Can you boot a laptop from an external eSATA drive?

[geekydude]

Anyone knows? I have a Dell Inspiron E1405 Core 2 Duo. Thanks.

[bal3wolf]

in bios what boot options do you have if you have say usb you can or if you hit your key to bring up boot order when you power on the laptop look and see what it has listed.

[Greg]

If the BIOS lists the ExpressCard slot as one of the options that you can boot from (look for it in the boot order) you will be fine.

[geekydude]

Checked my BIOS menu. The devices listed in Boot Sequence are:

Diskette Drive
USB Storage Device
CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
Internal HDD
Onboard NIC

So according to Bal3wolf, I can use the USB Storage Device option to boot an eSATA drive. But Night_2004 seems to be saying that I need an explicit ExpressCard option.

I haven't bought the eSATA card and drive yet. I need to know whether I can boot from it before making the purchase.

[Greg]

I would contact Dell if you have any doubt. It's possible it would be counted as a USB device goes as far as the BIOS are concerned.

[RogueMonk]

ExpressCards are not always listed as in the BIOS boot sequence. If they are supported, they will often list your eSATA as local (just like the internal drive).

I have helped several people, and it seems they are getting hit/miss results. But the issue I have seen most is not with BIOS support but with the sata chip itself (the one on the ExpressCrad).

Bottom line - you have try and see what happens.

[geekydude]

ExpressCards are not always listed as in the BIOS boot sequence. If they are supported, they will often list your eSATA as local (just like the internal drive).

I have helped several people, and it seems they are getting hit/miss results. But the issue I have seen most is not with BIOS support but with the sata chip itself (the one on the ExpressCrad).

Bottom line - you have try and see what happens.

In cases when ExpressCard was not listed in the BIOS boot sequence, how did you set the BIOS boot sequence to get the eSATA drive to boot? What did you put first in the sequence? (Internal HDD?)

[bbzidane]

i think what the poster is trying to say is, if it works, it will list the model of the hard drive connected by eSATA.
so if you had a WD hdd in an enclosure connected by eSATA, and it is able to boot from it, the WD hdd would be listed.

[geekydude]

Official word from Dell: you cannot boot from an eSATA drive on the Inspiron E1405. The only external devices you can boot from are floppy drive, USB CDROM, and USB flash key.

[CocoaJu]

I would like to ask if any one knows which is faster. Is it faster to book your system on HDD or on an ExpressCard SSD?