# Boot from Portable USB Hard Disk ?How?



## bme (Apr 30, 2005)

I have a portable USB 2. hard disk with 40GB capacity. How can I make this bootable? I know a flash disk can be made bootable as I have one using hp utility. But it wom't work on the portable hard disk.
thanks!


----------



## prunejuice (Apr 3, 2002)

bme said:


> I have a portable USB 2. hard disk with 40GB capacity. How can I make this bootable? I know a flash disk can be made bootable as I have one using hp utility. But it wom't work on the portable hard disk.
> thanks!


What is it you wish to boot? An OS?


----------



## clmowers (Jun 20, 2005)

If you BIOS supports it, under the boot order set it to USB first. One of my pc has a option for a USB-hd in the boot order screen.


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

If you plan on booting Windows, I'll save you some time, it won't work.  Windows resets the USB controllers during the boot and the boot process fails.


----------



## bme (Apr 30, 2005)

JohnWill said:


> If you plan on booting Windows, I'll save you some time, it won't work.  Windows resets the USB controllers during the boot and the boot process fails.


Yes I wanted to boot the same way as UBCD or a flash disk.


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

You can boot Linux or MS-DOS from a USB hard disk, just not Windows.


----------



## bme (Apr 30, 2005)

John,
Please direct me to a site that has a step by step on how to make my ext.hd bootable.
thanks!


----------



## prunejuice (Apr 3, 2002)

I can help you, but you need to tell us:

1. If your computer is capable of booting from USB (Should be a BIOS setting under Boot Order or something...)

2. What OS/program you wish to boot up into.


----------



## gotrootdude (Feb 19, 2003)

> If you plan on booting Windows, I'll save you some time, it won't work.


JohnWill, I've been booting XP off a thumb drive ever since several months ago when I started my truck PC project (posted when the DIY thread opened) and was trying to get XP to boot off a compactflash card. It can be done, and works very nicely. 

Although, I've switched to embedded linux since then. Mainly GeexBox, Astlinux, DSLinux, etc.

Anyway,
How to boot XP from a USB 2.0 Hard Drive. Follow instructions here: http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

Make sure you read the forum thread on the linked site, there's some "gotcha" points to be aware of and some fixes that aren't spoke about on the above page. http://forums.ngine.de/viewtopic.php?t=1243&sid=97249998fe28d4940382b322536c6024

I have a customized XP booting off my 1gb thumb drive on my CLE266 based itx board. 

You'll need to check all the USB boot options in bios, I believe my 1gb thumb boots as a USB floppy.


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Yes, you can boot it if you tinker with the configuration. Most folks aren't likely to want to go to that amount of trouble. I also wonder how long before a service patch nukes the capability.  I'd also point out this guy just developed this procedure, it's not like it was around before a couple of months ago.


----------



## gotrootdude (Feb 19, 2003)

The guy just posted the precedure in a place where you wouldn't have to look all over the net for it. The precedure has been around for awhile. Otherwise, I wouldn't have my thumb drive. Obviously, he's worked some kinks out of the precedure, since I created an image using ghost and transfered it to the drive without the swap enabled, and with all the updates I could get already installed. Also, I used the PE files, so it's was Fred Langa style. You can find articles about it dating back to 2004.

Anyway, it is possible then and now.


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Yep. If you search around you will see it has been available certainly more than a couple of months ago. Didn't' think you would have any need to exaggerate on this.

Nice find. Thanks for pointing it out


----------



## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Good Afternoon Gentlemen, excuse my impertinence, but what (if any) advantage is there with XP on a removable drive, surely it would be machine specific, speed limited, and no extra benefit than a removable HDD caddy. 
Certainly an interesting exercise.
qldit.


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Can't answer for the others. Sounds like at least one person wants to and another has already done it. And someone took the time to figure it all out. 

But for me, it would come in very useful. Not so much for having multiple computers with the same drive. But the ability to boot to with different external drives on the same computer. For testing purposes this would mean I don't need to manually connect and disconnect the IDE cables so often. Certainly would be much easier just to plug in a different USB device.


----------



## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Yes but a removeable hard drive caddy simply slides into a front 5.25 bay and if you have several caddies it is extremely useful. No leads to play with or whatever and the other fitted hard drive has the other operating system if a drive and caddy is not fitted. 

I seem to have problems whenever I try to place non specific XP operating systems in other machines, that was my reasoning.
qldit.


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

gotrootdude said:


> Also, I used the PE files, so it's was Fred Langa style. You can find articles about it dating back to 2004.


Windows PE and full Windows XP are two different animals.


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

But a drive connected to an internal IDE connection would not give the diversity a external USB one would. Also, how do you configure the computer to boot from different IDE drives when both are inserted at the same time.


----------



## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

My AMI BIOS on a K7S5A Pro board (so not new) has the ability to press F8 and it gives a menu for ALL (dynamically) detected bootable devices.


----------



## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Bob Cerelli said:


> But a drive connected to an internal IDE connection would not give the diversity a external USB one would. Also, how do you configure the computer to boot from different IDE drives when both are inserted at the same time.


