1. You are viewing our forum as a guest. For full access please Register. WindowsBBS.com is completely free, paid for by advertisers and donations.

Problem booting from alternate hard drive.

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by ArsenalGunners4, 2010/06/28.

  1. 2010/06/28
    ArsenalGunners4

    ArsenalGunners4 Inactive Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2010/06/28
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    So I have an Acer laptop that was given to me after my desktop computer stopped working. Instead of paying to get it fixed, I took the hard drive out of the desktop and bought an internal hard drive converter so I could hook it up externally to the laptop. It has worked fine, but I'm having some issues with booting from the now-external hard drive. I go into BIOS and make the external hard drive the number one hard drive option on the list or whatever. The computer boots, and starts to load windows, and then once the windows loading screen is done, the computer just restarts itself and goes back to the Acer loading screen (where I'm able to press F2 for BIOS). Am I doing annything wrong? Is it a problem with my old internal hard drive from my desktop?

    I have windows vista on the laptop, but windows XP on the external, is that an issue? I have a lot of music production kits and programs and whatnot on my old hard drive that I'd like to now use on the laptop so I figured booting from the old hard drive would be an easier option than having to reinstall all the programs and everything onto the laptop (which would not even be possible because I dont have enough memory on the laptop hard drive to hold the files I need from the old hard drive).

    Any help or advice would be much appreciated as I'm trying to get back to my work as soon as I can.
    Thanks guys! :)
     
    ArsenalGunners4,
    #1
  2. 2010/06/28
    retiredlearner

    retiredlearner SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

    Joined:
    2004/06/25
    Messages:
    7,214
    Likes Received:
    514
    Hi AG4, Welcome to Windowsbbs. I don't profess to know the answer, but there may very well be a problem with Drivers between your laptop and what your desktop XP runs with.
    Hopefully someone with a definitive answer will come along. Cheers Neil.
     
    retiredlearner,
    #2


  3. to hide this advert.

  4. 2010/06/29
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

    Joined:
    2002/05/10
    Messages:
    28,896
    Likes Received:
    389
    Windows XP is not designed to boot from an external hard drive - although you are having partial success one of the main issues that you have is that the hardware on the laptop (mobo, etc) is not the same as on the original desktop. Under normal circumstances when a hard drive with XP installed is placed in another computer with a different hardware fingerprint it is necessary to make a Repair install of XP to recognise the new hardware. You might try this - a retail XP CD of the same Service Pack level as the installed OS is required. If necessary Service Packs can be slipstreamed into the original CD.

    For more information look at the hits here, including some from WindowsBBS......

    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...BEQBSgA&q=Boot+XP+from+external+drive&spell=1

    I'm pressed for time today and do not have the opportunity to go through them all.

    Consider putting a new hard drive into the laptop - a far neater solution :)
     
    PeteC,
    #3

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Accept Learn More...