I have a new hard drive for my laptop and I am wondering if I can
install XP and programmes on the new disk in a usb caddy ready to fit
in the laptop or will I have to fit it in the laptop to do it.
Trevor Smith

Trevor  wrote in news:1afd3f8b-b03e-49ce-8e1e-
8bfbd0ee4d16@d45g2000hsc.googlegroups.com:

> I have a new hard drive for my laptop and I am wondering if I can
> install XP and programmes on the new disk in a usb caddy ready to fit
> in the laptop or will I have to fit it in the laptop to do it.
> Trevor Smith
> 

Unless you can persuade the system to see the USB disk as C: you could be 
storing up problems for the future. I'd personally advise waiting until 
you have the disk in place.


-- 
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 David ~ Lincoln UK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trevor wrote:
> I have a new hard drive for my laptop and I am wondering if I can
> install XP and programmes on the new disk in a usb caddy ready to fit
> in the laptop or will I have to fit it in the laptop to do it.
> Trevor Smith

Interesting question: I don't think you can install either Windows or 
programs to an external disk (let's see if I'm corrected).  You can 
either install the disk and do a fresh installation there, or (if you're 
reasonably happy with the state of the existing installation) use a disk 
-imaging product like Acronis True Image to clone the disk (presumably 
bigger and newer) ready to slot in.

Phil, London

On 8 Jul, 15:21, Philip Herlihy  wrote:
> Trevor wrote:
> > I have a new hard drive for my laptop and I am wondering if I can
> > install XP and programmes on the new disk in a usb caddy ready to fit
> > in the laptop or will I have to fit it in the laptop to do it.
> > Trevor Smith
>
> Interesting question: I don't think you can install either Windows or
> programs to an external disk (let's see if I'm corrected).  You can
> either install the disk and do a fresh installation there, or (if you're
> reasonably happy with the state of the existing installation) use a disk
> -imaging product like Acronis True Image to clone the disk (presumably
> bigger and newer) ready to slot in.
>
> Phil, London

Thanks for the replies, the instalation on the laptop is a bit flacky
so I want to do a new install but due to the time it takes I thought
of the usb method so I could do it in stages when I wasn't working on
the machine, but as it is easy enough to swap drives on this laptop
( just four screws) I have decided to do it that way.
Trevor Smith