IBM T4x USB/firewire windows/linux boot

[mrflynn]

Hi folks,

do you know any way to boot a IBM t4x from USB/Firewire Harddrive with any OS (Windows or Linux)???
My goal is to eliminate the last bottleneck of a laptop (i.e the HD), so when I go back home, I can use my big LCD and fast harddrive so obteining the same power and performance of a desktop.

I also heard about a docking station that let you to put in a PCI card. Do you think it's possible to use a Ultra ATA Controller or better a serial ATA one and let boot the laptop from it???

sorry for my strange questions and thanks in advance

tony

[cynic]

You can already boot Windows XP from an external USB drive. For firewire you can't because it isn't onboard. You can also boot from a drive hooked to the dock PCI card (though remember it is a 32bit 1/2PCI slot)

Linux has been a bit more difficult, though I know it is possible. You just have to have the system install to the external drive and to do that you have to have it recognize USB when it bootstraps. Some distros do this better than others. I couldn't get Fedora to do it but I could get SUSE to do it.

[Paul S]

How can Windows XP be installed on an USB harddrive that can be booted from the computer?

[snife]

although usb is bootable i thought you could only boot linux/dos stuff from a usb drive - i didn't think windows allowed it

[cynic]

Well, I've done it. I imaged my internal drive to a USB drive and then edited by hand all the absolute naming in the MBR and the bootstrap to reflect the new drive location (its named by where it is chained on the bus system so if you try to boot a imaged XP install without changing this it will fail because it references based on connection.) For me this was not to hard to get to work because it was exactly how the bootstrap on my old VAX/VMS system worked against WindowsNT. LILO for linux also works similiarly. Since the BIOS recognizes the USB drive as a bootable drive, once in XP it is smooth sailing.

[Chun-Yu]

In my experience an external 7200 rpm USB2 hard drive is slower than the internal 5400 rpm. :-\

[Paul S]

Could you provide specific instructions or provide web links on how to get Windows XP to boot from an USB drive instead of the generalities you had described.

[cynic]

Could you provide specific instructions or provide web links on how to get Windows XP to boot from an USB drive instead of the generalities you had described.

I, personally, don't think I was being too general. What I said is exactly what you have to do and they are familiar enough concepts to many tech people... though I didn't write up a step-by-step.

I didn't use "weblinks" to do it myself so I have nothing to link to. snife asked kindly about how to do this and I will recreate it sometime this weekend with a spare drive (I didn't keep my original external boot drive) when I get time and write up a post with instructions.