Re: Booting XP from external USB drive - change C drive?

The registry on the USB drive refers to the C: drive which is the USB drive.
You also have the laptop C.
The operating system on a cloned partition is going to retain the original
drive letter.
You need to put something on the Desktop so you know which XP has booted.
--
Ronald Sommer

"Olivier" <oliviersaurin@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eO$9Tm3UHHA.3652@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
: Anna,
:
: Thank you for this reply. I will check the links you provide. The problem
is
: not with booting as I think it starts booting from the external drive (but
I
: might be mistaken). The problem is that the registry on the USB drive also
: refers to the C: drive so than it starts loading from there.
:
: I thought maybe I could do a global replace of C: to E: in the registry
: files on the USB drive.
:
: As an alternative I was thinking I could swap the disk instead (although
it
: would be good to have both at the same time). That's when I discovered the
: laptop disk is SATA and the external disk is IDE.
:
: "Anna" <myname@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
: news:O8ksKg3UHHA.5108@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
: >
: >>> "Olivier" <oliviersaurin@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
: >>> news:O8cJyR1UHHA.3652@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
: >>> : What I want to do is: Boot my laptop from an external drive so that
I
: >>> have a completely different Windows installation when I boot from the
: >>> USB drive
: >>> : than when I boot from the internal drive. The reason is that this is
a
: >>> work laptop and I want to be able to keep work and personal things
: >>> separate so I could reboot on the USB drive after office hours and get
: >>> my own system.
: >>> :
: >>> I have done everything that needed doing to copy my current partition
: >>> from the C drive to the USB drive and this is bootable. I expected
: >>> somehow that if I booted from the external drive it would become the
: >>> primary drive, but obviously not. So what happens is that it starts
: >>> booting from the USB
: >>> drive and very quickly its registry tells it to start programs from C:
: >>> so I
: >>> don't end up with a different system at all!
: >>> :
: >>> : I am wondering if it is possible to assign drive C to another letter
: >>> and
: >>> : then the USB drive to drive C early enough in the boot process. How
: >>> would you go about it?
: >>> :
: >>> : Thanks in advance
: >>> :
: >>> : Olivier
: >
: >
: >> "Ron Sommer" <rsommer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
: >> news:ucigID2UHHA.920@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
: >>> An operating system gives drives drive letters.
: >>> Usually the active drive gets the operating system installed on it and
: >>> becomes C.
: >>> The operating system on the laptop is on C and the operating system on
: >>> the
: >>> USB drive is on C.
: >>> The boot.ini file uses disk and partition numbers to determine which
: >>> partition to boot.
: >>>
: >>> How are you switching the drive boot order to choose between the USB
and
: >>> the
: >>> laptop drives?
: >>> --
: >>> Ronald Sommer
: >
: >
: > "Olivier" <oliviersaurin@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
: > news:OaWV5p2UHHA.4076@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
: >>I expected the operating system on the USB drive to end up being on C,
but
: >>it's not. The internal drive remains C with the 'works' Windows XP and
the
: >>USB drive remains E.
: >>
: >> To boot from the USB disk I changed the boot device order in the BIOS
: >> setting to boot from USB before booting from internal disk. In other
: >> words to boot from the USB drive I connect it before powering on and to
: >> boot from the internal drive I power on without the USB drive
connected.
: >> Or a least that was the idea.
: >>
: >> I'm after another way of doing it which would allow me to have two
: >> separate working environments so that I can experiment with the 'home'
: >> (USB) drive we've never been able to boot an XP OS from a USB/Firewire
: >> EHD. And, I might add, we've never come across a single confirmed &
: >> documented report where this capability was achieved and was without
: >> consequence on the work (internal) drive.
: >
: >
: > Olivier:
: > Over the years there have been many newsgroup contributors and others
who
: > have claimed to have booted the XP OS from a USB external HDD. Usually
: > their claim is couched in phrases like "as long as the motherboard's
BIOS
: > supports this capability", or some such. All I can say is that we've
: > worked with a large variety of motherboards that presumably provided
this
: > "capability" but we've never been able to boot an XP OS from a
: > USB/Firewire EHD. And, I might add, we've never come across a single
: > confirmed & documented report where this capability was achieved and was
: > repeatable.
: >
: > Having said this, you might want to take a look at this fairly recent
Fred
: > Langa article where Fred purports to have come up with a process to
: > achieve this "bootability". See
: >
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticleSrc.jhtml?articleID=177102101
: >
: > Also, a poster to one of the MS XP newsgroups claimed that he too has
come
: > up with a methodology to do this as well. See
: > http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176
: >
: > No doubt a Google search will also reveal a good deal of information on
: > this issue.
: >
: > I really don't know any practical way to meet your objective. We have
: > experimented with a few eSATA (external) laptop CardBus adapters so as
to
: > make a direct SATA-to-SATA connection from a SATA external enclosure to
: > the laptop's CardBus slot, but we've not be able to effect a boot using
: > those devices as well.
: >
: > It has puzzled us why laptop/notebook manufacturers have not (at least
up
: > the present time) produced their wares with an eSATA port, along with
the
: > usual USB port. To our mind this would be an enormous leap forward since
: > it would provide the capability you and many others are looking for when
: > using a laptop/notebook. (A few desktop machines are finally coming on
: > market with at least one eSATA port). BTW, we have heard that ASUS will
: > shortly be releasing a notebook with an eSATA port.
: > Anna
: >
:
:

.

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