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Multi-boot external hard drive possible?

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19 replies

by healer

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In order to save resources I am considering to get an external hard drive USB connected to my Windows 7 Pro 64-bit laptop, to split the external hard drive into several partitions and install one operating system in each partition for testing. Is it possible?

I heard Plop Boot Manager is a good candidate for booting external hard drive.

19 replies

by oh smeg

I'm not expert on things like this but there are several things you need to check first.

The Hardware needs to be able to boot from a USB Device and this will need to be set in the BIOS.

External HDD where never designed to be run 100% of the time. The cases that they are in can not conduct the Heat generated by the HDD away fast enough so the HDD overheats and has a shorter life than it otherwise would.

External HDD's are not in a bulky enclosure so they are more prone to Vibrational Damage which shortens their lives.

If you need to use any External HDD 100% of the time you need a Actively Cooled Case like the [b]MX1[/b] from Antec. These will cure the overheating issue but do little to prevent Vibrational Damage. ;)

http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NzA0MjIx

I'll leave it to others who have much more experience then me to suggest what else you need to look at. ;)

Col

by healer

I did check the BIOS of the laptop I was going to use for the purpose. I also tested and made sure that I could boot from a USB drive. I never intended to use it 24/7. Usually my testing is more on exploration of features and functions that takes probably an hour or so than endurance.

I suppose I could use virutal PC or the like for the same purpose but then I find operating systems on virtualization platform are not identical to the regular systems in real terms.

by markp24

Hi,

here is a great utility , http://www.hak5.org/episodes/episode-524, the article is for USB flash drives, but will also work on external hard drives, it shows you how to boot multiple OS's from one usb stick (also works for external usb hard drives if the bios supports it) Plop Boot Manager is great, I use it for my VMware to boot to usb for testing these external "multipass" drives i make.

i hope that helps

by healer

There's a lot for me to take in there. Please give me some time. I appreciate your generosity and kindness. I also would like to implement something as suggested before I respond.

by markp24

Hi,

Give those who gave a helpful response a thumbs up , for the record. :-)

by healer

The way that http://www.hak5.org/episodes/episode-524 advises does not require partitioning the USB drive is great. After trying to follow the whole thing to the letter I didn't really get anything to work. I managed to start the Ophcrack and it said it found no table. I got the backtrack4 in but it wouldn't boot and it had error message referring to FAT 16 partition. Probably it has something to do with the USB being in FAT 16 format whereas the hard disk is in NTFS format.

I think I still need to spend some time on working out all the kernel parameters for the utility software I would like to use.

by markp24

Hi,

I feel bad it didnt work for you, Im thinking its because you used fat16 vs fat 32

this is how i did it
1)format my usb stick fat32,
2)ran the Grubinstall utility "grubinst_gui."
3)copy the grldr file
4)make the menu.lst file (i posted my example at the end of this post , you can copy and past it into your menu.lst if you want)
5) test the boot

6) if its successful you can then add all the items to the menu. ISO files are picky, they have to be contiguous on the usb stick, all others are no issue. since there non iso

#default 0
#timeout 30
#color white/blue yellow/black

color red/black yellow/blue
timeout 120

# title GParted 0.6.1-2
# kernel /live/vmlinuz1 boot=live union=aufs noswap vga=791 ip=frommedia nolocales
# initrd /live/initrd1.img
title Gparted
map (hd0,0)/iso/gparted-live-0.5.2-9.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot

title Boot f-secure-rescue-cd-3.11-23804.iso
map (hd0,0)/iso/f-secure-rescue-cd-3.11-23804.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot

title ntpasswd
kernel /ntpasswd/vmlinuz rw vga=1 initrd=/ntpasswd/initrd.cgz /ntpasswd/scsi.cgz
initrd /ntpasswd/initrd.cgz

title Kon-Boot
map --mem /boot/floppy/konboot.img (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook
rootnoverify (fd0)

title DBAN floppy
kernel /memdisk
initrd /boot/floppy/dban.img

title DBAN ISO 2.26
map (hd0,0)/iso/dban-2.2.6_i586.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)

title Spinrite_6
kernel /memdisk
initrd /boot/floppy/spinrite6.img

title FreeDOS
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/floppy/freedos.img

title Memtest86+
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/floppy/memtestp.img

#**************Windows stuff ***************

title UBCD4win
title Launch "The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows"
fallback 1
find --set-root /minint/setupldr.bin
chainloader /minint/setupldr.bin
savedefault --wait=2

title Todobackup.iso
map (hd0,0)/iso/todo backupImage.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)

title Launch "Windows(tm) Recovery Console"
fallback 1
find --set-root /cmdcons/setupldr.bin
chainloader /cmdcons/setupldr.bin

'title Windows 7 Upgrade Retail (32 bit)
'map (hd0,0)/iso/Windows 7 Professional 32 bit upgrade.iso (hd32)
'map --hook
'chainloader (hd32)

title SystemRescueCD
kernel /rescuecd initrd=initram.igz video=ofonly vga=0 scandelay=5
initrd /initram.igz

title Partition table Dr 3.5
map (hd0,0)/iso/PTD35.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
# ----- Trinity --------------

title Trinity Rescue Kit
kernel /boot/trinity/kernel.trk initrd=/boot/trinity/initrd.trk ramdisk_size=49152 root=/dev/ram0 vga=788 splash=verbose
initrd /boot/trinity/initrd.trk

