Extertnal Hard drive - can it be a portable computer

Hi,

I have seen these new pocket USB hard drives (freecom) that can hold up to 40 gb. I think I will get one just to back up files but what I would really like to know is can I do more.

Is it possible to install an operating system on a portable hard drive and then run it from any computer? This would allow me to carry all my important software and files anywhere and access them when needed.

Does anyone understand what I mean and is it possible.

CP

 

Hello Chris,

I think I know what you mean. I replaced my original C drive with a new one. That original drive has WinME on it and will re-use it as a third external backup HD.

Waiting for a drive enclosure http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=38548 and will be curious to see if I will be able to boot off it. I mentioned that in that thread, but no one has tried booting off a USB device.

I don't know what bearing this problem has on your question - attaching a FAT32 drive to XP, but worth a look http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=39199

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Chris,

Just hooked up my old C drive in an external USB drive cage with WinME on it, works great. So that part is good.

As for booting off it, I'm going to try adding the WinMe on that drive to my current dual boot menu with the Recovery Console, I think it'll work, but that's not the "portable" solution that you have in mind.

I took a quick look at my BIOS setup, and off-hand don't see how to make the USB a bootable device there.

Anyway, I'll keep you updated.

Happy New Year,

Charles

 

Hi Chris,

No, can't boot off a USB device if the BIOS doesn't have that option.

Some references:

Recommendations for Booting Windows from USB Storage Devices
Updated: August 23, 2004
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/usb-boot.mspx#EGAA



Boot KNOPPIX from an USB Memory Stick
What you'll need:
Knoppix or an already stripped down version
USB Memory Stick
Computer capable of booting from USB
kernel with cloop-support
syslinux
http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/knoppix-usb/


Langa Letter: Solving USB Boot Problems Aug. 16, 2004
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=28700158


I went looking for references on this subject. The bottom line is that the BIOS has to have the option to boot from a USB device. Only the newest computers, and not all, have that capacity. Did find in Langa's article ways around it, but seems "painful" and might not work. It certainly doesn't seem that one can make a bootable USB drive and plug it in and boot from it. That is only now starting and will take some time to become near universal the way Floppys and CD-ROMs are now.

Regards - Charles

 

What you're trying to do is possible but not really very feasible. The first problem you'd run into (as charlesvar mentioned) is that currently, not all computers support booting to an external device. If the computer you were trying to use did support it, the next problem you'd run into would be that none of the hardware would be the same as the hardware that was on the computer you used to install the OS. This would mean a repair install every time you connected it to a different computer in order to get things working properly again.

I imagine you might be able to connect it to the computer and boot to safe mode to use it but if you succeeded at that you'd still be extremely limited as far as what you could do with it.

And last but not least, what about WPA? If you were to install XP on the drive and you connected it to a different puter, WPA would kick in and you'd be locked out of the OS. There may be a way around that too, although if there is, it's almost certain it wouldn't be legal. IMHO, it would all be way to much hassle than it's worth.

 

Hey Zander, you sure know your WPA. I had it kick in yesterday when I restored a drive image made when different burners were installed. It was either activate again for the umpteenth time or don't use the image. I hate WPA so much I reverted and trashed the image. WPA S**KS! XP user friendly OS? That's a laugh. MSFT supervisor/WPA tech told me anytime you change video card you will get WPA. If true, pretty stupid.

Martin

 

Hi Martin,

MSFT supervisor/WPA tech told me anytime you change video card you will get WPA.

That doesn't seem to be true according to this:

So, for example, you can install a new video display card every month for as long as you like.

http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php

The info from that link on WPA has to be read thru a few times

Regards - Charles

 

You still having problems with that??? You've got yourself one strange box there. Seriously though, it would be kind of interesting to know just what's going on there.

I think you were mislead here. I recently changed my video card and didn't have any problems. I just added a DVD burner yesterday and that too was no problem. There's an interesting article about WPA here though you've probably already read enough of them until you were blue in the face. It specifically says you can change the video card once a month if you want and shouldn't have to reactivate (assuming it's the only change). There's a small utility you can use to see how many votes you have against you. I've attached a pic of what it shows on mine. As you can see, the video adapter has been changed. It would be interesting to see just what it shows on your computer with all the problems you've had with this. It's called XPinfo and you can find a link to it about 3/4ths of the way down the page if you're interested.

Edit:Guess charlesvar beat me to it. The page he linked to is the same one I did. Oh well, guess I gotta learn to type faster.

 

Thanks Charles and Zander: Read all that stuff you guys linked me to, interesting, but does not change my opinion of WPA.

I tried to back up WPA.bak, but no such file on my machine. Maybe the cause of all my WPA problems? Got WPA.dbl though, backed it up, maybe next WPA Gestapo I get I can use it. (not likely)

Anyhow, used the XP info, here is mine: Some interesting differences, note, hard drive not checked.

Martin