Boot XP from USB HDD?

[MikeCan]

Hey all thanks for reading.

So last week my BIOS started warning me with the S.M.A.R.T. algorithm that my HDD status was BAD and said to backup and replace. So I've sent it in as an RMA to newegg. Meanwhile I'm without my desktop so I figure hey why not try and boot XP on my external HDD for fun and to learn something. I'd always heard it was impossible, but over the months I've seen articles pop up here and there saying "Boot XP from your usb key..." never looked into it really until now. Soooo, I looked around and found this guide:

http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

In short you edit the ISO file of the windows install cd so the USB controllers are handled appropriately on bootup and don't terminate the connection with the USB HDD. I did all the editing successfully I believe, but here is the problem. I don't have an application that can edit ISO files greater than 300mb, so i had to extract the ISO and edit the files there so I used WinImage to save the boot sector as an image, then used CDBurnerXP Pro to make a new iso with the old boot image and the edited files. It took a few tries to get a CD to even boot, but I finally did after some NTLDR errors and such. Now here is the problem. After the cd boot loads all the drivers and is about to begin the actual windows install I get this blue screen error:

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

...

Technical Info:
STOP: 0x000000ED (0x89B11030, 0xC0000102, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

So now for the actual questions:

1.) Is there a better way to boot windows from an USB HDD?
2.) What is the most likely cause of the unmountable error? (I had big problems with getting it to even want to boot, possible problem still with the boot sector OR did my file editing corrupt something and that's why windows won't make it into the actual install?)

System specs:
USB HDD Seagate FreeAgent 250GB external
Windows XP Professional
Asus P5DL2 Mobo w/ AMI BIOS


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read over this lengthy post.

Cya!

[Train]

Does the bios have usb devices listed in the boot order?

I have read that setting it to USB cdrom will allow you to use a key.

Never tried using USB myslf as it is so slow. Just built a couple more computers incase one or two is/are down.

[MikeCan]

Oh yah booting to the USB won't be a problem (its in the boot order), its getting the edited windows installed so that on startup it won't sever the USB connection.

The USB cdrom idea might work, because plenty of laptops use USB cdrom drives and in the past I believe there were some issues with getting windows to install on them so they may have built a work around into the install sequence or something. I'll see what happens if I force the externall HDD to be read as a CDROM drive. I'll let you know. Thanks for your suggestions Train .

EDIT: p.s. I've got my laptop so I'm not without a PC (just no gaming PC!! ), just interested in the concept and application thereof. I've already learned a few things which will be useful in the future.

[Train]

Good Luck with your endeavorer!

[104456]

Booting from USB seems to be still full of issues just yet be it incompatable drives or motherboards that dont quite deliver what they say.
There is a USB builder version made by BartPE but again its results are erratic but you can give it a whirl and post the results.

[Welshjim]

MikeCan--Booting from a USB device is to a great extent dependent on your BIOS. If the BIOS is more than 2-3 years old, you usually cannot not boot from a USB drive. (It will recognize the USB drive, but not boot from it.)
I recently talked to the people at Touchstone, who offer BIOS updates.
http://www.touchstonesoftware.com/technology.cfm
They said that I had the latest update for the BIOS that came with my Dell Dimension 4600, and there was no update for my BIOS that would permit this.
Run the BIOS scan on Touchstone's site. They will call you back in a day or two. Maybe you will be luckier and can update the BIOS to do what you want. (Your PC maker should also offer BIOS updates, but unless one will allow what you want, there is not much point in updating the BIOS on a PC that is otherwise running OK.)

[MikeCan]

Tried a few things with setting the HDD as a cdrom drive and no luck there.

Jim, BIOS wise I'm 90% sure I'm fine. I can select it as a boot option in BIOS and also using the real windows install disk I can get through the install environment and into the start of the actual windows boot off of the USB HDD, but then it gets a blue screen error (I assume this is when windows is taking control of the USB drivers away from the BIOS and thus severs the HDD).

If no one was able to help me on the specific q's my next step was to try several of Bart Lagerweij's programs to solve the problem and since you suggested that also, 104456, I'm probably going to just go straight for it.

