How can I boot Windows from my external USB HDD?

I am running windows Vista from my C:

I have an external HDD which is E:

I have Vista installed on E: as well.

And when my PC starts, I press ESC and it gives me boot options. And my external USB HDD is listed. So I press the USB HDD and Windows begins to load. But it stops and the PC reboots.

So my question is... How do I boot Windows from my external HDD?

Thank you

 

The official answer is that you can't.

However, check out this article if you're ambitious...

 

Well how come some people are doing it? But they use expensive boot managers I believe, like GAG or Acronis Boot Manager.

Is there a free way?

And why can I boot Ubuntu Linux from my external USB HDD, but not Windows?

 

Because Ubuntu was designed to be booted from external USB drives and Windows was not.

 

I think, if I understand it correctly, that Acronis boot manager claims to be able to do it. Any ideas?

 

I'm not an expert on OS Selector, but I doubt that it can. The problem is that Windows was deliberately designed to preclude booting from USB drives. When Windows boots, the mass storage drivers needed to support USB are not loaded early enough in the boot process, so the boot fails.

Go read the article referenced in post #2. They describe a hack to Windows to force it to load the proper drivers early in the boot process.

 

Hi truthseeker,

You can't have Vista boot from an External Hard Drive. On the other hand, the next Windows Version, due out in 2009-2010, supposely, will allow that operating system to be bootable from an external Hard Drive, I read somewhere. Though, I am not positive.

There is already information being posted as to what will be included in the next Windows Version on the Web.

 

So Vista will load from an internal HDD, but it cant run from external HDD because the drivers to see "itself" are not loaded early enough? Is that correct?

I can boot and run Ubuntu Linux from my USB external HDD, so I guess their kernel is better written to load USB drivers early enough so the OS can see itself and load.

Wish Vista did that

 

I have been told that some people do a hack or something to get it working. But it sounds too complicated for me.

I wonder why no company can release a boot manager that loads Vista USB drivers before we even chose to run Vista, so then we can boot Vista from external USB HDD.

Surely there is such a boot manager around?

 

See if this website has the information you need:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6346-5928902.html
And if you get it to work, let us know.

 

I said Vista, not XP

That webpage is useless to me.

I dont have XP. I only have Vista. Read my posts above

 

Sorry I mentioned it.

 

No, it's ok. Thank you for trying to help.