Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows Vista > Vista General Discussion > Dual Boot: How To?
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JJBlanche   01-31-2008 at 01:32:07 AM

My father just picked up a Vista machine. He wants to use it for work, but a lot of the software he uses runs on XP. He said he wanted to get an external hard drive and put XP on that, and just plug that in every time he wants to use XP. Is this possible? If so, how?

------------------------------ "Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
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loneeagle   01-31-2008 at 04:18:32 PM
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I am not sure for external drive but, you have two possibility: USB or eSATA. Maybe eSATA could work?

I am dual booting using BIOS with 3 drives (2 in RAID - Vista, 1 Server 2003). It the safest way were it really like two computer and not a boot manager on the main drive or partition for each OS...

When I boot my computer, press F8 and can boot from my RAID or my single drive.

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JJBlanche   01-31-2008 at 07:21:53 PM
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So then I'm assuming I can just plug in the drive, tell BIOS to boot to it, install windows on it, and then just plug it in and boot to it whenever I want to use it, correct?

------------------------------ "Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
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loneeagle   01-31-2008 at 07:43:13 PM
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My configuration is internal SATA drives, not external. I never tried it. I do not have an external enclose with eSATA but USB one.

If you decide to get a second HD, I would recommand to remove the original. Why? Just to make sure it won't be touched. Once all ready, just plug both and use the option to select "Boot from" when starting your computer. You can also tell the BIOS your default one.

Question: Why do you want external OS? USB is very slow compare to eSATA.
I would like it if someone could answer "Can I boot from an eSATA drive?".

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kanati   04-15-2008 at 12:19:37 AM
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I seriously doubt you can boot off a USB drive (but I can't say for sure). And even if you could, cramming an OS as big as Vista through a USB connection is going to be a painful experience. I'm not sure about E-SATA, anyone know about this? My recommendation would be a second internal hard disk for Vista with a BIOS level dual-boot as explained by loneeagle. You could always drill a hole in your case and run the SATA cables through it ;).


Message edited by kanati on 04-15-2008 at 12:20:14 AM
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hjjfffaa   04-15-2008 at 01:19:00 AM
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just buy a second hard drive install xp and when you want to boot from it just tell the bios to do that

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umich2010   04-19-2008 at 11:47:35 PM
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Last year I tried to install ubuntu on an external usb drive for a dual boot system with XP on my internal drive. It actually worked, except windows wouldnt boot unless the external drive was plugged in... I didn't know what I was doing at the time and I dont remember exactly what I did, but in retrospect I think it would have worked had I set the boot sequence correctly in BIOS. I'm pretty sure I just had the usb drive set as default boot device.

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