Running Windows XP PRO off of my external HDD

I have a internal 250 GB WD HDD that I made external using those HDD enclosures and now, I need to run Windows Xp off of it! I have googled this and have only found run-arounds and negative answers, I also found positive answers such as it would work if formatted on fat32, etc BUT I never got led to the "how to do this" part. Can someone please unboggle this?

 

As far as i know, running an OS off an external HD is only possible with Linux/Unix, and not possible for any Windows distributions.

 

Is there any way I can make WinXP PRO run off a cd/dvd? If so, can I use it to full extent such as saving word files, etc or can I only click around in the OS?

 

I am curious. Why would you want to run XP, or any OS off of anything but an internal drive?

 

Well...I barely use my internal drive...and I over use my external one and since I move comp to comp, I thought it would be nice to carry my OS, etc with me . That's like carrying a comp with me !

 

you won't be able to do this with windows...dan suggested linux, and if that's very important to you, that's the way to go.

 

Are you telling no one took the took the time to make such a mod?!

 

I never heard of portable XP OS, but if you find out please share.

I would aslo think this would be a pain in the ass if each comp had to install all different kind of drivers.

 

The problem is XP (and any other Os that you install to a system)installs onto a drive and registers all your hardware while installing, and sets itself to work with that, so if you move from system to system, it won't recognise the hardware, and refuse to boot up.

And there is no workaround or fix to do that, as microsoft still hasn't released enough of their system's sourcecode for programmers to be able to compile workarounds and patches to make such use possible.
Not that anyone would bother, as that kind of coding is not for the faint of heart ad would take a lot of time, money and work.

And for that matter, unless you use a linux live distro, you won't be able to move that around from system to system either, as again, it registers all the hardware and finds (and installs) drivers for it.

If you want it portable, buy a laptop, or work with an external HD partitioned for linux and use a live distribution cd/dvd.

 

Well..I still do have another reason to run a OS off of my external HDD...simply because, I am selling my current one and need to collect money for a new and better one. So...is linux the closest you can get to windows?

 

If you have an external Serial ATA bracket and enclosure you can do it. External Serial ATA brackets are about $5 and external boxes for S-ATA (they can also do IDE drives if you buy that version) are like $30. Easy peasy installation, and booting from an external drive.