Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

External HD Question

Sep 27, 2004 1:13PM PDT

Newer to computers:

Just out of curiosity...I'm thinking about extra storage and flexibility in the case of something ever going wrong with my computer. I've looked at internal and external hard drives. If I were to buy an external (usb), such as an Iomega 40gig, would it be possible to install Windows XP on it and use it as the main hard drive. New to all this stuff. Thanks for the help.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re: External HD Question
Sep 27, 2004 10:46PM PDT

It is highly unlikely your motherboard will support booting from a USB device.

You would be better off buying a USB hard drive case and getting your own internal drive, you will have an option to pick the size and you can swap drives when you want to.

- Collapse -
Re: External HD Question (OS on PC's External USB Drive)
Sep 27, 2004 10:52PM PDT

XP doesn't provide support for such even if your machine could boot from such.

Let's call this one a deadend.

bob