[hawthorn]

Hi all.

Just wondering with the increasing size of external HDs and the affordability of them, is it possible for your external HD tobe the main drive? This could be useful, in the event of main drive failing or being just too small and clogged up. In other words can XP and everything you need be installed on to the external drive abd the system operate from there? I realize this would only make sense if your main drive failed and had to be replaced, but just wondering!

h

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Your motherboard's BIOS must have the ability to boot from a USB device. Take a look there to see if that's an option.

Generally this is not recommended because an external drive is not nearly as fast as an internal one. You would be much better off swapping the drives and reinstalling XP on the new, now larger internal drive. In addition, if you do make the large drive internal, the OS only needs a 20GB prtition. You can use the rest of the drive to split into data partitions for added security in case of a crash or in the event that you want to reinstall XP some time in the future.

[WinCrazy]

Your motherboard's BIOS must have the ability to boot from a USB device. Take a look there to see if that's an option.

Generally this is not recommended because an external drive is not nearly as fast as an internal one. You would be much better off swapping the drives and reinstalling XP on the new, now larger internal drive. In addition, if you do make the large drive internal, the OS only needs a 20GB prtition. You can use the rest of the drive to split into data partitions for added security in case of a crash or in the event that you want to reinstall XP some time in the future.