Can I boot PC with old external HD?

[Wonderwuman]

My old computer broke a few years ago and wouldnt turn on. Since then i have got a new computer and i bought an external USB hook up for my old HD.

what i was wondering is if it is possable to go to boot options and have to run the USB HD 1st.

would this cause any problems? i dont wanna try it and then break something.

[endersblade]

It would cause a few problems, yes. Your old copy of (I assume) Windows is configured for your old computer. All the setting and whatnot would be the problem. You CAN, however, boot on a new drive and access that one as a secondary drive, if you're needing to pull stuff off of it.

It wouldn't BREAK anything, no. It might not boot at all, it might BSOD, but it won't do any real damage to anything. Would just be a lot better to use it as a secondary.

[Vile]

Technically you can, by going into the BIOS and changing the boot sequence to boot from USB first (as long as the new computer supports it) so yes it should work but if the new computer is up and running you should do what the poster above mentioned - boot into the OS on your new computer, and simply access the data on your old HD that way as a secondary drive to access the data.

[Ominouscloud]

While possible I'm fairly certain that USB is slower than SATA so wouldn't be advised. Using it as extra storage however is certainly plausible.

[ispano]

No, it will not work. Why? Because when Windows initially boots, right after the BIOS loads the boot sector, Windows loads the driver for the controller the drive it's installed to is on. When you move that drive to an enclosure, that controller is now different, but the driver is still the same. Plugging the enclosure into the system with a different driver prior to taking the Windows drive out, "might" work. But there are other issues with booting from USB, like the fact it will bluescreen once it loads the actual USB driver, since it will disconnect USB devices for a second when it does so and lose access to the drive causing it to go blah.

[Ghâzh]

It would cause more than a few problems and would be less than possible. Windows does not support booting up from an external usb hard drive. Will not work, don't bother.

[Wonderwuman]

OK thanks for the replies. guess ill keep useing it as storage then.