Boot from Toshiba external USB HDD

[Peter8049]

I've two external USB HDD drives. While the Western Digital 1600BB correctly shows up in the Boot Menu and is bootable - at least with Recovery and Restart - the Toshiba PX1273 only displays in the list of bootable devices with

-USB HDD

which is not selectable in the Boot menu and RnR does not boot from this Toshiba drive.

Any idea how I can make this Toshiba USB HDD bootable?

[richk]

Are they hanging off the same USB port? Can you swap the order they arer attached? It may be like booting from a SCSI device, where you only have the option to boot from the device with the lowest SCSC ID.

[Peter8049]

Yes, I used the same USB port for both drives and I never operated them in parallel - only the WE or the Toshiba, but never both.

[richk]

I cannot find reference to the toshiba number you list. Is if formatted? Is the primary partition active?

[Peter8049]

The Toshiba external USB HDD in fact works fine with my T43. I can also store the RnR backups on it. The only difference to the Western Digital is that the Toshiba does not show up in the Boot device list and therefore is not bootable. The usual operation, however, is no problem.

The full model number is: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 External Hard Drive PX1273-1G40 (400 GB). May be the number is different in the US.

Thanks for your help.

[richk]

I'll assk again, is the partition on the Toshiba marked active? It must be active to boot from it.

You can start settings/control panel/administrative tools/computer management/disk management. Assuming you can see the Toshiba as an external drive, right click its primary partition. There should be an option to mark it as active.

[Peter8049]

Both the Toshiba and the Western Digital look exactly the same in Computer Management: 'Mark Partition as Active' is grayed out for both devices, but both are reported as 'Healthy Active'. I concluded from this status that the primary partition is indeed active for both of them.

[richk]

Yes. They are both active. I have no more suggestions. Maybe someone else can help here.

[melmo]

Are they in the same type of external enclosure? While trying to Ghost my machine awhile back, I learned that there are different USB-to-IDE chipsets and some are better than others.

[Peter8049]

No, the external enclosures look quite different (black boxes). But I use the same USB port for both external HDDs.