I'm stumped

I just bought a USB HDD enclosure because I'd like the ability to BOOT from an external HDD. I know my Asus motherboard supports it because it has an option for it, USB HDD. I have 768MB of RAM (Kingston), one 40GB Maxtor HDD (Master), one Lite-On CD Writer (Slave), AMD Duron 1400 and integrated video, audio and ethernet.

First, I installed a working Windows XP Home HDD on my brand new USB HDD enclosure to see if I could externally boot right away. My PC just kept resetting. It doesn't even reach the Windows XP logo part. First boot device was set to USB HDD of course. Second, Third and Fourth boot devices were all set to CDROM because when I choose HDD 0 for any, it boots up normally.

I know the HDD is good because I use it on my other PC. I even tried two good HDDs to make sure. I called my supplier and he told me that in order to boot from an external USB HDD, I must first install the operating system (Windows XP Home) externally onto the external USB HDD.

I followed his advice. I DISCONNECTED first my internal HDD 0 to avoid a costly accident. Windows Setup detected my external USB HDD. I deleted all partitions, created a new one (maximum size), formatted it with NTFS quick and the setup went along just fine. It automatically restarted, showed my BIOS info, then the Windows XP Home logo. After the logo disappeared I thought I did it. But instead of proceeding, the PC restarted again. And that's as far as I could go in the process. I tried another HDD but the same thing happened.

Interesting though, I must say that after creating a new partition, I pressed Enter for formatting options. Instead of giving me formatting options, a message came up basically telling me that I can't proceed with the setup because Windows Setup can't install Windows on the specified HDD. I ran Windows Setup again, pressed Enter to install Windows, and this time I was given my formatting options. This was really the only weird thing that happened in the entire Windows installation process. Everything else went normally.

I can't install Windows externally and can't boot from my USB HDD. But after booting up normally with my internal HDD, I can power up my enclosure and my system is able to detect my external USB HDD. Everything else works excellent from here.

So I know my PC is fine, my enclosure is fine, my internal and external HDDs are fine. So what do you think can solve my problem?

I appreciate your time. I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you very much in advance.

Best,

FrederickYour bios need to support booting from usb devices in order for that to work. If it's able to do that there should be an option for it in the bios where you set the boot order.

But why do you even want to boot from an external device? To me that just doesn't make any sense. Your computer is going to be slow because the usb connection is not as FAST as your internal hdd connection. Instead you should use your internal hdd to boot and then use the external for storage.Although in general, it is possible to boot from a USB device, floppy, pen drive, HDD in enclosure, etc, and you can do it with MS-DOS and Linux, Microsoft have intentionally disabled Windows from installing on an external HDD. It just won't work. A collection of limitations (both hardware and software) PREVENT Windows from booting and running off a USB drive. One reason is that during any hot-plug operation, the USB bus is completely reinitialized. Windows really doesn't like it when it loses access to its boot device. Imagine, you plug in a USB camera, the USB bus reinitializes, Windows loses access to the boot drive, and *oops* the kernel needs to page in some data and it can't.



I knew it. I tried every imaginable way to make it work but it just won't. I now see that Windows simply doesn't allow it. I suspected this to be the case but I had to make sure from an expert. I'll have to be contented with using my external HDD as a backup and storage device.

Thanks guys.

FrederickGrab a Coffee and Have a Read...Very interesting. Windows would have to run without a pagefile! In the forum, the poll "Did this work for you?" had 50% "yes" and 50% "no" (Grand total of 4 votes). Seems like some hardware works, some doesn't.

This is very much like putting a BartPE disk on an HDD.

I did have success with it the last time i fooled with it but it was indeed a struggle.
Don't REMEMBER whose enclosure it was because i've since sold it but it was a Western Digital HDD...Thanks patio for the guide. I need to set aside some time in advance before taking this on. I know I can make it work.

I appreciate all the support.You're Welcome...stop by anytime.Today I put a BartPE XP disk onto a 1 GB pendrive which was a breeze.