Install XP Pro on External USB Hard Drive & Boot

marelle · 09-21-2005, 09:37 AM

If I can boot from a usb flash drive can't I install XP on an external usb hard drive a boot my os from the external drive? Does anyone foresee any issues with this? Thanks.

**Fox** · 09-21-2005, 11:10 AM

It can't be done. The reason for this is that windows loads its own USB driver, and so it has to take the USB offline while it loads it, and so it will stop when it gets to that point.

dai · 09-21-2005, 11:20 AM

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/5735

**BMR777** · 09-21-2005, 03:17 PM

IBM is experimenting with the Soulpad concept, where you could boot XP from a MP3 Player or IPod. You may want to look inot this if you need it for travel.

BMR777

**Fox** · 09-21-2005, 08:33 PM

Was I mistaken? Not challenging you, I had just heard it wasn't possible.

dai · 09-22-2005, 02:09 AM

ms says it cannot be done and so do most of the comments at the end of the link,i bought a 1g stick to try it but have not had time to mess around with it

bokchod · 09-22-2005, 05:31 AM

this page explains how portable usb drives can be made bootable ...

if this helps:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10215

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1849716,00.asp
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1846805,00.asp

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20050909/index.html

some more info:

Quote:

HAVING AN EXTERNAL USB cd-writer or hard disk works wonders as long as your operating system is in good shape. But if someday the system stops booting, you are lost. Booting from good old MS-DOS or Windows boot diskettes - even fitted with the needed third party NTFSDOS or EXTFS drivers - gives you access to your fixed hard disk only, but none of the USB peripherals can be accessed from the DOS command line.
Before you start scratching your head, let me repeat that this is not related to your favorite linux distro's or Windows XP/W2K/98/ME's USB support, this has to do with people like me, booting some flavor of DOS to copy files around or using DOS-based partition back-up software.
Imagine that you want to use Paragon Drive Backup, Powerquest's Drive Image, or Norton Ghost, to backup your hard disk partitions to that nice 120gb external USB 2.0 hard disk you just bought. You can't do it. Or if your wife/husband has managed to mess up her/his system so badly that it can't boot anymore, yet she/he wants you to have a copy of those nice digital pictures stored on a compactflash card plugged into the compactflash reader?. No way, Jose. Not from DOS, used to be the phrase.
Well, now you CAN.
The minor miracle here is using a driver file called "USBASPI.SYS" ("Panasonic v2.06 ASPI Manager for USB mass storage"). Given the right parameter incantations, this 16-bit Panasonic-developed DOS driver will let your system boot good-old DOS -any flavour, maybe even Caldera's OpenDOS and recognize all USB devices connected to the respective controllers. So this USB device identification is also useful for debugging/troubleshooting purposes.
However, it should be noted that this driver will only map mass storage devices like external hard disks, cd- roms, cd-rw, dvd-rom, zip, jaz, ls-120, and flash memory to ASPI devices. Then you need an elusive "ASPI mass storage driver" to map HDs and flash disks it to a drive letter in DOS. This one goes by the name "di1000dd.sys", commonly referred to as the "Motto Hairu USB Driver". Don't ask why, it's called that, I don't know.
Before you continue reading and decide to go out and do "bad things" let me mention that legalese on the Panasonic site most probably prevents you from downloading and using this driver on non-Panasonic devices, yet according to reports that are floating around on the Interweb, people have been able to use these "universal drivers" on a wide range of systems with different USB connectivity, UHCI, OHCI, and USB 2.0's EHCI with the NEC chipset.
The Panasonic DOS drivers seem to work on most USB chipset implementations, including Intel and NEC, as well as NVidia, VIA, and SIS. It seems Panasonic engineers didn't want to have to write a driver every time for every different chipset, so they wrote this "universal" driver to work with all possible USB controllers.
Now the hairy details for DOS old-timers like myself who actually enjoy editing config.sys [Cough. Ed.]:
The driver switches you can use are: device=(path)\USBASPI.SYS [/e] [/o] [/u] [/w] [/v] [/l[=n]] [/f] /r] [/slow] [/nocbc] [/norst] [/noprt]
The driver scans all three USB controller specs by default, but you can limit which controllers are enabled using these switches:
/e EHCI spec (USB 2.0)
/o OHCI spec (newer USB 1.x)
/u UHCI spec (older USB 1.x)
And so far I learned what these switches mean:
/w Wait, displays text message for attaching or swapping USB devices
/v Verbose, shows status messages - recommended
/l[=n] LUN, specifies highest LUN # to be attached to device ID (default=0)
Example config.sys and autoexec.bat files on a DOS boot diskette with USB support for an usb cd-(rom/rw) and hard disk look like this:

