Boot from USB external HDD on IDE System

[Woodwood]

How do I boot from an external HDD on systems such as mine ?

The internal HDDs are connected through a PATA/IDE system, which gives a maximum of 2 internal HDDs, a primary master and a primary slave  (the secondary master and slave used for optical drives)

When there is only one HDD or none at all on the primary IDE system, and an external HDD is connected to computer via a USB port, when selecting HDD boot priority in the BIOS (Award 3.25 v.6) editor one sees and is able to select as top priority, the USB HDD.

If I do this on my computer, using a known-bootable external / USB HDD,  it fails to boot, giving a black screen wioth a blicking white line cursor at the top left.

Why is this happening ?  Why isn't the system booting into Wijndows XP from the external HDD ?

Woodwood

22.February.2017

[Big_Dave · Accepted solution]

Hi,

XP will not support booting from USB hard drives.

There used to be a document posted on the internet showing how to build a XP bootable OS for use on a flash drive.  I haven't looked at it for a long time.

[Woodwood]

Thank you, Big Dave.

That seems definitive.

I like defitnitive answers 🙂

Woodwood

23.February,.2017

[Woodwood]

Big_Dave,

It occurred to me that booting had little to do with the O/S involved.  Choice of the boot source is in the domain of the BIOS.

So ok, if one is trying to boot from XP system on an external disk, that may not work; but if the USB port (extetnl HDD) had, for example, a bootable Linux sytem on it, would it boot from that ?

Woodwood

24.February.2017

[Big_Dave]

@Woodwood

I don't do Linux and neither does most of the volunteers on this forum. However, I do have an Ubuntu flash drive that will boot up via USB.

[Woodwood]

->Big_Dave

Neither do I (do Linux)...yet 🙂

Another good reason for using it !  (Assuming it will fairly well on my S5160UK hardware, which I don't think W7 will)

Isn't booting in the control & responsibility of the BIOS, not the OS, and thus it does not matter what OS is on the external HDD, it could even be XP ?  Or, does it try to boot from the bootable XP HDD but during the opening stages of boot  XP realises it is on external disk, and says "I'm not having this" ?

Woodwood

24.February.2017

[Big_Dave]

@Woodwood

The BIOS is typically neutral as far as supporting most operating systems.  The BIOS does facilitate the boot process via SATA, USB and PCIe depending on the PC and the implemented functionality in the BIOS.  Older PCs could not boot from USB or PCIe even if you are just trying to boot up installation media.  The newer operating systems don't always contain drivers for older PC hardware which can be another problem with installing W10 on older PCs. The reverse is also true with trying to run XP on newer hardware as the drivers don't exist. Do you have any Kabylake XP drivers up your sleeve?

I used to boot XP from and external eSATA HD that was connected to the motherboard via SATA.

BTW---MS has stated that W10 will only be supported with the new Intel processors. However, I am sure that users will not all be running W10 on new PCs.

[Woodwood]

I assume the BIOS (Award 3.25 v6 IIRC) on my S5160UK allows booting from USB (except if I'm trying to boot into XP through USB, thanks for the words on that Buig_Dave) because under certain conditions that is shown as an option in the boot device priority list for booting from a hard disk.

Woodwood

25.February.2017