Boot from USB connected bootable SATA HDD

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Benevolent Deity

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Hello,

I have a SATA HDD with Windows 8.1 installed and when connected via SATA it boots the OS just fine and everything works well. However, when I connect it to USB using a SATA to USB adapter and reconfigure my BIOS to boot from USB, it does not boot. I know for a fact that my adapter is good and that the machine will boot from USB from a properly prepared USB flash drive. So, my main question is what is different about a bootable SATA HDD connected via a USB adapter and a device specifically prepared to boot from USB that would cause this behavior?

Thanks,
Ray
 
Solution
USAFRet


You can put the...
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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I have a SATA HDD with Windows 8.1 installed and when connected via SATA it boots the OS just fine and everything works well. However, when I connect it to USB using a SATA to USB adapter and reconfigure my BIOS to boot from USB, it does not boot.
Click to expand...

Right. Windows does not like to try to boot from an external drive. Period.
It is sort of possible, but you have to do a whole lot of gyrations to make it work. And it will be dirt slow.

You can't just take a drive with a Windows OS on it, slap it in an external box, and hope it boots.
It won't.
 
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B

Benevolent Deity

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I've heard you can install Windows on a USB flash drive and boot from it. Do you know specifically what is different about this that allows such a boot?


 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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You can put the Windows install files on a USB and boot from that, to install the OS.

Putting an actual bootable installed OS on an external drive is a whole different thing.
 
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Solution
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ArtPog

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Sep 17, 2014
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As USAFRet has pointed out, the Windows OS will balk when attempting to install the OS onto a HDD/SSD connected as a USB device. There have been reports by a number of commentators that they have been successful in fresh-installing a Windows OS onto a USBEHD, however the process they've detailed is tortuous & unreliable.

HOWEVER...

Strangely enough if you *clone* a Windows OS to a USBEHD (or USBESSD) the OS *will* be bootable from the USB device. Now I do not know whether every disk-cloning program possesses this capability. I do know that the program I use - Casper - does contain this capability. We frequently have occasion to boot an OS from a USB device. And I believe there are other disk-cloning programs that have this capability.

One thing more...
You've indicated you use one of those SATA-to-USB adapters that you "know for a fact that my adapter is good...". If that is so, fine. We have found those type of adapters so unreliable that we stopped using them a few years ago. We only use a USB enclosure to house our HDDs or SSDs.
 
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hellerius

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Rather than plugging a USBEHD with Win installed, what if I put a raw SSD in a good USB enclosure, and then did a clean install of Win 7 from DVD to that device, and then change boot sequence to USB first, is that any better? My motive is to use it to load programs & data until stable, and then replace my old internal HDD running XP with this new SSD running Win 7. Or am I mad?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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USB is USB. Windows does not like that.
Unless you go through some serious gyrations, you will not even see that USB space as a viable target to install to.
 
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