my internal HARD drive ribbon is busted and i was going to boot form an external hard drive almost like it was my primary drive. but when i GET to the xp loading bar it goes 3/4 of the way then the bsod has the error STOP: 0x0000007B (inaccessible hard drive) ( i don't WANT to buy a ribbon yet because i just bought this computer and i want to see if it works right. XP will not boot from an external HDD...this is by design.Why was it designed this way?Because Gates didn't want MILLIONS of copies of XP floating around out there on external HDD's...is there any windows os that will work Not without a monkey wrench and about 2 1/2 days of your free time...

What is it you need to accomplish here? ?
Perhaps then we can assist.I just bought this computer and i need to see if it will work i just wont to see it boot. At FIRST it wouldn't recognize the hard drive then i found out the hard drive ribbon was dented so now instead of buying one and sinking money into it already i want to see if it will boot of my external drive A new cable would be the quickest and cheapest method...How would the new cable be the cheapest i already have the external hard drive and the software what else would i need? A) The external won't boot to Windows so that does you no good...

B) If the machine won't boot it doesn't matter what software you have...

C) New drive cables are relatively inexpensive...

However do what you wish.What do you think about this http://www.ngine.de/article/id/8 im not doubting your knowledge but i had done some searching before As i stated it can be done...whether it's worth the effort for what you want to accomplish can only be decided by you...Quote from: patio on September 04, 2009, 06:35:28 PM

A) The external won't boot to Windows so that does you no good...

B) If the machine won't boot it doesn't matter what software you have...

XP will not boot from an external HDD...this is by design.


As i stated it can be done