System on external HDD?

[LMO]

Aloha all. Probably an easy question. I have XP on my C: drive. Can I
install another OS (Vista) on an external HDD, then choose which drive to
boot from upon startup?
Thanks.

 

[LVTravel]

Aloha all. Probably an easy question. I have XP on my C: drive. Can I
install another OS (Vista) on an external HDD, then choose which drive to
boot from upon startup?
Thanks.

No. While some claim to have installed XP (haven't seen the claim for Vista
yet) on USB thumb drives and make the OS fully functional, both installation
programs will refuse to install onto any removable devices. Must be a fixed
hard drive in the system to install an OS onto.

 

[ShadowTek]

Must be a fixed hard drive in the system to install an OS
onto.

Correction: it must be a fixed hard drive to install a WINDOWS OS onto.

There a plenty of other operating systems out there that do not have this
limitation.

 

[LVTravel]

Correction: it must be a fixed hard drive to install a WINDOWS OS onto.

There a plenty of other operating systems out there that do not have this
limitation.

And the OP specifically said Vista not Linux, and the other UNIX based OSs!

 

[Ian D]

Aloha all. Probably an easy question. I have XP on my C: drive. Can I
install another OS (Vista) on an external HDD, then choose which drive to
boot from upon startup?
Thanks.

If the external drive is eSATA, you can, as XP or Vista will see it as
an internal drive. If it's USB, no.

 

[ShadowTek]

And the OP specifically said Vista not Linux, and the other UNIX based
OSs!

"An OS" is too broad a thing to say. Therefore, it is specifically
incorrect when used in that sentence.

 

[LMO]

So if I install an eSATA port card, and an eSATA external drive to the card
I can then install Vista to the external eSATA drive, and I will be able to
choose XP or Vista upon bootup (using the BIOS bootup option)?
Thank you!