Can I use a Boot CD to boot external drive?
 

Hello,

I run only Linux, and do not want to dual boot with windows. On VERY RARE occasions however I find myself needing to use windows. I have an old USB External lying around and want to load windows on it and boot off of it. However I have an asus M2N-E SLI and I believe it does not have a boot option for USB. Under removable drives it simply says Floppy Disk. Is it possible then to create a boot CD that will allow me to boot from a USB Hard drive and use windows exclusively like this ? If so, how would I do this ?

Thanks
Christof

Yes - AFAIK you can use the smart boot manager or other bootloader on a floppy to then start the boot process on a usb mass storage device. I've not actually done this though.

I'm just guessing that the USB would be 'formatted' like the old RAMDisk (having a device label a-z, and folders & files in the same order as on the hard drive). If so, you will need to create/edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file with a simple text editor and change the PATH so it points to the USB device:

PATH=x\WINDOWS (change 'x' to the actual device label of the USB)

Add the command WIN32 to launch Windows from the USB.

Save it, then write it to the CD or floppy along with the system boot files.

Cheers