# --- Hiren's Boot CD ---
title Hiren's BootCD
find --set-root /HBCD/boot.gz
map --mem /HBCD/boot.gz (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)
map --floppies=1
boot

# ------ Back Track -----------------

#title BackTrack 4 Pre-final
#root (hd0,0)
#kernel /bootbt4/vmlinuz BOOT=casper boot=casper persistent vga=0x317 #ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw quiet
#initrd=/bootbt4/initrd.gz
#boot
# place a "casper.rw" file on the root of your usb stick you can get some large # casper.rw files from here
# http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to...ubuntu-904.html
# I set it up this way and did apt-get update, apt-get upgrade, fast-track update # all etc etc and it has stuck
# Edit: The casper.rw file is where your changes are stored so choose the size you # want based on the changes you will make

title BackTrack 3 usb
root (hd0,0)
kernel /bootbt3/vmlinuz vga=0x317 ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw quiet
initrd=/bootbt3/initrd.gz
boot

# --- CloneZilla ---
title Clonezilla
root (hd0,0)
kernel /clonezilla/vmlinuz1 boot=live union=aufs vga=789 ip=frommedia live-media-path=/clonezilla bootfrom=/dev/hda toram=filesystem.squashfs noprompt ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param="" ocs_live_keymap="" ocs_live_batch="no" ocs_lang=""
initrd /clonezilla/initrd1.img
boot

## Ubuntu: - Copy ISO to root of USB

title Boot Ubuntu 10.04
find --set-root /ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso
map /ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso quiet splash
initrd /casper/initrd.lz
boot

## Ubuntu recovery remix: - Copy ISO to root of USB

title Boot Ubuntu recovery remix 9.10
find --set-root /ubuntu-rescue-remix-9-10-revision1.iso
map /ubuntu-rescue-remix-9-10-revision1.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu-rescue-remix-9-10-revision1.iso quiet splash
initrd /casper/initrd.lz
boot

# title Boot OphCrack XP 2.3.1
# find --set-root /ophcrack-xp-livecd-2.3.1.iso
# map /ophcrack-xp-livecd-2.3.1.iso (0xff)
# map --hook
# root (0xff)
# kernel /boot/bzImage rw root=/dev/null vga=normal lang=C kmap=us screen=1024x768x16 autologin
# initrd /boot/rootfs.gz
# boot

## Helix Forensics

Helix 2009 Community (iso)
title Helix 2009
find --set-root /iso/Helix2009R1.iso
map /iso/Helix2009R1.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/xubuntu.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/iso/Helix2009R1.iso splash locale=en.UTF-8 --
initrd /casper/initrd.gz

by who am i really

USB is so sloooow
compared to SATA & e-SATA

- use an e-SATA slot adapter attached to port0
- and good quality e-SATA enclosures and the HDDs of your choice
- get and setup as many as you want, it's better to do one HDD for each OS rather than partition one HDD

the e-SATA will act & perform like it's installed internally, so there's no monkeying around trying to trick the OS into booting and running from the USB connection

there are some good e-SATA enclosures with fans

edit:
missed the laptop part but with an e-SATA PCMCIA or PC-Express card it should work providing the unit has a slot
you'd just have to provide the drivers for the card during the OS Installs

by healer

certainly consider using SATA if I am going to connect it to a desktop. Thank you!

by oh smeg

The MX1 Enclosure from Antec has both USB and ESATA Connections as well as a full ESATA Desktop Connection Kit.

Col

by healer

because I needed time to go through and experiment it. And I have not got around to such a long exercise. As I had said I would respond after I go through what your recommended article said. I certainly appreciate any helpful response. However I didn't know whether it was helpful even though you intended to be helpful until I tried them.

I will certainly give your response a thumbs-up when I find it helpful. I thank you for your kindness and being helpful even though the article might not be helpful until such time I tried them all.

Thank you again!

by markp24

Hi, i hope one of the postings works for you. That "multipass" usb stick comes in very handy, I hope it works for you also.
I like the other E sata idea as well from oh' smeg.
good luck :-)

by healer

give your response the thumbs-up after my test. I am just somewhat busy at present and I am also waiting for the equipment. I appreciate your kindness.

by healer

I have checked with my supplier and am getting an internal hard drive 1.5TB together with the enclosure that would give me the USB and ESATA connections so that I can move it among my desktops and laptops.

With the equipment I probably can test what markp24 has suggested so that I can determine if his previous response was helpful.

By the way I am more concerned with whether I can set up multiple bootable partitions on my to-be-obtained external drive than the endurance of the hardware components as my systems would not be production systems. I am just doing various exercises or tests that I might need.

by oh smeg

Not really a problem just assemble the HDD in it's enclosure and plug into a running system.

In Windows go tot he Drive Manager and select the new drive and then prepare if necessary and set the Partition that you require.

Then Safely Remove the Drive and start the system with the drive plugged in and install as required to the different partitions. ;)

Col

by healer

try it as soon as I get hold the drive and let you know the result. Thank you!

by markp24

Feel free to contact me if you like to assist with the multipass option.

Hope i can assist you further!

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