Boot XP system from cloned USB HDD ??
I've done a lot of google searches about this with results that mostly just confused me. Lots of talk about running dual boots, virtual machines, copying and editing ISO files...
The basic question is this:
Can I boot a clone of my Dell Dimension's internal hard drive, which is running Win Xp Sp3, if that clone resides on an external USB HDD?
I know that I'll have to reconfigure the boot sequence in the BIOS.
It seems that most of the other stuff I read was about the difficulties of trying to create a bootable USB drive. But, I figure if the clone is a clone - it should boot. What do you think?

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Umms That's BIOS dependent. If the BIOS has USB support, the BIOS itself emulates an
ATA device during boot, and that is what Windows 'sees' as BIOS device 80 (primary master)
for a C: drive. Assuming the original system booted from that BIOS device it should work.
I have cloned an internal 2.5" 500gb dual boot drive (XP in partition 1, Win 7 Pro in partition 2,
MBR=Win7 boot block). It boots fine from a USB HDD that is powered up before BIOS/POST.
Window 7's boot block boots to the Win 7 partition and it displays a boot menu for XP/7.
Whichever windows XP or 7 is boted its partition is C: and the other is D:.
I'm using Acronis TIH2010 and DD11.
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Without special modifications to Windows, it will not run from a USB drive. The boot process will start, but Windows will fail at some point.
Are you sure that your USB clone is actually the drive from which Windows is running? It makes me wonder if you're booting the USB drive, but Windows is actually running from the internal drive (this assumes you're booting the USB drive on the computer with the source drive). You can check this in Disk Management.
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