When I first set up Vista I installed a basic working system and then made an Acronis backup of that set-up. I did this so that I would not have to go through all the tedious tasks one is beset with when re-installing a system... all I need to do is copy the backup onto the drive and I'm up and running in seven minutes. I wondered whether it would be possible to copy the system to a spare disk I have and use it as a bootable USB drive. I did this and set the BIOS to boot from the USB drive and it did up to a point. Just after the "marching caterpillar" I got a blue screen with the error 0X0000007B. I have Googled the error but I am unsure of how to proceed. Any help in this respect will be appreciated. The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money!

INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE Vista and MS in general doesn't want you to boot to a usb device. Since you have acronis then why not just boot to the cd to restore the system? "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

Thank you jefro... your comment regarding MS and USB booting would appear to back up the fact that this will not work with XP either. I use drive caddies... one for Vista and one for XP and I also have a basic XP setup for the same reason and I have discovered that XP will not boot from the external USB either. So much for short cuts but it was worth a try anyway. Thank you for your help. The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money!