Booting Windows XP from external hard drive?

Awesome, turns out my laptop was overheating and it's screwed my HD up. I don't trust the idiots here (Mexico) to replace it (or myself, for that matter), so I'm thinking about getting an external HD until I go to the US or another country where they won't screw me over if they fry my laptop. Could I boot Windows XP from this external HD, or does it need an internal hard drive from which to boot?

 

You should just download Ubuntu Linux Live. It's free and can be run straight from a CD.

 

I'd rather not mess around with other OS's right now. Can it be done or not?

 

should, go into your bios and check if you have an option to boot from an external drive like USB or whatever

 

Mike, what is your laptop model and chipset?
If it is any latest notebook, you should be able to do it by changing the boot preferences in the BIOS.

 

It's a Compal HGL-30, I believe the chipset is a 945PM. Not latest gen, but it's only 1 year old.

 

mike, i think you can boot from USB, check the boot options in the BIOS....

 

You know, thinkpads used to be made in Mexico (the legendary T3x,T4x series). I'm sure they have smart & responsible people there

 

It's not the fact that it's Mexicans, it's the fact that the only shops which will do it are very small and which would probably not take responsibility if they fried my laptop somehow. It's like a flea market, only with computers.

In order to boot from a USB port, would I just need to change the booting preferences in the BIOS? I'm guessing it would only show up if a USB drive was connected, or am I wrong?

 

yep thats all It doesnt matter if the External Drive is plugged in or not at the moment so..... go for it!! Good Luck!!!!

 

You can replace the HDD yourself. It should be pretty simple. HDDs are supposed to be user-upgradeable.

 

That's what I told myself when I bought a new PSU for my desktop. I ended up frying my motherboard somehow.

I'd just rather not risk it. I know the chances are slim, but I really want to be safe with this thing, since if it goes I'm not getting another laptop for another couple of years.

I'll just go with the external HD, even if I can't use it to boot Windows I can just use it to store music and video.

 

Mike, as I have already pointed out, you can use a USB based external HDD for booting Win XP, you will not be at any kind of risk (like frying your motherboard) at all if you follow these steps.

1. Use the boot options in the BIOS to see if you have an option to boot from USB. If yes, enable it and move it to the top of the Boot priority list (if you want to boot from USB, when you have another bootable HDD connected).

2. After logging into your current OS, connect your USB HDD.

3. Make sure that you have a copy of Win XP CD or Dump.

4. Follow the instrucitons at this link to install Win XP on your USB HDD.
http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 (These steps are extremely important because Win XP generally resets the USB ports while booting, which we don't want to happen as we are using a USB HDD to boot)

5. Voila, the next time you restart your machine after all the above changes, you should be able to boot from your USB HDD that is loaded with Win XP now.

Rep me if you find this useful...

 

Ok thanks a lot prashanthm, I'll buy the HD this weekend, hopefully I'll get it to work somehow.