Using external drive as main one. Help needed.

Sublime_2

My internal drive is failing. I have a Seagate 1tb external one connected via Usb which I want to use as my main drive until I buy a new internal one.

I cloned my disk, and set the boot order in the BIOS for my Seagate one, but it couldn't find windows on there. Not sure why. I used Paragon Drive Backup, which has never let me down before when using just Disk images.

[Deleted User]

Probably won't work through USB, just the nature of the beast.

Easiest thing to do would be remove the external drive from the caddy, whack it inside your PC using your old harddisk connectors.

Sublime_2

[quote=[Deleted User];40398820]Probably won't work through USB, just the nature of the beast.

[/QUOTE]

Yes, was beginning to think so.

I'll just have to get a replacement internal drive asap then. I'm loathe to use my external one, as its useful for backup.

Poppycat

You can boot up from usb on some computers but I wouldn't want to do that all time. I suppose you could boot up from a usb pen drive if its big enough although I haven't tried that myself

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/

At least hd are coming down a lot. I just got a 1tb usb drive the other week a very small one for £50 and I use it for backing up

macman

Can you not remove the hard drive from the external drive and put it in the PC to operate as the master drive (assuming it's compatible SATA/PATA etc)? Then buy a new drive to go in the external drive? That way you'll save having to re-clone again.
Incidentally, anyone found that obtaining PATA/IDE 3.5in drives is increasingly difficult? I needed one at short notice the other day so couldn't buy online, I tried 4 independents, then Maplin-none had one (of any capacity) in stock. In desperation I ended up in PCW (aarghh!) and got the very last 80GB drive they had in the shop-and it was one of their mega-stores.

Sublime_2

Poppycat wrote: »

You can boot up from usb on some computers but I wouldn't want to do that all time. I suppose you could boot up from a usb pen drive if its big enough although I haven't tried that myself

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/

At least hd are coming down a lot. I just got a 1tb usb drive the other week a very small one for £50 and I use it for backing up

Although it tried to boot up from my seagate drive, it couldn't find my cloned disk copy on there. Perhaps it would be better to install a fresh installation of win 7 on my external one?

macman

I don't think you'll be able to boot off a USB drive, and even if you could it would be relatively slow.
Why not just go and get yourself a new drive though?

Sublime_2

macman wrote: »

I don't think you'll be able to boot off a USB drive, and even if you could it would be relatively slow.
Why not just go and get yourself a new drive though?

I will be getting one. Just wanted a stop-gap, but its not working at the mo.

Dan_Gleebitz

I think you will find that the power and the drivers to run USB do not run until windows is loaded. So you cannot run anything via USB until windows has booted up.
Dan

closed

What are the symptoms of failing?

Sublime_2

It won't start up at first. its taking numerous attempts over the space of a couple of hours before I can get it to boot.

A big orange light comes on (usually blue) when I press the button to boot up, like its busy. Its noisy too. It takes a lot of attempts before the normal blue light comes on, and it boots.