Member Avatar for bogdan90i

hi, i have a INTERNAL for 3.5" IDE hdd and i want to make it bootable. i have windows 2003 installed and i can't boot from it. I looked over the internet but not a chance. i found nothing

Ok first. I just finished formatting a laptop and tried the external rack on it and it booted after that started to load(windows log when the little line goes from left to right) after that finishes it gives me a blue screen for 1 or 2 seconds and then it restarts.

Second, i tried the rack on a PC and it does nothing it passes the boot from and it just stays black. I also tried it on anther laptop and even if i open bootscreen and select the USB HDD to boot from it just boots from the internal hdd.

I enterd bios and set the primary boot device USB HDD.

Also i removed the hdd from the rack to install windows 2003 and it worked on the pc but when i put it in the rack it does as i told above.

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Older Windows (including Windows Server 2003) was never designed to be a portable OS on USB mass‑storage devices. Moving a drive from an internal IDE channel into a USB-to-IDE enclosure often changes how the hardware is presented to the BIOS and to Windows, and the storage driver that the kernel needs may not be available early in boot. That behavior explains the “boots then blue‑screens” or “no boot” results seen here; , and (who correctly noted the OS name) are pointing at the right class of problem.

Practical diagnostic steps to try next:

  • At boot press F8 and choose "Disable automatic restart on system failure" to capture the STOP code and any driver name shown.

  • Reconnect the disk internally and from an elevated command prompt run:

    chkdsk C: /F /R

    If needed, boot the Server 2003 Recovery Console and run:

    fixmbr
fixboot
chkdsk /p /r

  • In the PC BIOS toggle USB emulation modes (USB‑HDD vs USB‑ZIP/Floppy) and enable Legacy USB support; some boards only boot reliably with a specific emulation.

  • While the drive is attached to a working Windows, check Disk Management / Device Manager to see whether the enclosure reports the disk as "removable" vs "fixed" — many bridges present a removable device, which blocks a normal Windows boot.

Longer‑term choices: keep the OS on an internal bay (recommended), use virtualization or imaging for portability, or use a newer OS/Windows To Go solution that supports USB boot. Always back up data before experimenting with MBR/boot fixes.

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Member Avatar for bogdan90i

common no answer? :(( WHYYYY?

Member Avatar for hughv

There's no such OS as "Windows 2003".

Member Avatar for bogdan90i

Windows server 2003...

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