Boot into USB Hard drive

Da Mail Man

Active Member
Greetings,
Not sure where to post this and, it has been a while!

1).....I have a Dell XP desktop computer (working).

2)....I had another Dell XP desktop computer until the mother board went bad (bad caps) (NOT working) .

3)....I have removed the HD and find no data loss or corruption:)......

4)....I was able to access the drive using one of those "hard drive reader" units (for lack of a better description) that, one can connect a HD to it and access the data.

4).....If I set the bios to boot from USB (of the WORKING Dell desktop) , can I attach my removed hard drive from the previously mentioned faulty computer to the aforementioned "reader" will I be able to boot into it?
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Some xp desktops didn't allow usb booting. If it allows it, my guess is that it won't boot into windows and will give a blue screen.
 

Da Mail Man

Active Member
Some xp desktops didn't allow usb booting. If it allows it, my guess is that it won't boot into windows and will give a blue screen.

Thanks for the reply!

I might try it but, fearful that I could corrupt data.... I know that, when another dell went "belly-up", I took that hard drive I removed and threw it in another Dell Desktop and it worked straight away.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
XP traditionally didn't behave well between system transplants, depends on the hardware between the two systems. Some older ones as per John didn't support USB booting.

fearful that I could corrupt data
That's why you make a clone/backup/dd of your current drive before making any changes.
 

Da Mail Man

Active Member
THANKS FOR THE REPLY...
I did make a back up 2 weeks before motherboard failure.....However, I added data which I was going to back up but, the caps beat me to it....

Some of the dells I own, over time, have screwed up MB's (caps) and I don't want to spend hours repairing same.....

ALSO, I never make an image file back-up.....I do a "clone" to an external hard drive so that I can access info w/out having to install the image onto another computer or hard drive just to read it......

In the past, I have taken my HD used in a failed Dell desktop (Optiplex and/or GX280 and simply swapped into another "280" and it worked just fine....

I have 2 bad GX280's (MB CAPS) and have located replacements.......The only difference is that the number of rear board slots are less than what I had on my orig "280".......I assume it will work placing my "rescued" SATA hard drive into it...they support my processor.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
If its the exact same model of computer then yes, it will boot just fine providing it supports usb boot.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
ALSO, I never make an image file back-up.....I do a "clone" to an external hard drive so that I can access info w/out having to install the image onto another computer or hard drive just to read it......
It's trivial to mount 1:1 binary images as a logical drive.
 

Da Mail Man

Active Member
It's trivial to mount 1:1 binary images as a logical drive.

**************************
UH, not sure what you mean here..... However, I am not attempting to mount anything yet (I think it is the terms used that I do not understand)....All I said, somewhat, is at some time in the past I took a HD from a defective Dell and placed in another Dell of same type (model) and it worked fine....

It is easier to read from a back up clone copy of a hard drive instead of fooling with an image file.

After my replacement MB arrives,.I will probably wipe a drive and install an OS on it and, using the HD reader aforementioned, copy all the files on the "removed/rescued" HD and start from scratch.....
OH - Thanks for the reply - from everyone.:)
 

Da Mail Man

Active Member
QUESTION -

Has anyone ever used a "SATA to IDE" converter?....There are a few on E-b** that I have looked at and, was wondering if it/they work. I am not referring to those "data readers (I have one).

I have been looking around for a 1TB HD IDE that I can transfer my sata data to. It is not an issue of reading the data but, only cloning a copy of the SATA HD to an IDE HD

Understandably, most of the HD's out there are SATA.
Thanks for any responses as always!
 
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