External Boot

[s_hardjo]

How can I boot XP from an external usb hard drive? My BIOS allows startup from a floppy & CD but has no feature to startup from a usb device
Appreciate any comments/tips
Thanks

[Virtualbody1234]

Could you give details about your computer? Mostly the motherboard make and model.

[lynx]

If your bios doesn't support boot from USB then there's little chance that you will be able to convince it to do so.

You could look for an updated bios to see if it was added as a later option, but bios changes are usually only to fix bugs and support newer processors so it isn't likely.

Alternatively there's always a slim possibility that it is included as a hidden option, but that's also very unlikely.

However, you may be able to find software that will override tha bios and make the USB appear bootable. You would need to have this installed on a floppy or cd which would have to be the initial boot device, and would then switch to the USB device after loading the boot sectors.

If you wanted to pursue that line I would suggest you investigate GRUB loaders. These are more usually used for linux but can be used for other types of OS as they support chain-loading mechanisms to access other boot loaders.