I think I see XP but XP as supplied does not run from USB drives. If you were to change to some other OS (Linux?) then booting and running from USB drives is supported.
Bob
I have an older notebook and the hard drive is giving some problems. I am considering buying an external USB portable hard drive and cloning the notebook drive to the ext.drive (bootable) before the drive totally fails. I will mainly use the notebook for non HD TV streaming and older gaming where the increased drive speed may be helpful. I thought the external drive could be used as a backup for my other notebook when the older notebook finally dies. My older notebook has XP, 512 Mb RAM , Intel Pen-M 735 & ATI Mobility Radeon 9600/9700.For a limited techie like me, when switching on the old computer how do I stop the computer using the old drive and use the external drive on a permanent basis ? Would it be wise to remove the old drive? Are there any other potential problems?Generally does increasing RAM improve effectiveness of TV streaming ?Many thanks for any help offered.

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