Why windows can not be installed in an external USB drive?

Posted: 08-24-2006, 04:28 PM
Please, could anybody tell me what is the reason why Windows XP and Vista
cannot be installed in an external USB 2.0 Hrad drive?

Thank you very much.
--
Alvaro
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Responses to "Why windows can not be installed in an external USB drive?"

Colin Barnhorst
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Posts: n/a
 
Re: Why windows can not be installed in an external USB drive?
Posted: 08-25-2006, 12:59 AM
Because booting from such drives is not supported. You can use an external
SATA enclosure with a SATA drive in it if you use an external SATA or eSATA
port to connect it to your motherboard. There are also ways to use scsi
drives externally as boot devices.

It has something to do with how drives must be connected to the PCI bus in
order to be detected in time for booting the system at startup. USB devices
are on a USB bus and not the PCI bus. The BIOS in many systems now have a
setting for usb boot but the usb enclosures do not have firmware to do it
and the usb ports on motherboards do not support it because the USB bus does
not support it. The operative statement from MS is: (from
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device.../usb-boot.mspx)

"Current versions of Windows should not be installed to USB hard disk drives
because Windows does not support USB hard disk drives as the primary boot
device."

The article then continues with proposals to the standards committee:

"This paper introduces the expected industry participation related to the
following:"

You can read the details from the article linked above.

The international standards committee on this subject is still working
towards the standards needed for everyone to be on the same page so that usb
booting can be implemented. Microsoft has said that they will not have usb
booting in Vista but are looking at it for future releases of Windows.

"Alvaro" <alvaro@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:CC0F6DC3-94D5-4076-A124-E799E29AAD7C@microsoft.com...
> Please, could anybody tell me what is the reason why Windows XP and Vista
> cannot be installed in an external USB 2.0 Hrad drive?
>
> Thank you very much.
> --
> Alvaro

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CrAy-Z
Guest
Posts: n/a
 
Re: Why windows can not be installed in an external USB drive?
Posted: 08-25-2006, 04:41 AM
The only problem i have with this statement is that certain flavours of linux
can do this. I also have a bootable usb2.0 drive that gets me to dos (with
full access to the usb drive - comes up as c:\) The are plenty of sites with
information on this... surely MSFT could incorporate it if they wanted to...
although you would have all sorts of activation trouble if you booted it in a
different PC each time... maybe that is what they are afraid of???

"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
> Because booting from such drives is not supported. You can use an external
> SATA enclosure with a SATA drive in it if you use an external SATA or eSATA
> port to connect it to your motherboard. There are also ways to use scsi
> drives externally as boot devices.
>
> It has something to do with how drives must be connected to the PCI bus in
> order to be detected in time for booting the system at startup. USB devices
> are on a USB bus and not the PCI bus. The BIOS in many systems now have a
> setting for usb boot but the usb enclosures do not have firmware to do it
> and the usb ports on motherboards do not support it because the USB bus does
> not support it. The operative statement from MS is: (from
> http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device.../usb-boot.mspx)
>
> "Current versions of Windows should not be installed to USB hard disk drives
> because Windows does not support USB hard disk drives as the primary boot
> device."
>
> The article then continues with proposals to the standards committee:
>
> "This paper introduces the expected industry participation related to the
> following:"
>
> You can read the details from the article linked above.
>
> The international standards committee on this subject is still working
> towards the standards needed for everyone to be on the same page so that usb
> booting can be implemented. Microsoft has said that they will not have usb
> booting in Vista but are looking at it for future releases of Windows.
>
> "Alvaro" <alvaro@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:CC0F6DC3-94D5-4076-A124-E799E29AAD7C@microsoft.com...
> > Please, could anybody tell me what is the reason why Windows XP and Vista
> > cannot be installed in an external USB 2.0 Hrad drive?
> >
> > Thank you very much.
> > --
> > Alvaro
>
>
>
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Colin Barnhorst
Guest
Posts: n/a
 
Re: Why windows can not be installed in an external USB drive?
Posted: 08-25-2006, 04:52 AM
Any OS could do it if the devs were willing to adopt a solution that did not
attempt to comply with industry standards. But then, since industry
standards are not yet adopted, any solution would be non-standard.

"CrAy-Z" <CrAyZ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:74702A57-144D-4254-9392-074D1E899281@microsoft.com...
> The only problem i have with this statement is that certain flavours of
> linux
> can do this. I also have a bootable usb2.0 drive that gets me to dos
> (with
> full access to the usb drive - comes up as c:\) The are plenty of sites
> with
> information on this... surely MSFT could incorporate it if they wanted
> to...
> although you would have all sorts of activation trouble if you booted it
> in a
> different PC each time... maybe that is what they are afraid of???
>
> "Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
>
>> Because booting from such drives is not supported. You can use an
>> external
>> SATA enclosure with a SATA drive in it if you use an external SATA or
>> eSATA
>> port to connect it to your motherboard. There are also ways to use scsi
>> drives externally as boot devices.
>>
>> It has something to do with how drives must be connected to the PCI bus
>> in
>> order to be detected in time for booting the system at startup. USB
>> devices
>> are on a USB bus and not the PCI bus. The BIOS in many systems now have
>> a
>> setting for usb boot but the usb enclosures do not have firmware to do it
>> and the usb ports on motherboards do not support it because the USB bus
>> does
>> not support it. The operative statement from MS is: (from
>> http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device.../usb-boot.mspx)
>>
>> "Current versions of Windows should not be installed to USB hard disk
>> drives
>> because Windows does not support USB hard disk drives as the primary boot
>> device."
>>
>> The article then continues with proposals to the standards committee:
>>
>> "This paper introduces the expected industry participation related to
>> the
>> following:"
>>
>> You can read the details from the article linked above.
>>
>> The international standards committee on this subject is still working
>> towards the standards needed for everyone to be on the same page so that
>> usb
>> booting can be implemented. Microsoft has said that they will not have
>> usb
>> booting in Vista but are looking at it for future releases of Windows.
>>
>> "Alvaro" <alvaro@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:CC0F6DC3-94D5-4076-A124-E799E29AAD7C@microsoft.com...
>> > Please, could anybody tell me what is the reason why Windows XP and
>> > Vista
>> > cannot be installed in an external USB 2.0 Hrad drive?
>> >
>> > Thank you very much.
>> > --
>> > Alvaro
>>
>>
>>

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