Booting from USB HD?

Charger · Post by **Charger** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 9:44 pm

I have a Dell Latitude D600 notebook that I want to boot from a Maxtor external USB Hard Drive. About 2 years ago, we tried and failed. Somebody brought up the topic today, seems like this idea is more popular now. Anyone here have experience with it?
I'd like to have multiple OS's on the Drive; Win98se, 2000, and XP.
I have had dual-boot setups with 98/2000 on the internal HD, they eventually get buggy though.

Post by **Ash2Dust** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 2:44 am

If the bios supports it, you can boot externally.

Winter_Lion · Post by **Winter_Lion** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 3:13 am

Yeppers, ......................................

Your setup has to show an option for booting from an external source. Especially USB, since it is turned on by Windows as the computer runs through the win.ini files and prepares to boot into windows.

If your bios does not have that option, check the manuf. site for an update to your motherboard that clearly states that it makes your pc into an external drive boot capable machine. Otherwise it is not worth the risk that your pc won't wake back up after you reburn your bios chip.

Winter

Charger · Post by **Charger** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:34 pm

Ok, a recent updated Bios allows me the choice ---> "external USB HD" or something close to that.

How do I set up the USB drive for Win98se? Format and install from my internal CD/DVD? Any particular notables when formatting? (partioning/sizes,etc) USB is new to me.
Thanks for any help.

Winter_Lion · Post by **Winter_Lion** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 6:13 am

It should be formatted like you would a regular drive. But you will format it from Administrators Console or from My Computer, by selecting the drive and right clicking. Select either TOOLS or FORMAT option.

Also, if you have the 1.1 version of USB on your pc, it will be mucho slow in comparision to other hard drives. USB 2.0 is around forty times faster.

Win 98 second edition is the OS you want if you are keeping 98. It included USB capability as a built in for windows.

If you have a broadband connection, I can send ya a copy of Win 98 SE.
It's not like I am going to be using it any time soon, lol.

Winter