> Major PITA.  I backup my Macintosh once a week by cloning it and start
> it from the clone each time to be sure I have a "valid" clone, and
> each time it starts.
>
> Just one more major annoyance from the Redmond boys.
>
> Carl

Then what you describe probably makes sense. Mini computers also may
not have an optical drive. They are great until the day it doesn't
boot and you need to fix it.

One I know had an SD card that came with it that was bootable or could
be made bootable. It was in the box, but the guy didn't even know he
had it. But later he had to install something from a CD and needed an
external drive.

Many thanks to those who replied. My PCs which I could consider for
this activity are a Vista laptop and, more likely an XP3 desktop. I
shall contact the external hard drive manufacturer.

Bottom line is I shall likely go the bootable CD route. It is probably
good enough to allow me to play with Linux without undue commitment.

Peter.


"PVR" <peterv666.RemoveThis@roadrunner.com> wrote in message
news:eXn0TP7LKHA.504@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>I have been mucking about with PCs since about 1982. However, I know
>very little about them. My question:
>
> Is it possible to format and make an external hard drive bootable? I
> would like to check out another OS without causing problems of any
> kind to the OS on my desktop PC.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Peter
>

On Sep 9, 8:47 am, Jose <jose_e....TakeThisOut@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Then what you describe probably makes sense.  Mini computers also may
> not have an optical drive.  They are great until the day it doesn't
> boot and you need to fix it.
>
> One I know had an SD card that came with it that was bootable or could
> be made bootable.  It was in the box, but the guy didn't even know he
> had it. But later he had to install something from a CD and needed an
> external drive.

Hi Jose -
That is exactly my case: no optical drive and I am trying the ounce-
of-prevention vs the pound-of-cure route.

I keep forgetting that there is that SD card slot that I can use in
addition to a USB flash drive.

I ran across this page,
<http://myeeeguides.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/winsetupfromusb-install-
windows-xp-from-usb-flash-drive/>

WinSetupFromUSB – Install Windows XP from USB Flash Drive
Published November 15, 2008
This guide will show you, how to use WinSetupFromUSB to create a
bootable USB Flash Drive including all Windows source files, plus the
following installation of Windows XP. Compare to the different
USB_Multiboot versions, WinSetupFromUSB comes with a Graphical User
Interface (GUI) and is in my opinion easier to use.


Here you can get the latest version of the program and you will also
find many detailed informations about WinSetupFromUSB.

I’ve tested this guide with a 32-bit version of Windows XP and a 64-
bit version of Windows Vista and it worked flawlessly.

Prerequisites:
All you need is:

a USB Flash Drive with at least 1GB of storage
the original Windows XP Setup CD
WinSetupFromUSB

I wonder if this might be a method worth investigating???

The in general answer is yes, with a bunch of annoying little details!
The hardware and the BIOS need to support booting from an external device.

Next whatever you need to boot into needs to support the hardware.
Finally, with windows, in general ---
As sold and normally configured, windows was not intended for this type
of use. (It can be done, but--)
Generally, windows once configured, is intended to be processor and
support chip set specific. This is not to say that something like
install or repair/recovery media cannot be made to boot from external
removable media.

Linux has a built in functionality that allows it to configure on the
fly, if setup properly. This assumes that all the required drivers are
present/available, and that linux can properly detect the hardware.
The blessing and curse is that the user often needs to tweak, first
manually, and then have the knowledge to make the needed "tweaks" occur
automatically.



In other words, a lot is possible, it's more a matter of how to do it,
and how much knowledge, time, and effort is required.

I routinely use a linux based bootable cd to host an anti virus/malware
checker, which also contains utilities that can do quite a bit of repair
and hard disk oriented tasks. This works well with XP thru win7 on the
majority of existing systems.

The old timers remember when --

BIOS was virtually nonexistent, and you had to toggle switches to
manually enter a small program that gave a computer enough to start a
boot process. In the really old days, this started a paper tape drive,
which loaded a BIOS equivalent. Then, using the program and data from
the tape load, other things, such as disk drives, displays(terminals)
and keyboards became usable, and a "real" ops system was loaded and started.


PVR wrote:
> Many thanks to those who replied. My PCs which I could consider for
> this activity are a Vista laptop and, more likely an XP3 desktop. I
> shall contact the external hard drive manufacturer.
>
> Bottom line is I shall likely go the bootable CD route. It is probably
> good enough to allow me to play with Linux without undue commitment.
>
> Peter.
>
>
> "PVR" <peterv666 DeleteThis @roadrunner.com> wrote in message
> news:eXn0TP7LKHA.504@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> I have been mucking about with PCs since about 1982. However, I know
>> very little about them. My question:
>>
>> Is it possible to format and make an external hard drive bootable? I
>> would like to check out another OS without causing problems of any
>> kind to the OS on my desktop PC.
>>
>> Many thanks,
>>
>> Peter
>>
>
>

Chuck
This is not a PDP-8
LOL SG

> The old timers remember when --
>
> BIOS was virtually nonexistent, and you had to toggle switches to manually
> enter a small program that gave a computer enough to start a boot process.
> In the really old days, this started a paper tape drive, which loaded a
> BIOS equivalent. Then, using the program and data from the tape load,
> other things, such as disk drives, displays(terminals) and keyboards
> became usable, and a "real" ops system was loaded and started.