Got Vista!? Got $$!? Want XP OS without damaging your Vista HD?? Look Here XD!!

[Calintz]

We are gonna get right down to business...

Problem:
I own a Windows Vista OS on my laptop, and even after several attempts, and yes, even following the instructions listed here on Chaos Project; RMXP DOES NOT work properly on my Windows Vista laptop. The entire system freezes when running the RGSS player, and I must resort to the task manager =/.

Now I am currently able create my project and share it here with you at Chaos Project, because my parents own a XP OS on their downstairs desktop. I obviously don't plan on living with them for very much longer, so I have to find a way to get an XP OS onto my laptop, so that I can continue to work on my game long after I move out.

Solution: I have done some research
I HAVE NOT tried this yet, but I am almost positive this will work. I am going to buy a USB driven External Hard Drive. I will then install the Windows XP OS onto that hard drive and plug her into my laptop. When I boot my laptop, I will choose to boot from USB. !! Voila !! It will register the XP OS, WITHOUT making ANY changes to my laptop XD!! Hoo-Ray! for external hard drives!!

External Hard Drive Recommendations:
External Hard Drive01 - Iomega eGo
External Hard Drive02 - Western Digital

[Chaze007]

I got Vista, and RMXP works fine for me...just had to run as admin and run with win xp settings....:\

[Calintz]

That's my point...
I have tried that, and it does not work.

This is for people like me who cannot get it to work properly. AND NO, I am NOT computer dumb. I know a lot about computers. For some reason...my laptop just doesn't like it 

Or, for people who would like to have the ability to dual-boot a separate OS, and not worry about having to have separate partitions created that will suck the life from your new Vista OS.

[Landith]

Yeah, an external hard drive would be great for this. I would say around 160 GB should work. I use one for my movies, games, and applications(don't ask...).

I'm not sure how that would work though...

[Calintz]

Yes it would!! The Hard Drives that I posted are both 320GB for under $100.00, so...Good deal.

You store the operating system onto the External Hard Drive...period.
With the OS on the Hard Drive, you can boot from the "USB"(External Hard Drive).

You have to put the OS on the hard drive 1st though(obviously). This would be done by using a program like DVD decrypt to clone a retail OS that you can either buy in stores, or pirate from the internet(I recommend buying it so you can avoid any problems). Then, mount that file onto your External Hard Drive.

[Landith]

Ahh.. That's a good idea, I might use this for Linux (Looking into getting it).
I kinda skipped the links lol I'll check it out, I'm looking to upgrade my Hard Drive so that will help.

[Calintz]

I hope you find what you need =)

[fugibo]

Yes, this works perfectly, I can assure you. But it will be a lot slower than you think, since you're running over USB rather than IDE/SATA, and it's quite a bit slower.

[Calintz]

But IDE/SATA is not available with Laptops, right?? Isn't this the only way to use an external with a laptop?

[fugibo]

External HAS to be USB/Firewire, as far as I know. IDE/SATA is internal only 0_o
Unfortunately, this means slower drive access, though it won't be horrible or anything -- just not as fast as a 5400RPM internal drive.

[Calintz]

Yeah, I think I saw somewhere that the USB can only connect to a max of like 60mb/s =\

[Ryex]

Just one question how in world do you select to boot from the usb hard drive?

oh and just to reinforce how slow this would be... My friend tried to play fallout 3 from an external hard drive and even on the lowest settings and resolution possible windowed mode and all it still had MASSIVE frame skipping that made it almost unplayabul and the vats system unuseabul

[G_G]

Theres other ways around this as you can notice I am using one now and if you read in shoutbox entries.

[Calintz]

I know you can use USB flashdrives as well....

[GAX]

I gots some port on my laptop that says eSATA/USB O.o

[Sally]

i dont know why it dosnt work i run it perfectly, had to modify some things and then run it as administrater... but i got a 500gb hard drive for less then $80 but my friend threw it... so i dont have it anymore but i had movies/videos/games/and others...

[fugibo]

Okay, so for PWNing the ACT, I recently got a FreeAgent Go (320MB). It is an excellent drive, very small and very surprisingly fast, and it has done everything I wanted it to, and performed very well. I recommend this drive.

However, I do not recommend trying to do what this thread suggests on a MacBook. For the past three days, I've been trying to get this to work to no avail. I tried rEFIt, native tools, everything, I even installed the kernel to the internal harddrive, it doesn't work. (Not Apple's fault, however; they just use a totally different technology [EFI] than PCs, and cannot be expected to emulate perfectly.)

Another thing I learned is that XP is notorious for being unfriendly with external drives. GL to anyone who tries with it.

*here's to Ubuntu trying its hardest to work with EFI*

[GAX]

It wont work on a MacBook period, since when you use Bootcamp, it creates a partition specifically for Windows to be installed.  Good luck booting a flashdrive on a MacBook.

I have a VERY simple solution:
Go to your local computer store (Fry's Electronics would be mine) and buy a 500GB Laptop HDD (cost you around $100).  Somehow obtain a copy of Windows XP (I have the OEM for my desktop, yay me!), and just put the Vista HDD in a safe place in case the other one fails, so atleast you aren't completely screwed out of a computer o.o;

Though as I've told like, 40 people or so...XP may not be the best bet since Windows 7 will be out soon, and copies of XP are getting more and more scarce these days.

[fugibo]

No, BootCamp is just a partitioner. And just because its makes a certain type of partition doesn't mean Linux can't reformat it.

It deals completely with the EFI and the lack of BIOS -- one of the key features released along with BootCamp was the ability of the EFI to emulate a BIOS and an MBR partition table. Unfortunately, it lacks the ability to boot USB devices or extended (or logical) partitions. But hey, its just emulation. Can't expect it to be perfect :/

However, EFI itself is better from what I've seen. Its infinitely more extensible and practical, and GPT -- EFI's partition table -- can handle as many partitions as you want, without workarounds, since it uses GUIDs.

/rant