Getting crazy with boot from USB

[ronin]

Hi everyone,

I've been trying for days to boot from external USB harddrive from my X60s
Checked BIOS settings, tried different port, different cable /case, different disk
partitioning,OS's, I tried everything nothing work and I'm very frustrating because I can
boot from USB key with no problem.

Is there a difference between USB key and harddrive for the computer ?
I'm totally lost :-/

[K0LO]

ronin:

What is on the external USB hard disk that is bootable? Hopefully, it's not an installation of Windows. Windows cannot boot (by design) from USB devices (that is, without hacking the OS).

[ronin]

Thanks for your reply

It's an installation of windows 7 which I can boot from a usb key
following the same procedure.
But generally speaking I never succeeded at booting anything from
an external hard drive. I also tried with an ubuntu distrib.
Worked from the key, not from the disk

[K0LO]

ronin:

Do you have standard MBR code on the external disk? Is the partition that you're trying to boot set as Active?

I can boot the X61T (and before that, the X41T) from external USB hard disks, so I would think that the X60S should do likewise.

[Jim K]

Are you trying to power the USB drive from the USB connector, and if so, do you have a low-power usb drive that can be powered from the USB port? I have several Hitachi Travelstar series 7200rpm drives that have a low power spec (as low or lower than most 5400rpm drives) that I've used with many Thinkpads powered from the USB port including my X61s. Some drives come with a special Y cable that lets you combine power from 2 USB ports to run the external hard drive... or, use an external 'wall wart' power supply to power the hard drive.

[ronin]

Sorry for not answering earlier I didn't have time to tackle this problem.
Thanks a lot for your suggestions.

Answering my boot problem I managed to understand with many trials that
I can boot from disk but with unreliable success.
First it depends of the USB port I use and second the bios does not always detect
the drive. But if you have the good port and just restart until correct detection it
works.
However if it's a DVD drive or USB stick it works every time. I guess this is a power
problem but it does not help if the computer is on adaptor.
Anyway not really satisfactory but I hope it can help somebody.