[AviatorTim]

I don't have admin rights to XP on my worklaptop but I can get in the BIOS and it has an option to "boot from external USB hard drive" before the internal hard drive. I bought an external USB hard drive thinking I could install my own copy of XP and the programs I want to run to the external drive. The Windows install program sees both the external and internal drive. It appears to have no problem installing XP to the external drive. However, when I boot from the external drive, I get the Windows splash screen (windows logo and blue progress boxes) but then I get a blue screen error. I tried an external drive from a different manufacturer but had the same problem. Is it possible to run XP from an external drive?

Tim

[Advertisements]

well...that boot to external usb setting is generally for booting to like...a usb cdrom or a usb key for certain diagnostics stuff....it's only THEORETICALLY possible to boot to an actual install of xp on an exterenal device (i've never seen it work...ever)...there are versions of linux that will boot from a usb drive and what not...but as i said..never seen it actually work with xp

[dsenette]

well...that boot to external usb setting is generally for booting to like...a usb cdrom or a usb key for certain diagnostics stuff....it's only THEORETICALLY possible to boot to an actual install of xp on an exterenal device (i've never seen it work...ever)...there are versions of linux that will boot from a usb drive and what not...but as i said..never seen it actually work with xp

[AviatorTim]

I have some more info now that I'm back home. The BIOS options include boot from "notebook hard drive, USB hard disk, USB floppy, USB superdisk, and USB CD-ROM".

I notice the BIOS says "notebook hard DRIVE" and "USB hard DISK" so I was wondering if there is a technical difference between a hard drive verses a hard disk.

Also, the error Windows XP generates when I try to boot from the USB hard drive is the blue screen Stop 0x0000007B error. Does anyone have more info about that particular error code?

Tim

Edited by AviatorTim, 03 July 2006 - 01:32 PM.

[Facedown98]

I'm not familiar with this concept either, however, I hear that your motherboard has to support booting from an externale device... Make sure yours supports it.

[AviatorTim]

How can I determine if my motherboard supports booting from an external drive?

[Facedown98]

I found out through my computer manufacturer a few years ago... If you have a computer manual, try looking there...

[AviatorTim]

Sorry, no manuals because it's not my laptop--its the company's. If the BIOS has option to boot from USB hard disk, wouldn't that imply the mother board is able to boot from an external device or is the BIOS not necessarily matched with the mother board?

Tim

[Facedown98]

hhhmmm... Logical thinking in my brain says yes, but becuase I don't have any firm ground to stand on for this part, I'm going to have to let someone else answer that question...

[AviatorTim]

HP Tech Support seems to think it will work. I've been chatting with them for the last hour and they're asking me to try other USB devices to test the port so they don't think the concept is impossible. I'll post if they solve the problem otherwise, I'm throwing up a Hail Mary to anyone else out there who knows about booting from a USB hard drive.

Tim