Hi there. I am new to all this and i am looking to install XP or Vista to my external Esata drive. I have an acer laptop with a Express card for my Esata to plug in to. does anyone know if there is a way to install and boot an os from this drive.

Thanks

This is an entirely new "realm".

Provided that the laptop BIOS allows booting from e-sata, the Dietmar's "XP on USB" procedure should work, with the needed changes:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181

If the e-sata bus is not bootable to BIOS, it should be possible to adapt the "XP Kansas City Shuffle" to it:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=21242&hl=

AFAIK there is not (yet ) a specific e-sata method/tutorial.

jaclaz

Edited May 30, 200818 yr by jaclaz

Which model Acer Laptop do you have?

Provided that the laptop BIOS allows booting from e-sata, the Dietmar's "XP on USB" procedure should work, with the needed changes:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181

@jaclaz - If the BIOS allows booting from eSATA - why would he need to alter the standard XP installation? AFAIK, people have been able to boot XP from eSATA devices without any trouble before.

@zxian

As I see it (but I might be completely and utterly wrong, of course ) the problem might be the "Express Card" thingie.

What I am just speculating about and probably failed to express properly, is that the BIOS must be able to boot from the PCMCIA slot and accept an e-sata attached to it.

And, once the "real mode" part has booted, there should be the need for an Express Card (read PCMCIA) driver and that for a sata driver, so we are in a situation similar to the "Boot from USB" where more than one driver is needed.

A "direct" e-sata bus would not be a problem, I think, as e-sata is basically nothing but a connector for the normal sata bus to attach external devices, and as thus is supported by the "normal" appropriate sata driver.

jaclaz

Hi there thanks for all the comments will look through and see what i can do. Will report back if i get it working