boot from external hdd drive

Message

snappy · #1 Post by **snappy** » Tue May 25, 2004 11:34 am

Hi,

Anyone boot from external hdd drive b4 on X30 (or Xseries)?

I just installed XP on a Fujitsu 20GB hdd and it boots/works fine as internal drive on my X30. But when I plug it via external case, it cannot boot. Error message "NTLdr not found".

I found a IBM external hdd case (USB 2.0) on the net, and was wondering if the X30 does some chipset recognition so the hdd cannot boot up without using IBM external case or something?

In any case, anyone used an IBM external hdd case (or for that matter, other brand) to boot up b4?

snappy · #2 Post by **snappy** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:10 pm

Seems like there are few X30 users around here.

Well, just in case you are trying to do likewise, I tried hdd (original x30 hdd, fujitsu hdd) and OS (win98, win2000, winXP) and all could not boot up from BIOS thru external USB hdd case, although they all boot up without a glitch when installed internally.

I also almost wiped out my data on the original ibm drive when I tried to do a recovery yesterday. What I did:

1. Plug original ibm drive to usb via external case.
2. Install new 60GB ibm drive in notebook.
3. Start recovery (thinking that the recovery software will detect the internal drive and recover winXP to the drive).
4. Half way thru, I realised that it is actually recoverying back to itself, the original ibm drive (thereby wiping out mbr and ntfs).

I panicked and basically powered off the notebook. Tried a few ways to recover and failed.

NTFS partition is gone and fdisk shows unallocated partition!! *shiver*

Fortunately I got this tool called Active Partition Recovery (from www.ntfs.com I think!) and it somehow managed to recover the deleted partition from the second copy of the ntfs allocation table. I think if I allowed the recovery to continue, even this app would not work.

So, now the original ibm drive is back in order and the 60GB is being setup properly.

G-Man · #3 Post by **G-Man** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:24 pm

Is it an IBM USB HD? The BIOS of the TP's is very sensitive for other brands' USB devices. IBM USB HD is bootable. Do you have the latest BIOS installed?

Edit: Sorry, I just read your post again. What kind of case is that? IBM Portable Bay, Portable Bay 2000 (PB 2000 has both USB and PCMCIA connectivity, regular PB has PCMCIA only)? They should work with your X30. The BIOS will recognize it.

Regards,
G-Man