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

Thanks Ron, see below.

"Ron Sommer" <rsommer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:O6VkRd8UHHA.1636@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The registry on the USB drive refers to the C: drive which is the USB
drive.
It doesn't appear so. The USB drive stays as the E: drive. The registry on
the E: drive indeed refers to everything being on the C: drive, since it's a
copy of the original registry.

You also have the laptop C.
Yes, the internal drive is C: but I have only one C: drive, not 2.

The operating system on a cloned partition is going to retain the original
drive letter.
Yes, I identified this as a problem. I suppose you mean the same thing as in
your first point, which is that the registry retains the original drive
letter. Where else would the operating system retain the original drive
letter?

You need to put something on the Desktop so you know which XP has booted.
Not really. I know it doesn't boot from the USB drive. The LED changes to
red briefly at the beginning but then stays green (inactive) when Windows
loads and the internal disk activity indicator flashes.

If only I could tell the system to swap drive E: and drive C: I'd be there!

The boot.ini file is indeed the same on both disks. It reads:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I am not quite sure what it should be on the external disk.
--
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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