It Works! How to do it without re-installing...

[scrytch]

I needed to get my current HDD, with a valid & running install of Windows XP into an external USB2 enclosure and be able to boot from it.

I didn't want to re-install, and your guide gave me some ideas on how to adjust a current running installation to change it to work from a USB2 enclosure.

So I used the guide from http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 and did the following:

1. Don't remove the drive from the computer yet. Boot it up into Windows and get ready.
2. Skip steps 3, 4, 5 and 6a, 6b in the above mentioned guide - not needed as not doing a new installation.
3. Do steps 6c, 6d & 6e by editing the files in the "C:\Windows\inf" directory.
4. Open Regedit and using the text from step 6f as a guide, check each section of "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services" in the registry for the "Start" key and change it to "0" if it is something different.
5. Reboot (to be sure everything is loaded).
6. Open Device Manager, and Delete everything under "Universal Serial Bus controllers" - WARNING - your USB mouse will stop working at this point so use a PS2 one if you can (this applies to USB Keyboards too).
7. From the menu at the top of Device Manager, select "Action" and then "Scan for Hardware Changes". Choose OK at any prompt and authorise it to install if you get prompted saying they aren't certified drivers.
8. Once all installed, shut down your system.

Thats it. Pull the hard drive, put it in an enclosure and plug it in. Load your system, ensure you have the USB HDD selected as your boot disk and it should boot fine (mine does!).

Thanks for the guide.

Regards,
Shane.

[sunnyb]

Excellent details. Just wondering if you used XP Home or Pro and SP1 or SP2?

[scrytch]

Excellent details. Just wondering if you used XP Home or Pro and SP1 or SP2?

It's Windows XP SP2, and it's the Tablet PC edition (as this is on my HP TC1100 Tablet). So closest relative is Windows XP Pro SP2.

I can't see that being the Tablet PC version would make a difference, but I've mentioned it for full disclosure's sake

Regards,
Shane.

[rjfdes]

WOWZA!!! sounds good, can anyone else confirm ... been doing this now non stop, for the past 17 hours - its now 3 am LOL! Keep up the good work guys

[Von Klumpen]

I tried it. I didn't think it would work but by golly ...... it DID! Works flawlessly (and saves me having to reinstall all of my programs too!)

Thanks for this information, scrytch ....... It will probably make an enormous difference for those who are contemplating the challenge!

You can ghost/Acronis image your main drive and restore it to the USB drive. But, better still, backup your main system first as a saved image (in case you screw up) ......then MODIFY your main drive (hack it) BEFORE transferring its image to the USB drive. That way, the USB drive will boot up immediately.

You can also leave your main drive the way it is -modified ... if the operation proves successful

It makes no difference in operation .... as far as I know, to have the USB drivers loading in the newer sequence.

Just a few things to remember to do before transferring the image:

1) Turn OFF the page file before creating the image. You can't have a pagefile on the USB drive. If you're "ghosting" to a USB drive formatted in FAT32, you'll have problems booting it if the pagefile hasn't been turned off in advance.

2) Change the DOS drive letter arrangement in your USB operating system according to these Microsoft instructions. (Otherwise your USB and main drive will interact and do crazy things to each other since they're mirror images)

[ 1. Make a full system backup of the computer and system state.
2. Log on as an Administrator.
3. Start Regedt32.exe.
4. Go to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
5. Click MountedDevices.
6. On the Security menu, click Permissions.
7. Verify that Administrators have full control. Change this back when you are finished with these steps.
8. Quit Regedt32.exe, and then start Regedit.exe.
9. Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
10. Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C:".
11. Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename. ]


Now, you can perform this operation later, on the USB drive itself ...... if it boots up ok. But if it boots up and works, it will be duplexed with the main drive and will give you some strange results.~ (ie ..... if you uninstall a program in one, it will uninstall it in the other one too).

So the first thing you'll want to do is "disengage" the drives from each other by changing the DOS drive letter recognition in the USB system. Then the new system will be "C" and it will see the internal drive system as "E" or whatever you change its drive letter to.

Look in Windows Explorer and see which system assumes the "C" position. It will likely be the internal drive. You want the USB drive to assume "C" when it's operating. So you switch the drive letters of the 2 systems around, making the USB drive show as "C" and not as something else.

When you boot up your main system, it will automatically show as "C" because the change only affects how the USB drive recognizes the drive letter hierarchy.
[/i]

[Von Klumpen]

Delete duplication

[Von Klumpen]

Delete duplication

[sotl]

It worked on my Western Digital Passport 160GB drive. Following the steps from start to finish and doing a fresh install only led to BSOD's and only let me boot into safe mode.

This method along with the suggestion above to turn off the paging file worked quite well. Also, I have been running my internal partition as well for weeks now and have noticed no issues in windows despite the modifications to the registry.

