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Boot XP with External HDD

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imported_g33k

Senior member
I am unable to boot Windows XP from an external hard drive. The BIOS is correctly set to boot from the external USB device first. The USB settings are enabled and correct in the BIOS. Windows XP has been installed to the drive correctly...the hard drive is in an enclosure and would not install originally through the USB. I had to remove it from the enclosure and install XP through the IDE. When I try to boot the external drive the Windows screen displays for about 5 seconds and then it reboots.

With all other settings seemingly correct, why will it not boot to the external? The device manager shows that everything is working and XP is updated beyond SP2.
 
I believe nweaver is correct.

If you look at the boot.ini file for a working PC you'll see the exact location of the winnt.exe file that the PC boots to.

disk01/partition/01/WINNT/SYSTEM/blah blah blah.

What this is telling the PC is that it should be on the Primary IDE controller/the first partition/this folder/that folder/winnt.exe

When you moved the HDD to the external enclosure it was no longer on the Primary IDE its on Firewire, USB, eSATA, SCSI whatever & so when the PC boots to it Windows says Im at this location "disk01/partition/01/WINNT/SYSTEM/blah blah blah." When the PC goes there to start windows there is no winnt.exe.

NOTE: I believe winnt.exe is the file it uses but I haven't looked at the boot.ini for a while it maybe a different file name.
 
So is there a work around? I thought it would be a simple matter of plugging into USB, enabling usb in boot sequence and then go... guess not 🙁
 
Here is a look at what the boot.ini code looks like.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

I wrote a whole essay of instructions but some how the reply box lost it all so this is from scratch :|

1. Install an internal IDE HDD
2. format & install windowsXP
3. connect the External HDD
3. Run WindowsXP install from the windowsXP desktop on the Internal IDE HDD.
4. Hopefully (fingers crossed) WindowsXP install will see the External HDD.
5. Select the external HDD to install a new copy of Windows XP
6. Hopefully WindowsXP will installl successfully.
7. If it works you will be propted to select which copy of WindowsXP to boot to.
8. The second entry will be the Boot to USB (external HDD)

9. Shut down, Physically swap the Internal IDE HDD to the External Enclosure.
10. Boot to the USB WindowsXP
11. Edit the boot.ini log by changing the default= to the address that does not look like the entry I've posted. Save the changes to boot.ini
12. Restart & select the 1st Windows copy to boot too. If you did it right it will boot to USB. If you did it wrong then you'll have to redo 1-11.
13. Now open boot.ini and delete the address entry (the one that looks like the one I've typed above) completely. Then save boot.ini
14. If all this works and you did it right then after you restart there should be no prompt to boot the different copies of WindowsXP and it should boot directly to USB.

It should look like this but the USB's represent whatever WindowsXP came up with for the USB address for the External WindowsXP copy.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(USB)disk(USB)rdisk(USB)partition(USB)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(USB)disk(USB)rdisk(USB)partition(USB)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


Good luck 🙂
 
Whoa! That a lot of steps. Thanks!

11. Edit the boot.ini log by changing the default= to the address that does not look like the entry I've posted. Save the changes to boot.ini
Click to expand...

What am I supposed to change the default= to? Could it be anything? What do you mean by "does not look like the entry I've posted."?

Is this the easiest way to make an external bootable hdd? Wow no wonder I couldnt find any info off google. 🙂
 
Fundamentally, your problem may simply be that your BIOS does not support booting to a USB device. If it did, you could boot to a thumb drive as well. Not many BIOSes support USB boot.
 
Ok the whole idea is to get WindowsXP to give a "boot.ini address" to the WindowsXP copy installed on the External HDD.

So here what a boot.ini (with WindowsXP on internal Primary IDE channel) looks like



[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn



After you install a second copy of WindowsXP on the External HDD it will add an entry to the boot.ini (on the Internal HDD copy of WindowsXP) It will look something like this.



[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn



Notice how there is another entry for the second copy of WindowsXP (I have provided a ficticious address for the second entry) Windows will generate the second address (which will be the address to the External HDD copy of WindowsXP).

The idea is that if after installing the 2 copies of WindowsXP AND you can successfully boot to both.

THEN we would want to remove the addresss for the WindowsXP copy that resides on the internal HDD from the boot.ini (on the internal HDD).

The boot.ini would look like this



[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn



Notice how the default value has been changed to look like the address that represents the USB boot.ini address for the External HDD copy. Also notice that the address for the internal HDD WindowsXP copy has been removed. (Again this USB address is ficticious)

After each change to the boot.ini on the Internal HDD copy of WindowsXP you will save the changes to the boot.ini file.

After this last change you can shut down the PC & physically move the Internal HDD to the External HDD enclosure & it should boot.

This is all hypothetical and there are several big IFs along the way. Let us know.
 
