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Question

Boot from external drive

Apr 11, 2017 11:51PM PDT

My old Windows XP laptop finally died. I put the hard drive in an external enclosure and attached it to my new Windows 7 laptop via USB. Changed the boot order to the external device and restarted but it still boots to Windows 7. What am I doing wrong???

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: boot
Apr 12, 2017 12:09AM PDT

Since most likely it won't work, even if you can boot from it, I don't think it's a serious problem.

- Why do you want to run XP on your new laptop?
- And do they really still sell new laptops with Windows 7.

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Answer
not legal
Apr 12, 2017 1:24AM PDT

you cannot boot from xp for several reasons, the biggie is different motherboard different drivers. in addition, since xp came with your laptop, it can never be legally use on another computer per microsofts license.

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Answer
Boot
Apr 12, 2017 1:33AM PDT

Looks like it's finding something wrong with the ext so it's dropping through to the next device in the boot order....your w7 disk.

Post was last edited on April 12, 2017 2:29 AM PDT

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Answer
I see a lot of comments.
Apr 12, 2017 7:47AM PDT

All valid but here's the biggy. Windows with a rare except does not boot and run from USB. This is a basic reason beyond the other issues that this is a dead end.

There is a way to convert this bootable drive into a Virtual Machine but that's beyond what I'll write here. You can research that if you must. Can be a little costly as you will likely need a new license for XP. Many licenses were OEM and to many folk a surprise when that license dies with the machine.

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you are absolutely right
Apr 12, 2017 2:10PM PDT

the little tidbit about windows rarely boots from external drives slipped my mind...guess been running linux too long...