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Run Windows XP from an external USB drive?

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retired2011
retired2011 Posts: 127 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
I have a Dell Latitude D600 laptop with XP.


I use it mainly for reading e-books and printing to an old HP laser printer that does not have 64 bit drivers.


The hard drive is on the way out, it makes lots of rattling noises.


I was going to fit an SSD that I have spare but it is a SATA drive and the Dell is IDE.


Is there a way to get the laptop to boot from and run XP without an internal drive in it?
«1

Comments

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Hi,

    do a search for external hard drive caddy.
  • Johnmcl7
    Johnmcl7 Posts: 2,838 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    As far as I'm aware, there's no way to make a standard version of Windows run from an external USB drive, WinPE (Windows Preinstallation Environment) and while you can have some software running within it the system is still limited compared to a full install.

    Linux will run off all drives fine though so maybe worth checking if your hardware and software is compatible to see if that's an option.

    John
  • robin58
    robin58 Posts: 2,802 Forumite
    edited 26 March 2017 at 3:34PM
    Buy a cheap replacement IDE hard drive off ebay.

    There's hundreds of them on there.

    You could try computer shops around you. But try the ones who are a bit more into repairs. Don't bother with Currys.
    The more I live, the more I learn.
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    How little I know.!! ;)
  • were
    were Posts: 632 Forumite
    You do realise that SSD die sooner than normal drives..., unless you drop them. When they go it is a sudden loss of everything, and no rattling noise warning. No easy recovery route. Expensive.

    They are fast though, you need lots of speed for a book reader :D.

    However I do not think the D600 supports SSD, this is according to http://www.crucial.com/

    You did get thin convertors on ebay that support ide to ssd drives and you may be able to shoe-horn one in
  • retired2011
    retired2011 Posts: 127 Forumite
    Hi,

    do a search for external hard drive caddy.

    Why ?
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Hi,
    retired2011 wrote: »
    Why ?

    I thought you could stick your SSD drive into it, but maybe not.
  • System
    System Posts: 178,342 Community Admin
    10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    were wrote: »
    You do realise that SSD die sooner than normal drives...,

    Is not true. No idea where you're getting that information from but there have been plenty of endurance tests done showing consumer grade SSDs available of having the equivalent to tens of gigabytes of data a day written to them for a decade before failing which is far more than you would do in normal use.
    This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com
  • forgotmyname
    forgotmyname Posts: 32,918 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Clone the existing drive to a VM partition?
    Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...

  • Strider590
    Strider590 Posts: 11,874 Forumite
    Even if you could, it would be incredibly slow.

    USB 2 is less than half the speed of IDE, and 10x slower than SATA. So it doesn't matter what external drive you use, your limited by USB 2 speeds.
    “I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an a** of yourself.”

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  • grumpycrab
    grumpycrab Posts: 5,025 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Bake Off Boss!
    edited 8 August 2024 at 1:41PM
    [Deleted User] wrote:
    I thought you could stick your SSD drive into it, but maybe not.
    Might work.
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapter-Universal-Laptop-DVD-ROM-Optical/dp/B01B77AXGA/
    If you put your general location in your Profile, somebody here may be able to come and help you.
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