Booting an OS from an external hard-drive

[rcvalencia9]

I am using a Compaq Presario Notebook PC with Windows XP Home. Im planning to install Microsoft Visual Studio .NET in my PC. I am running out of free hard disk space. I have an external Hard drive using an enclosure. Im planning to install Win XP Professional/ Windows Server 2003 and Visual Studio .NET in that enclosured hard disk. The main reason is that you can't create XML and ASP .NET applications in XP Home. so i have to install XP Prof./Server 2003. I don't want to reinstall any OS in my notebook's hard drive. I want the way my computer is running with XP Home. My question is how to boot XP Pro from the external Hard Disk? The enclosure will be using USB 2.0.

[colecifer]

I don't know if you will be able to do that, i know some bios suppourt botting from usb but not many. I don't think that a compaq would allow it, not sure though. You might be able to install a boot loader that suppourts it. Thats what i did to get my old computer to recognize bootable cd's.

[digitalfreedom64]

I'm not sure if you can or not. Never really thought about it. May have to keep a watch on this thread, learning potential here.

[rcvalencia9]

I already bought an external hard drive. Its a HITACHI USB Device. 40 GB. Is it a good hard drive? Can I boot from this external hard drive?

[bailey]

Originally Posted by rcvalencia9 I already bought an external hard drive. Its a HITACHI USB Device. 40 GB. Is it a good hard drive? Can I boot from this external hard drive?

yes you can, just go into the bios and set to to boot from usb device.
if it is not there, then no you can't

BIOS must support INT 13h During the boot process, Windows assumes that support for communicating with the boot device, either hard disk drive or CD-ROM drive, is present in INT 13h when Windows loads because the NT Loader uses calls to INT 13h to access the disk. INT 13h support must comply with the "BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive Services - 2" specification and the "USB Mass Storage Specification for Bootability," The newer specification is considered the authority if the two specifications contradict each other.

[rcvalencia9]

I read about that. But I also read something that says that Windows can't be installed in USB Storage Devices to prevent piracy. Can an updated BIOS from Compaq will be helpful in Booting from a USB Device?