[config.sys]
DOS=HIGH,UMB
lastdrive=Z
device=HIMEM.SYS
rem The following line loads Panasonic's universal USB- controller driver
devicehigh=USBASPI.SYS /v /w /e
rem the following is an aspi mass storage driver for usb- connected HDs and compactflash memory cards
devicehigh=DI1000DD.SYS
rem The following one loads CD-ROM driver
devicehigh=USBCD.SYS /d:USBCD001
[autoexec.bat]
@echo off
REM the following line adds a drive letter to the usb cd(rom/r/rw) mounted
LH MSCDEX /d:USBCD001

The Panasonic driver also seems to recognise some TI cardbus controllers, making it possible to use USB peripherals attached to USB (even 2.0!) Cardbus cards. Your mileage might vary. Knowledge of the Japanese language might be required to read and understand the Panasonic licence agreement or the cease-and-desist letters. Explore at your own risk.

there are some softs too:

The Ultimate Boot Disk v4.3l (630 KB)

Application Homepage: http://www.startdisk.com/Web1/ubd/ubd.htm
DownLoad: http://www.startdisk.com/Web1/ubd/ubd.htm

MadBoot 7.0.43 (1.3 MB)

Application Homepage: http://www.madboot.com/
DownLoad: http://www.madboot.com/

MD Boot Disk Maker

http://www.watermidz.com (check the freeware)

**leroys1000** · 09-22-2005, 09:08 AM

I tried cloning to a USB drive,and it started to boot,but just crashed
when drivers started loading.

jhmac77 · 07-30-2007, 06:53 AM

I found web site http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 that might solve the problem but even that solution is too technical for me. Is there any better solution?

dai · 07-30-2007, 11:59 AM

jhmac77
this thread is nearly 2yrs old
please start your own thread for your own problems

09-21-2005, 09:37 AM	#1 (permalink)
marelle Registered User Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 1 OS: XP	Install XP Pro on External USB Hard Drive & Boot If I can boot from a usb flash drive can't I install XP on an external usb hard drive a boot my os from the external drive? Does anyone foresee any issues with this? Thanks.

09-21-2005, 11:10 AM	#2 (permalink)
Fox TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: NJ Posts: 7,768 OS: Windows 7 My System	It can't be done. The reason for this is that windows loads its own USB driver, and so it has to take the USB offline while it loads it, and so it will stop when it gets to that point. __________________ Antec Neo Power 500W, ABIT IP35-E, Intel E5200 OC'd, Corsair XMS2 4x1GB DDR2-800, EVGA GTX 260, 750GB WD Black Have I helped you solve your problem? Donate to Techsupportforums

09-21-2005, 11:20 AM	#3 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 57,932 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/5735 __________________

09-21-2005, 03:17 PM	#4 (permalink)
BMR777 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 1,398 OS: XP Pro, XP Home, Vista Home Basic, Ubuntu Studio	IBM is experimenting with the Soulpad concept, where you could boot XP from a MP3 Player or IPod. You may want to look inot this if you need it for travel. BMR777 __________________ Brandon Rusnak Protection: AVG Free Anti Virus :: Windows Defender :: Hosts File :: SiteAdvisor :: ZoneAlarm Quick Fixes: 5 Steps to remove spyware

09-21-2005, 08:33 PM	#5 (permalink)
Fox TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: NJ Posts: 7,768 OS: Windows 7 My System	Was I mistaken? Not challenging you, I had just heard it wasn't possible. __________________ Antec Neo Power 500W, ABIT IP35-E, Intel E5200 OC'd, Corsair XMS2 4x1GB DDR2-800, EVGA GTX 260, 750GB WD Black Have I helped you solve your problem? Donate to Techsupportforums

09-22-2005, 02:09 AM	#6 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 57,932 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	ms says it cannot be done and so do most of the comments at the end of the link,i bought a 1g stick to try it but have not had time to mess around with it __________________

09-22-2005, 09:08 AM	#8 (permalink)
leroys1000 Tech Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 770 OS: Windows XP	I tried cloning to a USB drive,and it started to boot,but just crashed when drivers started loading.

07-30-2007, 06:53 AM	#9 (permalink)
jhmac77 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 21 OS: Win XP	Re: Install XP Pro on External USB Hard Drive & Boot I found web site http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 that might solve the problem but even that solution is too technical for me. Is there any better solution?

07-30-2007, 11:59 AM	#10 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 57,932 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: Install XP Pro on External USB Hard Drive & Boot jhmac77 this thread is nearly 2yrs old please start your own thread for your own problems __________________