Is it possible to put OS on USB hard drive?

[learninmypc]

This thought has been floating in my mind for months so I'd like to know this.
I have a 465gb Verbatim USB flashdrive & an XP Pro OS CD.
Is there anyway to put the OS on the USB flashdrive so I can use it on an HP laptop that has a fried hdd?
Of course I'd have to try to change the boot up order from hdd to usb but if this aint possible,no biggie.TIA

 

[cliffordcooley]

Yes you can but unless you have a USB 3.0 connection and a fast flash drive you will suffer from slow IO rates.

 

[learninmypc]

Yes you can but unless you have a USB 3.0 connection and a fast flash drive you will suffer from slow IO rates.

Thanks.

 

[SNGX1275]

I believe you can, but it is a bit more complicated than cliffordcooley may have implied. You can't simply install XP to your USB drive. XP doesn't want to be installed external USB. Give this link a shot: http://www.ehow.com/how_4853554_install-xp-external-hard-drive.html

 

[learninmypc]

I believe you can, but it is a bit more complicated than cliffordcooley may have implied. You can't simply install XP to your USB drive. XP doesn't want to be installed external USB. Give this link a shot: http://www.ehow.com/how_4853554_install-xp-external-hard-drive.html

Thank you,will check it out.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I believe you can, but it is a bit more complicated than cliffordcooley may have implied

Yeah sorry, I didn't mean to imply it would be easy.

 

[learninmypc]

Yeah sorry, I didn't mean to imply it would be easy.

Thats ok, some easy tasks are hard for others. Its just nice to not have that ? mark floating in my head,lol.

 

[alexe3831]

While it isnt easy, and yes there will be slow I/O rates without USB 3.0, I have found having a external hard drive with an OS on it is handy for recovering data from computers, also, if you cant remember your password for example, you can use the alternate example.