How to install windows XP on USB external drive?

Question

this is what i did i upgraded my laptop from ME to windows 2000. XP did not fit because the hard drive only had 2 GB of storage - it's an old lap top and i can't find a hard drive with big storage for my laptop.so i was wondering if i can get an external USB drive an install XP on that?

thanx in advance!

Answer 1

No, you cannot boot your computer using an external drive. You see, when a computer starts up, it looks for a HD or a CD drive to start. A USB connection is run off of drivers, and the drivers for the computer are a part of the Windows application. So, a USB connection isn't active until a computer is started up, and a computer cannot start up unless is has a HD with an operating system on it. The only way that you would be able to get XP on your computer would be to get a larger HD unfortunately.

EDIT: And Jane mentioned that part that I forgot. An older computer doesnt support a USB boot device. That is very true.

Answer 2

Sure you can. You need to find away into the computers bios. Try hitting the f8 key repeatedly when booting up. If this doesn't bring you into the bios then try f4, esc, or del.

Once you get in you want to find an option that will change your boot sequence. Scroll down until you find this and hit enter. Scroll through the options and select external usb. Most bios's will have this feature although it might be labeled a little different.

Be sure not to mess with anything else in the bios. It can really mess up a computer! If things go haywire and you can't seem to boot back into windows, go back into the bios and either change your setting back to how it was, or look for an option to return the bios back to it's default settings or try load optimized settings.

Good luck

Answer 3

Sort of:

http://www.ngine.de/article/id/8

But if your system is really that old, I doubt it supports a USB boot device.

Answer 4

yes u can. but i dnt think its worth it cuz its sometimes anonnying some stuff gets mixed up.