Good Morning Bob, I usually just set the first drive as the removeable and the second as the fixed, in auto.

This way it simply means the first drive seen will be the bootable one. 
It is ideal for operating system installation and evaluation without needing a boot manager or other software and leaving the normal system untouched.

You could always simply alter the boot order if you wanted both drives together.

If you have a few extra drive caddies it provides pretty interesting versitility.
If you wish to test drives, work on projects with specific abilities,or use different systems with real system integration it is very useful.

The only problem may be using information off the first drive for inclusion and use in drive two accessable from that second drive. 
This shortfall may be addressed by transferring or copying relevant files prior to booting the second drive.

As a tool this ability becomes incredibly useful if for instance you are given a drive with a boot problem that the some data is required to be saved or retrieved. 
Booting a live Linux CD on the machine with both hard drives "in" allows simple easy file transfer from one drive to another without any disruptive work, or even having to remove case covers regardless of the system types.

In comparison to the mentioned USB hard drive application, I do feel this idea to be superior. Especially with reliablity.
The difference of course as you mention is the added flexibility and diversity of being able to plug a USB drive into a different machine for file access regardless of it's bootability.

I originally was unimpressed with these removeable IDE hard drive cassettes, but I now have them in two machines and find them very useful.

Cheers qldit.


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Bob Cerelli said:


> But a drive connected to an internal IDE connection would not give the diversity a external USB one would. Also, how do you configure the computer to boot from different IDE drives when both are inserted at the same time.


I just call up the boot menu, I can boot from any bootable device on the system, including the RAID array, either of the IDE drives, the DVD, or the floppy. Piece of cake.


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

That's terrific that you have all those options. But none of those are what the question was for which is how to boot from an external USB drive. Or was that option just missed.


----------



## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Good Morning all, I thought the original problem had been addressed.
And a furtherance into subject peripheral generality had happened.
(But I must admit I do wander off a bit!!LOL) 
Cheers, qldit.


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Yes gotrootdude gave a great solution that has apparently been around for a while.


----------



## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

It is not the problem of BOOTING from the external device. That is easy. The clever bit is how to switch the access mode of the device and load the windows drivers and STILL retain the drive letters for it.


----------



## prunejuice (Apr 3, 2002)

Bob Cerelli said:


> Yes gotrootdude gave a *great* solution ...


Whoah...Great?

It's buggy at best...and that's _if_ you are able to pull it off.

With the read/write/seek speed of an external USB drive, I fail to see any
practical application of this.


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Sounds like it works fine for the person who posted the solution for months. Also looking around the Internet it seems like others have been able to do it as well. Good to know.


----------



## prunejuice (Apr 3, 2002)

Bob Cerelli said:


> Sounds like it works fine for the person who posted the solution for months. Also looking around the Internet it seems like others have been able to do it as well. Good to know.


Just going with what is posted on their forums, getting it to run efficiently is cause for minor celebration.

Come on, Bob.


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Excellent


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Bob Cerelli said:


> That's terrific that you have all those options. But none of those are what the question was for which is how to boot from an external USB drive. Or was that option just missed.


It's included in the lost of bootable devices. Most new BIOS versions have the same capability. Yes, I forgot to type USB, one would have thought you could have figured that part out.


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

But it's not so much if the computer can boot to an external USB device. It's configuring Windows to do it. That's the part that needed figuring out.



JohnWill said:


> If you plan on booting Windows, I'll save you some time, it won't work.  Windows resets the USB controllers during the boot and the boot process fails.


That is the part that the solution posted gets past.


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Bob Cerelli said:


> But it's not so much if the computer can boot to an external USB device. It's configuring Windows to do it. That's the part that needed figuring out.
> 
> That is the part that the solution posted gets past.


Your problem is you forget your own posts.


Bob Cerelli said:


> But a drive connected to an internal IDE connection would not give the diversity a external USB one would. Also, how do you configure the computer to boot from different IDE drives when both are inserted at the same time.


I was answering this question. Perhaps you forgot that comment?


----------



## gotrootdude (Feb 19, 2003)

I was thinking about getting this http://cgi.ebay.com/IDE-Multi-Hard-...goryZ162QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
just for the novelty of it.


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Looks pretty neat. Sure can't beat the price ... or not by much


----------



## gotrootdude (Feb 19, 2003)

You could just place several connectors on a IDE cable, then put a three or four way switch on the power cable so that only one drive gets power to it at a time. It would do the same thing at less cost without taking up a bay cover. 

Way easier just to get external USB enclosures for extra drives though. 


One of the projects that I plan on doing eventually is to create a SFF PC with a modular design. I could create small boxes to hold the motherboard out of aluminum sheeting with pass throughs for the ATX power connector, IDE/SATA connectors, and maybe even use a flexable PCI riser to create a PCI connector on top. Then additional components could be placed in separate enclosures and stacked onto the mobo. To save height in each box, a small squirrell cage fan place sideways could be placed in the enclosures requiring active cooling. That way, to switch out a hard drive could be as easy as swapping the top stacked component.


----------

