Arch Linux

ad4ms3

Member

From: Bradford, UK

Registered: 2018-01-19

Posts: 91

Booting from usb

Hi all, I have a problem which is difficult to explain, but here we go...

I made a backup of my existing arch installation using clonezilla. So on the external hd there is an exact copy of arch. I also installed grub to make system accessible. I am able to boot from this hd and system works flawlessly, however...
I tried to run this copy on new laptop, with Win10 installed. When I connect it via usb, hd is not recognized at all.
Same issue is with another computer running windows 10 (which I do not know specifications of). BIOS does not recognize this hd.
Laptop with original arch installation runs copy (BIOS recognizes external device). This was tested by removing internal hd, connecting and booting from external.
Here is a specification of laptop with win 10.

HP Pavilion - 15-au150sa
Intel® Core™ i5-7200U
8 GB DDR4-2133 SDRAM
Intel® HD Graphics 620
256 GB mSATA SSD

HD copy is installed: Samsung SV8004H (old, 15 year old hd)

fstab is set correctly
no issues with grub.
Is there a way that au150sa will recognize samsung as an external, bootable harddrive / usb?
Thank you

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,522

Website

Re: Booting from usb

Windows 10 machines are (usually if not always) UEFI systems, so if there is no ESP on the external drive, that would explain the symptoms.

There should be firmware settings to allow booting the external drive, but exactly how these are set/accessed depends on the machine.  You will need to first ensure windows is actually shutdown (easier said than done as I believe it generally does a hybrid hibernate/shutdown for it's 'fastboot' option).  You'll also need to disable secure boot, and then likely set boot priority options.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

ad4ms3

Member

From: Bradford, UK

Registered: 2018-01-19

Posts: 91

Re: Booting from usb

Yes, I forgot to mention that I played a little with settings on HP.
I disabled secured boot already, then enabled legacy boot. Nevertheless, Samsung still did not show itself in HP.
Thank you for you answer. It has lead to this: https://www.dionysopoulos.me/253-portab … b-hdd.html
I will play with this eventually...

SealsRock12

Member

Registered: 2018-04-03

Posts: 83

Re: Booting from usb

then enabled legacy boot.

Is your Windows installed in UEFI mode (GPT partition table) or BIOS mode (MBR/msdos table)?

If it was installed in UEFI mode, then it won't boot since you set it to boot from BIOS mode.

If you want, you can switch it back to UEFI mode and install Arch like that. But if the Arch copy you backed up was in BIOS mode, then you either have to reinstall Arch, reinstall Windows, or spend the time converting it.

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-- SealsRock12

newbie1962

Member

From: italy

Registered: 2012-07-24

Posts: 137

Re: Booting from usb

hi,
you can post image-link what you see once booting started, with h.d. external inserted, if you press esc and then f9.

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hp-envy dv7