[Von Klumpen]

That's right. Modification to the registry ONLY happens on the 'working model' that is transferred to the USB drive. If you delete the model Windows folder and revert back to the original Windows folder on your internal main drive, there will be no changes to the main drive operating system.

[jagdrage]

Hi there,

I've done mine on a new Windows XP, and i haven't tried with the one on existing XP, but am curious, if anyone knows how to do it like BART PE but with a full Windows XP( or almost full windows XP ).... i.e. usb on any laptop... so all u need is a hard disk.... and just borrow a computer from anyone...... handy when you are travelling..... and run like a full windows XP would... basically.... is this even possible though? And how is it different from Bart PE... since it can also run some programs by putting the plugins, etc...... but with limited capacity, etc.......why not do for a full Windows ? What would be the limitation... i know of course... at every startup it will have to install necessary drivers for the new hardware, etc...... but at least the basic ones can be supported right ?


Need to know if someone has done this before or not?


Rgds,
Jag

[Von Klumpen]

Yes, I've wondered about this too.

Apparently, there's a version of XP one can compile, called "XP-lite" (or maybe it's already made up?)

I haven't tried it but it might do what you're looking for.

The "problem" with running XP on a different machine, of course, is that it isn't legal unless you activate it.

The second problem is the time it takes to INSTALL. Normally, an installation takes about 45 minutes to an hour. BartPE has to install every time it's used. It doesn't just boot up; it actually does its own full installation. It takes from 2-4 minutes to complete installing but it is -of course- far more restricted in scope than real XP.

A third problem is the driver reconfiguration needed between different machines. I found that if I tried to migrate XP home to a different machine, it would crash immediately (7b error). However, I migrated XP pro to a different motherboard (without any pre-preps) and it booted up very quickly with very little driver searching or changing. So I don't know whether XP home is inherently constructed to prevent migration or whether I just happened to luck out with the XP pro migration.

Microsoft advises that if a system is to be migrated, the Sysprep tool must be used, to disable all drivers and configurations ....... so that the system will boot "fresh" on the new system.

Windows ME could be transplanted. It created a LOT of hassle though. Most often, old drivers would be retained and new drivers would be installed as well .... and this would freeze or crash the machine. I did it a number of times but I had to go into Device Manager in safe mode and find and delete all the duplications. (these never showed, except in safe mode). It would have been faster just to re-install the system.

[Barry Wonder]

has anyone else had success with this method?

von - your suggestions regarding the page file would not be necessary to someone who is altering a previous ide drive and not a fresh install or clone, correct? in other words, i have no intention on cloning the drive. i just want to "go for it" using my older ide drive from another computer.

[Von Klumpen]

If I understand you corectly, you want to use a former IDE drive with XP already installed on it?

Yes, you DO have to turn off the page file BECAUSE ..... XP doesn't permit having a page file on a removabel (USB) drive. You can designate a fixed internal drive to hold the page file but not the USB drive. If you don't turn off the page file, it will overwrite the page file on your C drive. It will also hang severely when you boot up with FAT32; (with NTFS it doesn't seem to hang or snag).

Also ......

You MUST have the USB driver for THAT drive installed within the running OS, while it's hooked up to USB! Otherwise, it won't boot for you. And THAT creates a unique problem because you can't get the driver installed unless the system sees the hard drive hooked up to USB. It's a catch 22 situation. I know of no way around this problem except to have the OS read the drive on USB while the system is still resident as an internal hard drive. THEN you can copy the system over to the USB drive, as soon as that driver has been installed to itself. (Copying must be done while the system is dormant/not running.

So-o ........ you can do everything else on that drive in preparation for switching its location but the one thing you CAN'T do, is get a USB driver installed within its own system for itself on its own drive. And this one tiny, lousy snag makes it necessary to copy (clone) the system from one drive to another one.

[Barry Wonder]

thanks. it doesnt sound as if scrytch had any of those problems, tho? or did he? his modified walkthrough sounds more or less straight forward?

[Von Klumpen]

Try it and tell us your results!

I've learned to never say never.~ There have been things that I found totally impossible to do on my own machine and (safely) assumed that I'd found a "rule". Then someone else came along and claimed to do it. So I don't know whether the loading-USB driver-for- USB hard drive rule is absolute or not. I suppose some bioses might overlap their own driver service which could then allow the booting system to get enought time to load and install the USB drive driver.

My own experience though, is that the driver has to be installed inside the system before it will boot up. I cloned (from an image) a USB system to another drive one day and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't boot. Then it suddenly dawned on me that the system probably had never seen THAT hard drive hooked up to USB before. I then cloned the same image onto an internal IDE drive and let it recognise the USB-attached hard drive and install the driver for it. ("new device found" etc.)

Then I cloned the internal drive to the USB drive and presto! ....... it booted immediately.