Re: in lieu of swapping out hard drives

Anna wrote:


"C.Joseph S. Drayton" <csdcs@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:479f8169$0$90272$14726298@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I miss understood then. I thought the OP needed to be able to
run multiple OSes, and assumed that the easiest way would be
with an external drive. Since I spend most of my time in the
field, having to carry external devices to me is a last resort.

If the OP doesn't mind having to use an external drive, I can
verify that the eSATA drive is an option. I tested it on my HP
dv8100cto and when the card is installe and connect to a drive,
if I hit [ESC] on boot, I am given the option to boot from the
external drive. Its interesting, because if you go into the
BIOS, it doesn't list that drive unless it is physically
connected.

I found it by accident when I was testing the drive and did a
reboot and wanted to boot from the CD and saw the drive listed
as a possible boot device.
-- C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T

CSD Computer Services
Web site: http://csdcs.tlerma.com/
E-mail: csdcs@xxxxxxxxxx


Anna wrote:
c.Joseph...
Could you clarify your above comment?
(And we are talking about the XP OS here, right?)

You're working with a HP dv8100 notebook. You say "...when >>the
card is installe(d) and connect(ed) to a drive, if I hit [ESC]
on boot, I am given the option to boot from the external
drive."

Could you "flesh" that out a bit?

What "card"? You're referring to an ExpressCard with one or
more eSATA ports?

If so, could you provide the make/model of that device?

At what point do you press the [ESC] key during the bootup
process?

And when you do this a menu displays displaying a listing of
the bootable devices in your laptop, one of which is the SATA
external HDD you've connected to the ExpressCard eSATA
device? Is the external SATA HDD you've connected a bare
drive or is it in a SATA external enclosure?

And you can then select that bootable SATA HDD from the list and
the system will boot to it? Works every time?

Do you know whether this is an integrated HP function or is it
possible this capability was provided by the driver disk
accompanying the CardBus device?

Is there any info re the above in the HP User Manual?
Anna


"C.Joseph S. Drayton" <csdcs@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:479fe4ea$0$90262$14726298@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Anna,

The hardware I am referring to is;

1) Hewlette-Packard Pavilion dv8100cto laptop with a ExpressCard
port. 2) Addonics ADEXC34-2E with 2 eSATA ports
3) Addonics AASA2SAP15C SATA-to-eSATA converter cable
4) Mapower MAP-H31SS-01 Drive case
5) Seagate Barracuda 7200.7

The Seagate is mounted in the Mapower case. The Mapower
case is connected to the Addonics ExpressCard via the Addonics >
SATA to eSATA converter cable. The Addonics ExpressCard is >
plugged into the ExpressCard slot on the dv8100cto laptop.

Immediately after pressing the power button, press the [Esc]
key. I then get the window to enter the bios password. I enter the
BIOS password and see the BIOS initialization screen. The screen
clears and I get a screen that list the possible boot devices > (at
the bottom of the list is the option to enter 'setup').

I choose the Seagate drive and it boots.

It booted successfully a couple of times. I did not do extensive >
tests since as I said I hate having to rely on external drives and
would definitely NOT put a production system on an external drive.

I have no idea whether it is an integrated HP function or not. I
never bother to download the User Guide. Off the top of my
head I would guess
yes since the drive is recognized as bootable at a BIOS level.
-- C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T
CSD Computer Services
Web site: http://csdcs.tlerma.com/
E-mail: csdcs@xxxxxxxxxx


C. Joseph...
Many thanks for the comprehensive info.

As I indicated in my previous posts, we've been singularly
unsuccessful in booting XP from a ExpressCard. While we've used a
number of different ExpressCard models, we haven't worked with the
Addonics line, although interestingly enough I'm pretty sure a number
of the ExpressCards we worked with used the same chipset (Sil 3132)
as the Addonics device, yet we were unable to successfully boot to a
SATA HDD connected to the ExpressCard containing a bootable XP OS.

Assuming it works reliably as it apparently has in your experience
(at least up to now), this would be a significant leap forward for
maintaining a comprehensive backup system for laptop/notebook users
who, using a disk-to-disk cloning program, e.g., Symantec's Ghost or
Acronis True Image, or our current favorite Casper 4.0, could clone
the contents of their internal HDD to an external HDD and that
external device would be bootable. It's a capability that has escaped
us up to now as it concerns laptops/notebooks. Naturally we would
hope this capability would extend to laptops/notebooks in general,
not just to HP models.

Presumably this info should be of some interest to the OP who is
interested in establishing & maintaining a multi-boot configuration
involving his/her laptop. Anna

Hi Anna,

I use a WD Passport to backup my hard disk using Ghost. If I need to
reload, up put the Ghost disk in tell it to use USB support clone the
WD copy back onto my primary internal hard disk and I am good to go.

I guess I just like to keep things simple, and having an OS that has
production software and data on it is just to much work. My dv8100cto
has 2 120GB hard disk and I have a 160GB WD Passport for all of my data
that I don't need immediate access to.

For me I need to test on all Windows, and being able to do that without
having to connect an external drive just makes my job considerably
easier.

--

C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T

CSD Computer Services
Web site: http://csdcs.tlerma.com/
E-mail: csdcs@xxxxxxxxxx
.