Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I read somewhere that the Asus something or other could not boot from an external USB powered DVD drive because by the time power is supplied to the drive, the BOIS has already done its check. (Or something like that).

So my question is - Can the x200s boot from an external DVD drive that is solely USB powered. Or does the DVD drive have to get it's power from a wall power adapter? (Specifically if you're installing a new OS)

Thanks again.

Yes, the X200s can boot from an external USB DVD drive, and that feature has nothing to do with where the USB drive gets its power.

The external drive can either run on the 500ma that the USB port provides or it cannot, in which case it needs external power. That issue is unrelated to the BIOS's ability to boot from an external drive.

I think the original poster question was a little different: for example, the x61s cannot boot from an USB *powered* DVD because the power
on the USB connection is not present at the beginning of the boot; the power in the USB connection is switched on after testing for
USB boot devices. For this reason, on the x61s you have to connect the USB DVD player to an external power supply *only* when you
want to boot from the DVD or CD-ROM.

To be complete, if i am not wrong, there is a BIOS option to switch on the power to one of the USB connector all the time, even when
the laptop is not running.

Of course, i have no idea if this apply to the x200s too :->

Maurizio

That notion amazes me, since most laptops these days can boot from USB flash drives, which also require some power. Maybe 100 ma (the amount supposedly available from usb ports without power negotiation, and presumably enough to read a flash stick if not write it) is available but 500 ma (needed for dvd) is not, until further in the boot sequence?

My understanding is that this is a powersaving feature, not a bug. The USB port is simpky switched off.
But you can switch it on at the BIOS level, so in practice it is not a problem.

(again, i am talking about the x61s, i don't own a x200s

Maurizio

maurizio.dececco wrote:The USB port is simpky switched off.

All the USB ports have full power the instant the machine is powered on, always and unconditionally.

(You are confusing the BIOS feature on the X61/s to keep the USB ports powered up when the machine is off with what happens once the machine is on.)

My X61 (not s) has no problem booting from USB-powered DVD. Specifically Lite-On SOSW-852S in a slim external enclosure. (My X31 did have some difficulty providing enough power for this drive though.)

I happen to have a LG GP08LU10 External Super-Multi DVD Drive (http://www.lge.com/us/computer-products ... 08LU10.jsp) which is USB powered and I can confirm that X200s can boot from this drive. The drive actually comes with two USB cables, one for data transfer and one for power and it is noted in the manual that secondary cable MAY be required for the drive to function properly. But I used this drive to install OS several times and was only using single cable so I'm guessing that secondary cable is only needed for burning disks and not just reading them.

I routinely use a USB powered external drive on my X200s with just a single connection via USB cable and the drive is powered just fine. I can burn disks or perform any function the drive is capable of, it also boots from the drive just fine as I used that method to install my dual boot setup with Linux. I will say one thing... this is no Acer.....it's a ThinkPad... simply brilliant....

Cheers...

maurizio.dececco wrote:I think the original poster question was a little different: for example, the x61s cannot boot from an USB *powered* DVD because the power on the USB connection is not present at the beginning of the boot; the power in the USB connection is switched on after testing for USB boot devices. For this reason, on the x61s you have to connect the USB DVD player to an external power supply *only* when you want to boot from the DVD or CD-ROM.Maurizio

Yes, thank you. That was exactly what I was asking.

maciejs wrote:I happen to have a LG GP08LU10 External Super-Multi DVD Drive (http://www.lge.com/us/computer-products ... 08LU10.jsp) which is USB powered and I can confirm that X200s can boot from this drive. The drive actually comes with two USB cables, one for data transfer and one for power and it is noted in the manual that secondary cable MAY be required for the drive to function properly. But I used this drive to install OS several times and was only using single cable so I'm guessing that secondary cable is only needed for burning disks and not just reading them.

LOL, that's great! Just after posting I happen to go out and buy the LG GP08LU10 and I'm soooooo relieved to find out that you can boot an OS from it. I plan on doing that several times.

A couple questions to 'maciejs' or anyone......

1) What did you do with partitions 'Q' and 'S'? Are they needed if I install XP over my factory installed Vista?
2) Is it me, or did you find the LG drive slightly bigger and heavier then expected?

Thanks again everyone!

ajdedo wrote: 1) What did you do with partitions 'Q' and 'S'? Are they needed if I install XP over my factory installed Vista?

