BIOS (A11) Won't Recognise USB Device On Boot Up - GX620

Question

Hi, I am new to this so please forgive me if I have posted this incorrectly.

I have Dell GX620 and have updated the BIOS to ver A11, and have Win XP SP3. I have just bought a USB external HDD. All works well under normal boot up.

However, I would also like to be able to boot up from the USB external HDD but the BIOS won't recognise this device. During the boot sequence option 6 says "USB Device - not present" even though the external HDD is connected to the USB port and the USB Controller is set to ON.

Can someone please help and advise what I need to do to allow me to boot from the external USB HDD.

Regards, ringosf

Alexandra_P · Accepted Answer

Here's what I've found:

1) It appears from the manual (under system setup) you can only select a USB storage drive as a boot device using the F12 option at the initial boot screen. The only USB option in the actual boot sequence itself is if you have a USB floppy drive.

2) If you're saying you want to install and run XP off off the USB drive, Microsoft does not support that option - they only support booting from an internal port. Others have figured out ways to, well "hack" it, but it's very technical, and it's way too much trouble for me:

I'm posting the link as a Google search, because the ngine.de site with all the info is giving an error - you'd have to look at the cached versions:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS297US297&q=+site:ngine.de+ngine.de+xp+usb+install&sa=X&ei=ROoLTPCGMITcM8zoybUE&ved=0CBcQ2AQ

The question really is, why do you need to boot off the external drive? If it's just to have a backup system, there's much easier and better ways to accomplish what you want - creating a bootable recovery CD or DVD, using cloning/backup software like Ghost or Acronis True image for regular backups, installing another internal drive, etc.

Alexandra_P · Answer

You can only boot from a device that has a bootable operating system installed on it.

So, what operating system do you want to boot from on the external USB drive? DOS, Linux, XP, Vista, Win7? Where there's a will, there's usually a way, but it may not be easy, and unless someone else jumps in, I personally can only hunt around and provide links on how to do what you want.

ringosf · Answer

Alexandra,  Thank you for your advice - very much appreciated.  I would like to boot the USB HD from Win XP SP3. Glad to receive any advice on how to achieve this. Cheers, ringosf

ringosf · Answer

Alexandra,

Thank you once again.

The reason why I would like to boot win off external drive is that I would like to take the drive with me when travelling and plug into various PCs available to me (some without internet) and work off my portable drive with the applications that I have on it. And yes I thought it could also serve as a backup.

Cheers.

Alexandra_P · Answer

I think you're hoping the hard drive alone could act sort of like a portable computer, but it won't. To really do what you want you need to get a laptop.

The only thing on a hard drive that's truly portable from computer to computer is data - documents, pictures, music, etc.

A few applications MIGHT run off of an external drive, but it depends on the application - most need to be installed directly on the PC you're using it on so it can link to the necessary operating system files and drivers it needs to run.

Windows operating systems are essentially unique to the computer they're installed on - they're not portable. Even internal drives can't be swapped from computer to computer unless they're similar enough - Windows won't recognize the hardware, and either won't boot at all, or will not run all the hardware properly (video, audio, printers, internet, etc. etc.). Trying to make some strange computer compatible with WIndows on an external drive would be a worse nightmare (unless you're a serious hacker - I'm sure not). That said, DOS and various versions of Linux that can be installed and run fairly easily on a portable disk or USB drive - they use essentially "universal" drivers that are compatible with most hardware - but that's only helpful if the applications you want to run are compatible with DOS or Linux.

I'll confess I don't use any fancy backup software myself, just a simple program to save important data - if my drive fails I'll just reinstall everything from scratch and restore the data manually.. But the software I mentioned (Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image) can actually "clone" your internal 620's hard drive, so if you need to you can restore everything in one go. And some external drives come with free basic backup software, though don't know if yours does.

If you need internet access wherever you go, laptops can be configured with cellular (mobile) internet access, basically the same as you would use a mobile phone - though like a mobile phone you'd have to pay the subscription fees.

ringosf · Answer

Alexandra, Thank you - you have improved my understanding. I will now have to decide which way to go.

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BIOS (A11) Won't Recognise USB Device On Boot Up - GX620

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