external hard drive installing an OS

how please can someone who is nice (or not nice) give me a step by step guide on how to install an OS on an external hardrive i did a search on google and a lot say it cant be done some say it can but no explanation on how to do it ive tried installing from an XP bootup disk but it wont let me past the format part

someone save my day thankyou

 

Common problem here is not having the CD set as the 1st boot option. Once the PC boots to the hard drive you cannot format the hard drive. Go into your BIOS by pressing a F* Key ( F1, F2... should be a message during inital bootup) and change the boot sequence (change it back when your done). Then follow install wizard.

While/before you change the boot sequence look and see (in the BIOS) if your external drive is a 'boot option'. If it is then you should be able to run an OS from it. If not no. Also depending on how its connected it could be very slow. If you have an internal hard drive that will hold xp I would sure put OS there as my first option. Are you wanting a portable OS?

 

thanks for your quick reply yeah i have XP on my main hard drive but i wanted to run everything from the new external harddrive as it is 120gig and my main one is 20gig i cant install programs run my browser what i mean to say is i would like my external hard drive as the main hardrive also i travel alot so would be usefull to take with me to diff places i will try your option thanks

 

softasabrick

I assume that your hardrive is a USB or FIREWIRE device. If that is the case you will probably not be able to use it as a bootable system. Many BIOS SYSTEMS support USB as a boot Channel. The devices attached to the USB can be both CD-ROM or FLOPPY disk devices. But if you look closely, the CD-ROM emulates a floppy disk when it is created as being a bootable CD-ROM. The only other system is SCSI. All SCSI PCI cards will support harddisks. If you have an external harddrive in some sort of SCSI carrier that can be plugged into the SCSI Channel, you can direct the SCSI Card firmware to boot from that device. I have done that and it does work. Performance is good ( Depending on the type of SCSI card in use).

Storage_man

 

thanks mate I think i might just buy an internal hard drive and a hard drive caddy and do it that way thaqnks for your help guys

 

There is a way to put a bootable OS on a CD. I have seen it demonstrated and I have one that has Linux running XP. I can't remember what its called but it supported by MS and there are some how to websites. It's in some notes I have at home and will try to post back over the weekend if your interested.

Maybe a Guru out here can fill in the specifics. This allows you to have your programs with all your settings on any PC. It does run a slow on older machines.

 

sounds good will appreciate that thanks