How can I boot XP from external hardrive?

[videocheez]

I just purchased a Maxtor 250GB external drive and when I restarted my computer. I got a disk read error. I diconnected the drive and rebooted and everything loaded fine. This gave me the idea that I could load the boot files onto my external drive and when the day comes that my computer won't boot up, I could boot from the external drive. I know this day will come soon because I'm always screwing around with new software and am pretty certain that i will eventually screw something up.

Thanks in advance,

VC

[bunyip]

To change the boot device you switch into your bios setup when the computer is starting up. Usually it's press the DEL key while its loading.

Once in the bios setup there is a setting that lets you change the search order, and what devices the system searches for the boot record. It is normally set at floppy first, 1st IDE HDD second and CD third, you can tell it use the 2nd, 3rd or 4th Hard Drive instead.

Although this may not work for an external drive, the bios may not see it at this point.

Do you realise that you can also boot to your XP install CD and use the repair options to fix a broken boot or op system.

[dcsos]

Sorry that external hardware will have to be scsi
There is no support for boot to firewire or boot to USB yet
I have a SCSI chain in each of my Windows PC's for this reason alone.
The bios enables you to swap which device is currently booted to.

[Hardcoreruss]

I have got the exact same drive as you.

It is not possible to use it to boot from.

[videocheez]

Then how come I can't start my comp unless I disconnect the USB from the drive. I guess I assumed wrong but I thought that the comp was trying to boot from the external drive.

Thanks in advance,

[dcsos]

I can't tell you exactly why, but I've noticed that my towers shut down a lot faster If I power down the firewire and usb boxes as I shut down, but they never prevent a boot, or slow that process.
The simplest test you could do, is copy your boot drive to the uSB device and see If when its attached, this fixes the problem (do it from a boot disc, not while you're booted)...maybe It can boot to USB, but from what I've read its not supposed to be possible (as the drivers for usb are loaded late in the the os load)

[vitualis]

Some mobos can boot from USB... You need a mobo and BIOS that understands how to read USB drives.

but from what I've read its not supposed to be possible (as the drivers for usb are loaded late in the the os load)

The same can be said for booting from CD-ROM drives.

Regards.

[videocheez]

I would like to try the simple test that dcsos has suggested. Does anyone know which files I should copy to my external drive in order to attempt to boot from it?

Thanks in advance,

VC

[dcsos]

My Idea is flawed..You cannot copy the files you need in DOS...because you can't see the USB drive in DOS.

The only way to do it...Use NORTON GHOST or some utility to get from a working OS all files needed including those that are running as you make the copy within the OS fully booted..
Its not just like you can copy these files while WINDOWS i running them ...

Or maybe you can....come to think of IT I haven't tried this since WIN98 used to say CANNOT COPY THAT FILE, ITS IN USE...has this changed with XP????

otherwise, whether you use NORTON or not, you gotta GHOST your OS (all of it) over tho the USB drive

[vitualis]

You could always just open up the command console under windows, go to the root directory and type:

xcopy [source drive] [destination drive] /S /E /C /F /H /K /Y

This will copy all the files over (except maybe the cache file but that's okay).

Then, don't forget to type:

sys [destination drive]

This will make the drive "bootable". Just copying over all the files isn't enough.

I don't know if this process works under WinXP but I successfully used it under Win98 when my existing HDD was beginning to die. I was able to essentially clone the HDD onto another physical drive.

For example, if my exisiting HDD is C: and my backup/destination HDD is E:, then:

xcopy C: E: /S /E /C /F /H /K /Y

sys E:

If you type xcopy /? in the command console, you get all the list of swtiches available. The switches are not all the same between different versions of Windows.

Regards.

[videocheez]

Thanks for tip, I'll give it a try. What does all of this /S/E/C/F/K/Y stuff mean.

Thanks in advance,

VC

[vitualis]

From the WinXP version of xcopy (the switches may be different under Win9x)...

Copies files and directory trees.

XCOPY source [destination] [/A | /M] [/D[:date]] [/P] [/S [/E]] [/V] [/W]
[/C] [/I] [/Q] [/F] [/L] [/G] [/H] [/R] [/T] [/U]
[/K] [/N] [/O] [/X] [/Y] [/-Y] [/Z]
[/EXCLUDE:file1[+file2][+file3]...]

source Specifies the file(s) to copy.
destination Specifies the location and/or name of new files.
/A Copies only files with the archive attribute set,
doesn't change the attribute.
/M Copies only files with the archive attribute set,
turns off the archive attribute.
/D:m-d-y Copies files changed on or after the specified date.
If no date is given, copies only those files whose
source time is newer than the destination time.
/EXCLUDE:file1[+file2][+file3]...
Specifies a list of files containing strings. Each string
should be in a separate line in the files. When any of the
strings match any part of the absolute path of the file to be
copied, that file will be excluded from being copied. For
example, specifying a string like \obj\ or .obj will exclude
all files underneath the directory obj or all files with the
.obj extension respectively.
/P Prompts you before creating each destination file.
/S Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones.
/E Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones.
Same as /S /E. May be used to modify /T.
/V Verifies each new file.
/W Prompts you to press a key before copying.
/C Continues copying even if errors occur.
/I If destination does not exist and copying more than one file,
assumes that destination must be a directory.
/Q Does not display file names while copying.
/F Displays full source and destination file names while copying.
/L Displays files that would be copied.
/G Allows the copying of encrypted files to destination that does
not support encryption.
/H Copies hidden and system files also.
/R Overwrites read-only files.
/T Creates directory structure, but does not copy files. Does not
include empty directories or subdirectories. /T /E includes
empty directories and subdirectories.
/U Copies only files that already exist in destination.
/K Copies attributes. Normal Xcopy will reset read-only attributes.
/N Copies using the generated short names.
/O Copies file ownership and ACL information.
/X Copies file audit settings (implies /O).
/Y Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
existing destination file.
/-Y Causes prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
existing destination file.
/Z Copies networked files in restartable mode.

The switch /Y may be preset in the COPYCMD environment variable.
This may be overridden with /-Y on the command line.

Regards.