Well, I wiped them both so quickly I don't even remember the letters of these drives but they are there so you can do a factory restore of your OS. I have no plans for restoring my laptop to its factory state as it was simply useless straight out of the box with preloaded Vista Business and god only knows what other software. The whole system was VERY SLOW to the point of being unusable - I'm amazed that some people actually use their preloaded OS...

I don't really use Windows at all unless there's no other way but in Windows world it's generally easier to start from scratch (format and clean install or reimage) than to attempt and fix existing installation. Oh, and if you're concerned with licensing and that kind of stuff - you bought your laptop and, like it or not, part of the price you paid for it covered the license of Windows which means that you have the right to use Windows on this very laptop. Now, I don't think it really matters THAT much where you get installation files/media from (if you insist on using Windows, that is). That's the way I see it and that is also the impression I got from Microsoft reps with whom we had dealings at work.

ajdedo wrote: 2) Is it me, or did you find the LG drive slightly bigger and heavier then expected?

It's hard for me to tell as this is my first external optical drive. It's not bigger/heavier than my sister's discman (which she got few years back) and I guess it's portable enough to throw it into your bag/backpack and hit the road. I don't really use it to be honest and bought it only as a last resort since I use optical drives just as I use Windows - only when there is no other way. I install my main OS (see sig) using USB flash drive and installed Windows only so it's there when I will have no other choice one day.

I suspect that my comments are probably not of much help to you but here they are anyway (-:

Actually your comments are of immense help.

First I learned partitions "S" and "Q" are useless, just as I suspected, but wanted to confirm. I always do a "clean install" any chance I can. That way I can use my computer problem free for at least a couple months before it slows down again.

Second, that comment about having a valid license is interesting. My laptop came with Vista and a Vista sticker on the bottom. What do I need to do to get a valid XP licence?

Third, Install from a USB Drive is a WAY better idea then from a DVD. Is that unique to linux, or can XP be installed from a USB Drive too?

ajdedo wrote: First I learned partitions "S" and "Q" are useless, just as I suspected, but wanted to confirm. I always do a "clean install" any chance I can. That way I can use my computer problem free for at least a couple months before it slows down again.

Just for the record: you don't have to delete these partitions to do a clean install of whatever OS you please. Just leave them where they are and partition your drive "around them". This way you loose several GBs on your disk but retain a way to reverting back to original OS for whatever reason that might be...

ajdedo wrote: Second, that comment about having a valid license is interesting. My laptop came with Vista and a Vista sticker on the bottom. What do I need to do to get a valid XP licence?

I don't know that much about Windows retail but I vaguely remember that if you have a valid Vista license you have a right to downgrade to XP Pro. But it could've been just for Vista Ultimate and furthermore only for retail copies. Laptops are generally sold with OEM licenses. I think they were also offering this "privilege" as a paid add-on.

ajdedo wrote: Third, Install from a USB Drive is a WAY better idea then from a DVD. Is that unique to linux, or can XP be installed from a USB Drive too?

AFAIK you can install any version of Windows via USB as long as there a optical drive attached at the other end of a cable (-; But seriously, only way I can thinkg of right now that you could "install" Windows from USB stick would be to use some sort of disk cloning tool (such as ghost) with a USB boot disk. They obviously don't throw around the copies of OS X on flash drives (not in retail anyway) so I would dare to say that linux is rather unique with this feature. At least among certain OSs

maciejs wrote: only way I can thinkg of right now that you could "install" Windows from USB stick would be to use some sort of disk cloning tool (such as ghost) with a USB boot disk. They obviously don't throw around the copies of OS X on flash drives (not in retail anyway) so I would dare to say that linux is rather unique with this feature. At least among certain OSs

In theory installing from flash drive should be no different from installing from CD if you build it right. Not sure about Vista but you can install older Windows from a folder on a hard drive running MSDOS and booting a flash drive usually emulates a hard drive. The problem you're likely to have though is just that: the flash drive becomes the primary hard drive and I don't think Windows will install on any other drive (certainly it won't boot if the bootloader is not on the primary drive even though it might work with the Windows folder on another drive). Even if it does install, once you remove the flash drive the drive letters will be changed and Windows won't be able to find itself since it would be looking for some drive letter other than C: (values such as SystemDrive=D: and SystemRoot=D:\Windows would be in the registry). One way around this might be to create two partitions on the drive before installing Windows and use a utility like Ghost's GDISK to 'hide' the first partition. Then install to D:, unhide the first partition, remove the flash drive, reboot, run Windows recovery console to put the bootloader on the now unhidden drive which has become C: . I haven't tried this yet but I think it should work.