My original plan might still work if someone could point out a ISO editing program that doesn't put a 300MB cap on the files created with it. Anyone know of anything?

Thanks for all your time!

[Robert M]

What was the boot order arrangement in the BIOS settings?
You may have needed to change it. For example, did you try booting from the USB device first and the CD drive second?

Was the USB drive partitioned in a computer running Windows XP?

[MikeCan]

What do you mean? When I was emulating the USB HDD as a crom drive or the actual CDROM and USB drive? Either way, cdrom first then USB cuz I had to get the install CD to boot. It wouldn't install when the USB was being called a cdrom (no write privileges), so I installed as a HDD then booted as a CDROM with it going first in the boot order instead of the real cdrom, still nothing.

USB has been formatted with the Windows XP Pro install disk to NTFS. Also in a PC with windows running and still same bluescreen error results.

Thanks for taking your time.

[Welshjim]

MikeCan--I used Deep Burner Free to make a BartPE bootable ISO recovery CD.
http://www.deepburner.com/
There is also another boot recovery disk that you can create. UCDB for Windows.
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...cd+for+windows
I think it builds on BartPE and so may be better, but I have never used either other than to test the BartPE disc that it was bootable.

[MikeCan]

Heya Jim thanks! I use Deepburner myself, good choice ! I've heard about the UBCD but never checked it out, I used BartPE a year or so ago to fix some problems and was great, but I'm not aware of all the options it has so I'll have to do some reading. Thanks again! !

[Robert M]

The Microsoft KB has some information on the unmountable boot volume message. This link refers to a BIOS setting having to do with Ultra DMA mode.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302/en-us
Is your BIOS forcing the faster UDMA modes?
UDMA refers to Ultra Direct Memory Access. A method of speeding up transfers to and from the disk.

I'm talking about after your homemade install CD booted and transferred the Windows XP files to the USB hard drive. At that point you may have needed to change the boot seek order in the BIOS settings to seek a boot from the USB drive first. I would try it if you can't think of any other reason for getting that message.

Not familiar with that other BIOS setting you guys are discussing....making a USB drive appear to be a CD-ROM drive? What's all that about?

[MikeCan]

Oh awesome Robert ! I saw this KB entry but wasn't exactly sure what to try. I assumed it was a corrupt file system since I edited the ISO a bit differently than the tutorial suggested (by extracting then recreating the ISO, thought maybe some file was lost in the process). I don't remember going back and switching the CDROM and USB seek order after doing the edited install, I'll give that a try when I get home from work!

My BIOS allows my external HDD to emulate different modes, so I can set it to treat the HDD as a USB CDROM, or even a floppy drive. Anywho, thanks for your time Robert, I'll get to testing your suggestion in a bit.

Cya!

[MikeCan]

Alright I guess I wasn't thinking too straight when you made that suggestion Robert, the unmountable error is happening during setup not after. I guess the confusion came from me explaining two situations. I'll recap them:

1)Real install disk works throughout pre-installation environment but fails when I try to boot to the USB HDD(which its supposed to according to Microsoft since they never meant it to work).

2)Edited install works partway through pre-installation environment but fails with the STOP error right after initial windows drivers are loaded. This is leading me to believe it might be file corruption, but the idea of the data rates being forced sounds feasible too.

Anyways I'm getting pretty verbose in all of these posts and not gaining any ground, so I'm going to mess with the Bart and UBCD ideas for a while and see if I get any further.

Cya!

[Robert M]

Two or three thoughts.
Conventional hard drives must be configured by FDISK or similar utility after formatting to make exactly one of the partitions the "Active" partition.
How did you accomplish that on the external USB hard drive?

Are you sure your USB cabling and power requirements were correct?

Have you tried making the external USB hard drive behave as a floppy or emulate a floppy within the BIOS settings? Maybe that's what is needed.

Although your motherboard BIOS seems to support booting with a USB type of drive, maybe the drive itself does not support booting. Are these external USB hard drives flash upgradable? Just wondering.