Using applications on external harddrive

[RodS2]

Hi, I just purchased a 500GB hard drive and I wanted to see if this is even possible. I have tons of applications that I want to be able to boot up from my external hard drive after I copy them from my laptop.

Is this remotely possible? If I just do a 1 to 1 copy of my C:/ to my 500gb hard drive, would it be possible to run applications from it? Basically, I have all these programs on my laptop and I purchased a external hard drive so I do not lose anything and I can use applications at my office computer.

 

[wolluf]

Ideally you should reinstall the apps to the external hard drive with the drive connected to the machine you are going to run them from. Otherwise the required system files and registry entries will not be present. Some apps will run ok (ones that just need an exe file and any supporting files in their own folder, plus some will recreate needed registry entries when you run them for the first time), but most will not. You may get some working by copying the needed system files from your copy of C: to the system32 folder on the host machine - can be longwinded, as you'll get message about missing file, then when you've put it in place, another about next missing file etc - can be many files!

 

[kjv1611]

You can't just strait copy your apps from your system drive to an external drive. However, there are many things you CAN do.

1. You can reinstall the OS and apps on the external hard drive, assuming your laptop will boot from the particular drive interface - eSata, USB 2, Firewire 400/800.

2. If you just want to be able to run certain apps from your external drive, I'd suggest installing them as portable apps - if there are portable versions available of the specific apps. Doing things that way, you can install any portable app into any folder on any device you choose.

Something to keep in mind: If this is a USB drive, then you WILL suffer performance lag, compared to any internal drive, if it's anything much of an app. The reason is that USB is much more limited than internal hard drives on total throughput, and I believe has greater latency just in the connection. If it's eSata, then I don't think you should see any difference.

My personal first question, however, is: why? If you're just wanting to run your system off a USB drive for a laptop, why? That kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a laptop in the first place. Again, this is totally my opinion.

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"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me