Need HELP new build i5 2500k eSata booting Vista 64

[whatsanewbie]

I just got all my new parts from newegg. MSI P67A-G45 and my i5 2500k, with some corsair 8 gb.

I know that DVD/CD optical rw SATA replacements are cheap, but I didnt get one. I already have an eSata 1 TB fantom drive... So I figured why not boot from my eSata drive on my new system, I will not have to buy a new HDD.

I've been preparing for this for a few days, so I've loaded everything necessary. Quite easy just time consuming, I've been booting from eSata on my old system for the past few days. I booted up from my eSata and installed windows vista 64 bit directly on the HDD. The drive has been booting up fine... So I thought I was good to go?

I got my new mobo and processor all set up, everything is connected but when vista tries to load it immediately goes to the death blue screen and resets. It always goes to the death blue screen and resets at the same moment of booting, right at the very beginning when the loading bar pops up and it says microsoft corp.

I have gone into bios to make sure that my eSata is recognized and is the primary Disk to boot from... I am at a lost as to why this is happening.

I've been reading that SataI is forwards compatible with SataII, and SataIII. What's wrong? I have been booting independently from eSata on my old system perfectly... ( This should work, I shouldn't have to go buy a new hdd?

 

[g-unit1111]

I've been reading that SataI is forwards compatible with SataII, and SataIII. What's wrong? I have been booting independently from eSata on my old system perfectly... ( This should work, I shouldn't have to go buy a new hdd?

I don't know where you're getting that information from but that's definitely not true. SATA-III is backwards compatible with SATA-II and SATA-I, but not the other way around. Manufacturers can't predict what will be available years from when they first make their products. A P67 board should support all the way up to SATA-III / 6GBs but may not be able to boot from eSATA.

If you want to use your external drive as a boot drive - I generally don't recommend this because if the power gets interrupted for any reason that could have the potential to not be good - that's fine. However there's plenty of things that can go wrong when doing this.

I have gone into bios to make sure that my eSata is recognized and is the primary Disk to boot from... I am at a lost as to why this is happening.

What you need to do there is set your USB as your primary boot drive, not your HDD. Then it should recognize it. If not then you might want to look at getting a new HDD or SSD.

 

[whatsanewbie]

Maybe I read something to fast regarding the Sata compatibility, maybe I assumed . I think that solves it as to why I can't boot.

I share your concern about having the external drive as my primary, I'm going to upgrade soon, but I figured I didn't have to yet. Guess I do now.

As to putting the USB as my primary boot drive. How would you compare the two usb 2.0 v Sata? in this situation where I will be booting from an external hdd, should I just bite the bullet and buy a new internal hdd ? Or could I may be get away with skillfully booting from usb for awhile. Thanks again.

 

[g-unit1111]

I share your concern about having the external drive as my primary, I'm going to upgrade soon, but I figured I didn't have to yet. Guess I do now.

Maybe not - the one thing is you almost always have to reinstall your OS on your HD when build a new system. This is mainly just due to driver conflicts and that sort of thing, but you should definitely look into getting an internal HD. I know the prices are completely ridiculous right now due to the Thailand situation but give it a few months.

As to putting the USB as my primary boot drive. How would you compare the two usb 2.0 v Sata? in this situation where I will be booting from an external hdd, should I just bite the bullet and buy a new internal hdd ? Or could I may be get away with skillfully booting from usb for awhile. Thanks again.

USB and eSATA are exactly the same - you can use a USB cable on an eSATA port but not the other way around. If you're going to be using your external HD for a while I'd suggest backing up your data and then doing a reformat and reinstall of your OS, that should clear a lot of things up.

But in the BIOS you definitely need to set your primary boot drive as USB not HDD in order for this to work.

 

[whatsanewbie]

Still Having issues... I tried booting from the USB 2.0 port, this also failed with the same exact result as before. Is it possible that my USB cable is not 2.0? It is an old cable.... but should this be an issue? I know the drive works perfectly and can be booted from... But it did not work by booting from USB 2.0.... Could it be one of my new components? I don't think soo.... The bios works perfectly no problems. I'm almost positive that booting from USB port should work... I know the cable is fine... any thoughts.