Why won't windows boot from USB 2.0 HD?

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Hi, I have Windows XP installed on a USB 2.0 Drive (Ioemga 80GB) but when I try to boot off of it, is just keeps going to BSOD saying "unmountable boot partition."

Is it even possible to boot off USB 2.0 HD? If so, any suggestions?

 

[summit]

cannot boot from USB 2.0 since there's no windows... the bios does not recognize your usb connection until windows... which obviously hasnt loaded, and why would u want to use usb 2.0 as your boot drive get a raptor with that comp you have

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Well actually you can boot from a USB drive, but it depends on a lot of things. How good BIOS support for it is one thing. Make sure you have the latest BIOS installed for your mobo.

Some mobos support booting from USB better than others. Make sure Legacy support for USB is enabled in BIOS and that the you have the boot order set correctly. There's rarely a setting in the boot order for a USB drive, but there's usually an "other" choice of some kind. Make sure it's configured in the boot order before IDE or SATA.

Also, did you do a clean install of WinXP onto the USB drive? You can't clone your internal drive to the external USB drive and expect it to work - Windows won't find the boot partition on the same hardware address.

 

[INM8]

I havent read into this heaps, but i was reading an article where they got windows to boot of a 4gb compact flash card. It only ended up working on an industrial grade one, and they had lots of problems with it. Apparently its a problem with how windows recodnises removable devices upon bootup. Ill try and find it again later.