I just installed a Western Digital external HD today and everything seems to be fine.
On my first restart after installing HD I was given the option of going into BIOS and making some changes, I wasnt sure what I should do so I did nothing.
What I would like to do is set it up so that on startup I can choose wich drive to boot to because I plan on using it for backup as well as dual booting into Linux
Could someone please give me an idea what changes I need to make in BIOS to do this or can I do it manually during startup and HOW plz
thanx in advance
I'm running Win XP sp2
2007-01-25 05:33:09 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Add-ons
My BIOS is Phoenix Award
2007-01-25 05:44:26 · update #1
I am not sure you can do that. External Drives are USB and unless your computer will boot to USB its a good idea to forget about it.
The whole point in having an external hard drive is that you backup stuff on it. You cant put an Operating System on am external drive and take it to multiple computers for backing up, each time the hard drive and operating system would have to install the specific drivers and devices for that machine...
Not to mention if you do a DUAL boot from a DISCONNECTABLE hard drive, if you happen to not have it connected when you boot, you may mess up the Master Boot Record, in which case you wouldnt be able to boot to anything...
If you want to dual boot, just get an internal drive, and put the OS on it...
PS: most dual boots are on the same HARD DRIVE which is the MASTER, they simply take the hard drive and partition it into 2 sections which can have multi operating systems on it...
#1 Take your main drive, backup all stuff to the external.
#2 Take your main drive, format it.
#3 Make 4 partitions on it. "1 for windows, 1 for linux root, 1 for linux swap, 1 for linux boot".
#4 Install windows on it.
#5 Install linux or http://www.ubuntu.com on it with the dual boot option.
#6 It will auto install the GRUB boot loader and you can run WINDOWS AND LINUX BOTH from 1 Hard Drive...
PS: http://www.ubuntu.com is a much more user friendly linux and is becoming very popular and stable. AND ITS 100% FREE forever and everything that has to do with it is FREE
2007-01-25 05:43:49 · answer #1 · answered by Danlow 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Depends on what BIOS your PC is using. (Which unfortunately you did not list). But normally there is a process why which you can hit a key at the initial bot up screen (F12 for Dell) to take you to a menu where you can select which device to boot from.
Whether there is an option that lets you set that to allows offer you the choice depends on your BIOS.
2007-01-25 05:40:43 · answer #2 · answered by dewcoons 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At the HP screen (the first image that appears after you turn on the laptop) press F1. Put the following boot order: 1 - cd; 2 - USB; 3 - HD. I think a better solution would be to simply swap the hd with a new one and install Xp on it.
2016-05-23 22:45:49 · answer #3 · answered by Deborah 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
when u restart your computer go into the BIO's...once there...there will be an option for drivers. follow the directions at the bottom of the screen to select your drive and move it to 1 or 2 nd place on your drive list. Save and u should be good to go...it's fairly simiple.
2007-01-25 05:40:28 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