you did not give us any info on your mobo so we could check if it was capable of
booting
from USB...not all are capable of this but if it is it would be listed in your
BIOS settings
under boot devices...
you could just remake the Resue Media onto a CD/DVD.
You can still image/backup your HD to the USB connected external drive.
The Rescue Media will see all of the drives connected internal or external.
I use Acronis True Image and have made the Rescue Media but I made it on a CD.
I image my HD to an external USB connected HD.I have tested and it works.

peter

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"Patti Barden" wrote in message
...
Running XP Sp3, OE6, IE8
I recently bought an external hard disk which is attached to my desktop pc
with USB.
I also have a program called Acronis which is supposed to copy or clone,
backup, etc.
It has you create a Bootable Rescue Media Builder which I put on a USB key.

My idea was to copy my entire pc disk to the external hard disk and then
periodically
back it up and if my pc went (it is old) I could restart from my external hard
disk.

In talking with a guy who owns a computer shop, he tells me I cannot reboot
from a
USB. He insists that is the case. If so I have been wasting a lot of time
trying to
insure I don't have to reinstall everything or lose my data.

Perhaps I should just copy my data and figure I will have to reinstall all the
programs,
settings, etc.?
I am getting more confused.
Patti