consulting

Sorry, forgot to report that there is no adequate option in the BIOS.
Guys, Steven, your assistance is overwhelming!

What to do?
For avoiding any misunderstanding I'll state:

• The external drive with VISTA on it is running fine while working inside the notebook as C:\.
• The disadvantage is only that a certain video editing tool is not working properly under VISTA.
• The advantage of using the VISTA drive may be that also DVB-T receiver works and allows saving of broadcastings.
• The best performance of the whole system (notebook and OS) I get using it with XP.

Using XP I can

• access the external (VISTA) notebook drive and use it in a normal way

but I cannot

• boot from this drive with an installed VISTA.

Now I made a decision:
I'll try to recover this drive as VISTA drive using the OEM recovery tool. Then I have a "factory new" drive and system.
After this I'll remove it from the notebook and connect it to an USB port.
Let's see what happens (with no drive inside the notebook!!!).

• IF it fails to boot in the known way I'll try to use the Windows VISTA DVD and to start the repair function.
• IF I have success I'll move the new XP drive back to its place in the notebook.
• IF it will boot in the known way I'll try to access the external (VISTA) drive and test it as data drive.
• IF now all is running well I'll try to boot from the VISTA drive using the boot manager (F12).

It's a game now.
I may also take one of my many unused video data drives, format it and connect it to an USB port of the notebook while no other drive is active. If this drive is recognized I'll try to install an enterprise version of XP from CD on this drive. This because I'm some familiar with XP.
After this I'll put the internal XP drive back to the notebook and see whether it will boot normally. Then I may try to boot from the fresh XP on the external drive.
A game.
All remarkable issues I'll write down and report here.

D'accord?
Thank you, thank you, but I didn't understand much of it.
My "game" is now a bypass. What I do is what I understand even if it may not work.

Here (Europe) a new day has started. I'll do my best to make it successful for me.

Best regards,
Manfred (the "Kraut" )