It will be really cool if it works out for you. As I mentioned earlier I would install the 2nd copy of WindowsXP onto the External HDD from the desktop of the 1st WindowsXP installed on the internal HDD.
 
Ok I installed windows to the external hdd and it pretty much does the same thing. I see the windows xp loading bar and then it blue screens.

EDIT: I did not try your method yet. I treid installing a copy of windows from the cd, not from the desktop. I will try your method now.
 
Originally posted by: corkyg
Fundamentally, your problem may simply be that your BIOS does not support booting to a USB device. If it did, you could boot to a thumb drive as well. Not many BIOSes support USB boot.
Click to expand...


Can you please eloborate? The mobo is in my sig. I have the BIOS settings to USB boot. How would I know if its supported?
 
So during the WindowsXP install from the boot CD (when all the screens for installing WindowsXP are blue) The install actually sees the USB External HDD?

Or are you doing as you did before and installing WindowsXP from CD onto an internal HDD & then moving it to the External Enclosure?

If you can install directly to the USB HDD while the HDD is in the external enclosure then I would say that the problem you are encountering is something with WindowsXP.
 
Yes it picks it up and I am able to directly install while its in the external enclosure. All I get is the windows load screen for about 4 seconds and then it will BSOD and reset.

I guess external hdd's arent usually made for booting? This really blows. Since you can only run programs off the boot drive, the only reason to get an external enclosure are for backups and extra file storage.

Anyway thanks for your help. 🙂
 
Well I dont think it is the External HDD not being able to do it I believe it is WindowsXP failing when it initializes the USB drivers during bootup off of the External HDD. Sometimes when USB drivers are loaded the USB devices restart and this maybe causing WindowsXP to loose its place (like reading a book) and BSOD.

Sorry it didnt work out for you.
 
Good summary - and if your BIOS has a USB boot option, that is usually for a flash memory drive that has been fixed up for emergency booting - takes the place of a bootable floppy.
 
I know this wouldn't be a good solution, but for troubleshooting and just curiosity you might try it without USB 2.0 support. Disable it in the BIOS if you can. I think 2.0 is more complicated driver-wise. Just a thought.
 
A little more clarification based on observing USB 2 hub LEDs during XP Boot. First, after POST and RAID drivers are installed, there is a beep and initial boot begins. The USB hub LEDs light up! Then Windows starts to load, and soon, all of the USB LEDs go off. This tells me that Windows then cuts all USB drivers coming from BIOS. Windows continues to load, and after it loads its own USB drivers, the USB hub LEDs light back up again.

What this tells me is that there is a period of time during Windows loading that there is NO USB device availability. That would actually terminate the boot on an external USB drive because the drivers haven't loaded yet.

Just a thought.
 
corkyg,

I have seen this also and that is what I was thinking is happening. Since the install can obviously see & install to the External USB HDD.

Especially when you consider that it actually hits WindowsXP on the External HDD and will bring up the boot screen.

At that moment the mobo has worked correctly & Windows has begun booting correctly but then it fails.

I believe this is exactly the issue. The initialization of the windows USB drivers breaks the boot sequence & boot fails.
 
If it only worked, I could take my external to any computer and run my programs from them. In my case, it would eliminate the need for a laptop. I could load my programs at home and use the external at school and work.

Perhaps it is designed this way for security reasons? Perhaps this might be possible with Longhorn?
 
g33k,

Besides the fact that booting to a USB copy of WindowsXP does not work.

Your plan would ONLY work if the computers were identical (physical components) OR if they all had the same motherboard (with Boot to USB support) & you loaded all the drivers for all the hardware on all the systems.

In addition you would have to wait for WindowsXP to reinstall the different hardware whenever it booted to a different PC.

This is really not a good solution. The best solution would be to invest in a laptop.

*****************************************************

(Assuming that WindowsXP will one day boot from external USB devices, here is a theoretical solution that may work:

External HDD
Partition 1 - WindowsXP for PC1
Partition 2 - WindowsXP for PC2
Partition 3 - WindowsXP for PC3
Partition 4 - Programs for all three
Partition 5 - Files for all three

This would allow you to work as planned. However you would have to install a copy of WindowsXP to the external HDD from every PC and then install every program on ALL PCs (and their corrosponding copy of WindowsXP) to the Programs partition.)
 
Also - keep in mind that if your BIOS does support USB boot, you can configure a flash memory drive to boot the computer - but it is not Windows. You can get a command prompt. This is the current replacement for the old floppy emergency disk.

And, you can probably boot to a DVD disk that is internal, and has Windows on it.
 
You can boot into WinPE 2005, if built with Windows Server 2003 and a few extra commands.

You can boot into Bart's PE Boot disk, too.
 
Also - there is one external HDD than can completely boot Windows - a SATA! 🙂
 
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