External HD as main?

[enzofur]

one of our computers was running extremely low on memory ( like 200mb) so we bought a 500g external hard drive becuz i had heard stuff about secondary hd and making it your main
so is making it the main hd as simple as i think or does it take some knowledge???
thanx

 

[Quick69GTO]

Yes it's possible but it's all dependent on your motherboard supporting booting from USB.
http://www.winusb.de/index_en.html
Be aware, booting from a USB drive probably won't increase the PCs speed.

 

[enzofur]

i think that is just talking about a memory stick
i mean an external hard drive
not flash drive

 

[oregon]

It shouldn't matter as long as you have enough space. Be aware that it will probably only work well with one computer and trying to boot from it on other computers will cause issues.

 

[fortyways]

Why didn't you just get another internal hard drive? Those things don't have any cooling; they're meant to be used briefly and then turned off. In addition to being limited to USB speeds, if you use it as your main drive, you're going to kill it with heat.

 

[mep916]

Like said above, that's not a practical solution for booting and running an OS. Not only is an internal hard drive cheaper, it's more efficient. Install some more memory if your PC is running low.

 

[spikebuck77]

It should be no problem.

 

[enzofur]

ya i did notice that it got pretty hot quickly and i did figure that it wouldnt really work to well but that was after we bought it = / and plus i dont think it has space for another hd we will prbly look into getting another computer anyways