Okay, say i get a regular hard drive for a desktop. Then, BAM, I purchase an external hard drive enclosure. Can I run my laptop using this hard drive? Like install an OS and programs and such. I plan on purchasing a desktop though im not sure when..

You might be able to run your laptop from it, but I suggest that you just use it for file storage and boot Windows from the laptop's drive. Software might refuse to install on it and it will only work on your laptops, due to the fact that Windows installs drivers for your motherboard, etc. during installation.

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Ash
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hmm forget that plan lol. Thanks Ash

It could work as long as your laptop's motherboard BIOS supports booting from removable media--I did a perfect installation of Windows XP on an external USB 2.0 hard drive using my external DVD burner for the installation, but never tried on my laptop. In my opinion, you have nothing to lose in trying, but it's not a guarantee to work either. I'm tempted to try it on my laptop when I get home.

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You may want tolook into Lexar's PowerToGo -- Windows XP on a jump drive.

Lexar - Software - PowerToGo

That looks good ^^
But I'm using a 32GB Usb Drive (well, I will be when it arrives) and it would be great to have an operating system running from it, but I also want to put school assignments, music, movies and what-not on there. So could I run Power2go or Linux from it, and still have a file storage?
And do you have to have the special USB for the PowertoGo Jump drive? Or can I just buy the software and put it onto my current one?
Thanks,
BP

It would depend on your motherboard BIOS and what it supports. If it supports booting from external devices, then you're good to go without any special hardware/software. You can even install/boot windows, linux, etc.

You can also use the drive for storage--even if you have an OS installed on the drive. But just make sure you don't mess up the OS directory when using the external drive on a different computer (if that's what you had in mind).

To be honest, I would recommend against the PowertoGo Jump Drive option--it's relatively expensive and very slow (max transfer rates of USB drives are only on the order of 10-20mb/sec as compared to 70-100mb/sec of regular platter disk drives). It's a nice idea, but the hardware has to catch up before it becomes a viable option. I installed windows on my USB mem stick--took forever. But it worked just fine, just painfully slow. Plus, you should be careful with USB mem sticks because they have a finite read/write lifetime--much, much shorter than platter drives.

Okay, hope that helps.

__________________
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (@2.6 GHz)
2x1GB OCZ Spec. Ops. PC3200
ASRock Dual939-SATA2
Antec TruePower 550 watt PSU
80 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200 rpm
300 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200 rpm
120 GB Maxtor ATA/133 7200 rpm
ATI Radeon x1950 Pro