External HDD (USB 2.0)

[Holy_Two]

Hi,
I have just received my 80gb maxtor External HDD which I am going to use for my laptop.My question is Can I Install different operating system into my externall HDD and start my computer from this drive whenever I want.I have XP Home edition installed on my syatem and I want to install Win2000 pro into external HDD.Is this possible?If it is how?

Thanks in advance

 

[sturm]

Should have a setting in the bios to boot off different devices: floppy, cdrom, usb, hard drive. You can try setting the bios to boot from usb first. But note that performance may suffer a little going thru the usb.

 

[Holy_Two]

Thanks for the answer but I also don't know how to install an operating system into an external HDD,Could you please explain me how to?

 

[HammerBot]

First of all, it is required that you mobo can boot from a drive connected to the USB port. Not all mobos/bioses support this. Check this before proceeding.

In order to install the OS to the drive, you most likely will need a driver disk in order to make the install program recognise your external drive. The proceedure is similar to the one used when installing the OS on a RAID array. You will need a floppy with the drivers, and when the install program prompts 'Press F6 to install additional drives ..' (or words to that effect) you press F6 and insert the floppy.

Just curious. Why do you want to put the OS on an external drive?

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