Disabling Hard Drive from Bios... (Vista Question)

I wanted to install Vista on my z96j to see how it ran. I found you can boot to an external drive and that leads to my question. Can I disable the HD that is in my notebook (with XP on it) so the vista install won't mess with it?

I am assuming that when I am done testing vista I can just reformat the external drive and reenable the main HD in the notebook and it will boot XP like nothing has happened. Will this work???

Thanks

 

I see no reason for which it shouldn't work. Just make sure you're always sure with which HDD you're working.

 

To BPHusker: did the scheme work?

 

I don't know about disabling it, but you could just pop it out. Normally it is as simple as removing two screws. Just be careful with it while its out, no magnets near it, things like that.

 

Or uhhh..change up the boot priority so it'll boot from your external?

 

well there is a option to disable it, and I've been trying to do this so that i can use Ubuntu edgy which i've got on a 2.5" USB HDD, but it doesnt work.

No matter what you do in that bios to disable the drive, linux will always pick it up and therefore there is no way for my ext HDD to boot into linux.

It works perfectally on other laptops and on multiple desktops but no-go on A6T

So yeah, bios is a bit screwed up!

Good luck

 

Insane is correct, some laptops will work some won't work. I have an external hard drive with XP on it, it boots fine on my desktop as long as i remove the internal hard drive (unplug it). As for my laptop, no go, I have yet to try removing the interal hard drive. I am hopeing that will work.

 

To All: Let me rephrase my previous question: has anyone succeeded in applying the scheme under discussion in a DESKTOP rather than in a LAPTOP? I am talking about the possibility of disabling temporarily the HD that carries the original XP (without unplugging it, i.e., by only changing the status via BIOS update) and booting from an external USB bootable HD previously defined as such in the BIOS?
In other words, is this a problem related to laptops only?

 

A contribution to the confusion: see site
http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

 

it seems to only be a Asus thing. I did a fair bit of reading when installing ubuntu linux to the external HDD and others had great success using HP and dell notebooks.

YES you can disable the HDD in a DESKTOP computer, well mine worked.

As for removing the internal HDD from the laptop and then booting from a external drive, that worked too on my Asus but defeated the purpose of having the external drive...


Basically its a Asus bios thing and unless they fix the way their BIOS' handle disabling the HDD then booting from a external drive with the main HDD still inside the notebook we're not going to be able to do it.

If you're up for the challenge, try installing your favorite linux distro and have a play around with grub (linux boot loader) as your boot loader. It may just be something with the windows MBR (is that what they call it) that causes the notebook to just restart when the windows logo comes up. There may well be a way of telling linux how to not see the internal drive, and then to enter windows...


If i do find out how, I'll be sure to share it..... I might even dig this thread up and PM you

@Usuario, thats one hell of a long article..... might give it a go if i have a few spare hours to waste

Insane