Bootable external HD

The in general answer is yes, with a bunch of annoying little details!
The hardware and the BIOS need to support booting from an external device.

Next whatever you need to boot into needs to support the hardware.
Finally, with windows, in general ---
As sold and normally configured, windows was not intended for this type
of use. (It can be done, but--)
Generally, windows once configured, is intended to be processor and
support chip set specific. This is not to say that something like
install or repair/recovery media cannot be made to boot from external
removable media.

Linux has a built in functionality that allows it to configure on the
fly, if setup properly. This assumes that all the required drivers are
present/available, and that linux can properly detect the hardware.
The blessing and curse is that the user often needs to tweak, first
manually, and then have the knowledge to make the needed "tweaks" occur
automatically.



In other words, a lot is possible, it's more a matter of how to do it,
and how much knowledge, time, and effort is required.

I routinely use a linux based bootable cd to host an anti virus/malware
checker, which also contains utilities that can do quite a bit of repair
and hard disk oriented tasks. This works well with XP thru win7 on the
majority of existing systems.

The old timers remember when --

BIOS was virtually nonexistent, and you had to toggle switches to
manually enter a small program that gave a computer enough to start a
boot process. In the really old days, this started a paper tape drive,
which loaded a BIOS equivalent. Then, using the program and data from
the tape load, other things, such as disk drives, displays(terminals)
and keyboards became usable, and a "real" ops system was loaded and started.


PVR wrote:
Many thanks to those who replied. My PCs which I could consider for
this activity are a Vista laptop and, more likely an XP3 desktop. I
shall contact the external hard drive manufacturer.

Bottom line is I shall likely go the bootable CD route. It is probably
good enough to allow me to play with Linux without undue commitment.

Peter.


"PVR" wrote in message
...
I have been mucking about with PCs since about 1982. However, I know
very little about them. My question:

Is it possible to format and make an external hard drive bootable? I
would like to check out another OS without causing problems of any
kind to the OS on my desktop PC.

Many thanks,

Peter

Chuck
This is not a PDP-8
LOL SG

The old timers remember when --

BIOS was virtually nonexistent, and you had to toggle switches to manually
enter a small program that gave a computer enough to start a boot process.
In the really old days, this started a paper tape drive, which loaded a
BIOS equivalent. Then, using the program and data from the tape load,
other things, such as disk drives, displays(terminals) and keyboards
became usable, and a "real" ops system was loaded and started.

Who said anything about a PDP-8! (Although PDP-8s were popular at one time!)
Ibelieve Compuserve had a server farm of PDP 11s at one time. (Dial up days)
We used to do this on HP "Technical" systems. For the time, they had one of
the most advanced OPS systems out there.

(Later versions got rid of the paper tape bit for all but low level
diagnostics.) Further, if you knew assembly, on the HP's, you knew assembly
for the Apple II+ computers.
The beasts even had an extensible machine language instruction sets that
were contained in segregated RAM for development, and then in ROM.
Later versions of the system made the transition from a mini to a micro
computer. In our case, they were used to control test systems that included
lab reference grade instruments that were "state of the art" at the time
(70's-90's). (Such things as frequency and power measurement from tenths of
a hertz to 40Ghz,
and the ability to generate signals over the same range.) Add a few
digitally controlled power supplies, a programmable logic tester, and some
other goodies,
topping it off with reference standards for frequency and power that can
only be "calibrated" properly with reference transfer standards that were
sent to NBS for
"calibration and traceability."

"shakey" wrote in message
...
Chuck
This is not a PDP-8
LOL SG

The old timers remember when --

BIOS was virtually nonexistent, and you had to toggle switches to
manually enter a small program that gave a computer enough to start a
boot process. In the really old days, this started a paper tape drive,
which loaded a BIOS equivalent. Then, using the program and data from the
tape load, other things, such as disk drives, displays(terminals) and
keyboards became usable, and a "real" ops system was loaded and started.