Can't Boot from USB Hdd+ Thumbdrive (BSOD)

[JONNYTWO]

hello.

i am having a problem booting from either my usb stick, or my usb hard drive using windows xp pro. my bios is set to enable usb boot, and windows successfully copies files needed during initial setup. After the files have been copied to the drive and restarts, my computer then attempts to boot from usb ( Windows Xp loading screen appears for 4 seconds, then freezes) and I ALWAYS get this error

"typical BSOD"

technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (Oxf78A2524, 0xc0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

I havent installed any new hardware except for 1 GIG DDR ram, but i took it out to make sure that that wasnt the problem and I still get BSOD.

Please, anybody know whats going on? This is really annoying. A while ago i was able to boot from my USB HDD which is 60 GB, now I get this error when trying to boot from USB HDD or USB Stick and both are recognized in the bios. I don't have an IDE HDD, nor floppy drive. Are there any diagnostics tools I can use to test to see if anything in my computer is failing? I was able to take both USB drives to friends hosue and they are both recognized aside from them already being recognized in my bios.

Thanks

 

[KSoD]

Bug Check 0x7B: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

It can not find the USB Device as the boot device. Just because you can boot from them doesnt mean Windows will play nicely.

Windows identifies the USB devices differently than the BIOS. Therefor to boot from the USB Drive successfully everytime would require a edit to the boot.ini just about every time to have it read correctly.

So that is most likely the issue. That Windows is not seeing the boot information on the USB Drive so it cant boot the drive correctly.

There really isnt a fix, as it is very dependent on Windows in this case. Which seems it doesnt want to work from a USB Drive.

Can maybe try out the links in the link i provided. They have some testing tools linked in there.

 

[JONNYTWO]

Thanks for your reply.

I've no idea how my PC goes from booting flawlessly from USB HDD few weeks ago to a BSOD then having to configure boot parameters.. This is confusing.

 

[KSoD]

From the sounds of it, since you removed the hard drive and connected it to another device, the drive is now given a new device ID by the BIOS and therefor Windows does not recognize it as the same boot device that was previously used.

This is the main issue with trying to use a USB Device as a boot device for Windows. Any changes to the system can cause a boot failure which you see here.

You will in essance have to find out using a BartPE most likely, what the new device ID is and change the boot.ini to get it to successfully boot again.

 

[JONNYTWO]

Hye.

Can you please assist me with bartsPE? I've downloaded it. What am I exactly to do? What am I looking for? From the looks of it the obvious to build an image of some sort, but it searched for windows folders and couldn't find any, there is a windows folder on my C drive one on the USB Hard drive as well as my USb thumbdrive.

EDIT: seems I am to use my windows Installation disc, no?

FYI- I get the same error when trying to boot from my USB HDD AND my thumbdrive.

..."since you removed the hard drive and connected it to another device"

Mind you I got the error before taking it to friends house to see if it was damaged, so i'm not sure if that applies anymore, maybe it still does?

 

[KSoD]

Yes it will still apply. Since the Thumb Drive is still connected via USB the same principles will apply as they do for the External drive.

Removing them changed their boot identification within Windows which will cause a boot error which you are receiving.

You will need to edit the boot.ini to change the information. To what exactly i am not sure cause i dont have access to your system to see how it is working.

 

[JONNYTWO]

Well I'm halfway there..

is there any information I can provide for further assistance?


wouldn't formatting/reinstalling windows on the USB sort the problem? ( tried it didn't work, so in essence i guess I answered my own question)`

What do i use bartspe for?

 

[KSoD]

BartPE is a live version of Windows basically. So you should use that to access the boot.ini and try to modify it.

You will have to change the RDisk and Partition numbers. You will have to try different combinations of numbers depending on how many partitions you have on the External.

If there are 3 they will be 0 (Zero), 1, 2 as Windows always starts count at Zero.

Now the RDisk depending on if you are trying to boot from teh ThumbDrive or the Exertnal will also vary.

So you will have to try different combinations to see if there is any way you can edit teh boot.ini to get the correct combination to allow it to boot. That is really all the advice i can offer. Trying to use a External and Thumbdrive as the main boot device in Windows will always have these issues if you ever add a new Hard Drive, add a new USB Device or remove one of your other devices.

Windows is very fickle when it comes to working off a USB Device. IT is going to be nothing but trial and error to try and get it working after you adjusted the BIOS Device priority by removeing one or more devices.

 

[JONNYTWO]

Do I need BartsPe if I can modify my boot.ini on the second USB hdd?

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


sorry for the ignorance.

 

[KSoD]

No you wont need BartPE if you can modify the file another way. Like i said it is just going to be trial and error to find the right rdisk/partition number combination that allows you to boot from the device you want.