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Problem booting from USB drive

Channeledbymodem

Channeledbymodem

Member
I have copied the good system partition from my Windows 8.1 C drive to an external USB drive with two different programs, Aomei Backerupper, using the restore system from backup option, and Minitool Partition Wizard, copying the system partition. While the drive is visible in the MB boot options and will start booting, the boot fails with the "Your PC ran into a problem" message.

I am using an Asrock Z87 Extreme6 MB. Fast boot is disabled. Legacy CSM is enabled. Intel Rapid Start is disabled.

Any ideas?

TIA,
Ron
 
Windows can not startup from usb,you will have to boot up a rescue or cloning prog from the usb that will allow you to clone/copy the system image back to a real hard drive.

Tell us what you want to achieve so you will get some usable advice.
 
TheELF said:
Windows can not startup from usb,you will have to boot up a rescue or cloning prog from the usb that will allow you to clone/copy the system image back to a real hard drive.

Tell us what you want to achieve so you will get some usable advice.
Click to expand...

I wanted to be able to boot Windows from the usb drive in case there was a problem with the C drive. I thought that was possible. But having done more research I see that this is only possible with Windows to Go and the Windows 8 Enterprise Edition. Oh well. Thanks anyway.
 
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It all depends on the BIOS. Example, I can boot from USB on my laptop, but not on my desktop.
 
Booting Windows 7 from USB on Lenovo T510. It is equipped with SSD. A cloned backup HDD is available via USB. To boot USB, I hit power on, then F12 to select boot drive. All drives, USB, eSATA, sd well as internals are listed. Just select and it boots.
 
corkyg said:
Booting Windows 7 from USB on Lenovo T510. It is equipped with SSD. A cloned backup HDD is available via USB. To boot USB, I hit power on, then F12 to select boot drive. All drives, USB, eSATA, sd well as internals are listed. Just select and it boots.
Click to expand...

Well, this is what I was looking to do but I haven't found a way to do it.
 
corkyg said:
Booting Windows 7 from USB on Lenovo T510. It is equipped with SSD. A cloned backup HDD is available via USB. To boot USB, I hit power on, then F12 to select boot drive. All drives, USB, eSATA, sd well as internals are listed. Just select and it boots.
Click to expand...

I don't think that Win7 is actually booting off of the external USB HDD. Chances are, the BOOTREC or BOOT.INI equivalent (since it was cloned) points to the internal SSD. The laptop may be attempting to boot from USB, but once it loads the bootloader from USB and transfers control, then it transfers further control to the internal SSD and boots from that.

A way to definitively check, would be to physically remove the internal drive, and then still proceed to boot from the external USB drive.

I'd wager a fiver that that won't work.
 
OK, Larry - someday I'll collect. I removed the SSD (normal OS drive) physically. Powered on the external eSATA duplicate drive in a Vantec NexStar case, powered on the T510, hit F12, selected the external HDD and it has booted normally. Better re-evaluate your thinking. 🙂

Oh, BTW, it even updated the Malwarebytes Premium app.
 
corkyg said:
Booting Windows 7 from USB on Lenovo T510. It is equipped with SSD. A cloned backup HDD is available via USB. To boot USB, I hit power on, then F12 to select boot drive. All drives, USB, eSATA, sd well as internals are listed. Just select and it boots.
Click to expand...

eSATA doesn't count. You indicated in the above that you could boot your cloned external HDD containing Windows 7 from USB.

I want to see proof booting an un-hacked Windows 7 OS from an external USB HDD.
 
Win 7 can be use from USB by installing Portable Virtual Box on a USB and then installing Win 7 inside the Box.

http://www.vbox.me/

The boot is done to the Box and then Win 7 runs inside.

Win 8.1 To go here - http://www.howtogeek.com/196817/how...-go-usb-drive-without-the-enterprise-edition/

The above need additional Keys since they are viewed as an Independent installation.

----

If One want to experiment this is Free trial for three months of Win 8.1 Enterprise.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-8-1-enterprise

This can help too - http://www.disk-partition.com/features/windows-to-go-creator.html




😎
 
Sorry about the confusion. The T510 eSATA is a combo port - and I failed to make a distinction with plain USB. When connected to plain USB 2, the external drive gets no power and is not seen.
 
You absolutely can boot Win7 off a USB drive. Install Win7 with the most basic bootup MBR/no secure boot onto an HDD. Take that HDD and put it into that into a USB enclosure and you can boot from it, like corky mentioned, provided your BIOS allows it and nearly all do, unless secure boot is enabled. I've done that many times with an existing HDD install all the way back to WinXP.

Depending on how good the cloning software is, some like Paragon do a true clone right down to the disk UID and partition GUID that when you in Windows when both drives are plugged in that Windows will not automatically mount the 2nd drive and if you try it will warn you about it.
 
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