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Dr Oc

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20 years ago

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Dr Oc

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March 16th, 2007 21:00

Can I boot from an external HDD?

I am trying to upgrade to a 160gb HDD. I can't get the external enclosure to power that drive though. It is already partitioned. So anyway my thought is, swap out the 80gb HDD that came with the dell e1505 for the 160gb HDD. Problem now is that the OS will be on the external HDD and nothing will be on the internal. So how do I get the BIOS to look for the external as the boot drive? My hope is that at that point the 80gb drive will spin as an external where the 160gb drive is recognized but it doesn't spin when attached via usb.
  • ejn63

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    87469 Posts

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    Posted March 16th, 2007 21:00

    No. You'll either need a powered USB hub, a power supply for the external drive, or if equipped, another USB tap for power.
  • nmestanas

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    Posted March 18th, 2007 14:00

    You need to power the drive from an external source as well.  I don't know what model portable you have but in my Lattitude D, I press F12 during post and a boot menu appears.  From there I can select a USB connected device.  I have booted from USB flash drives before.