Boot from external USB HDD??

[tolia.sunny]

I've an 80GB external USB HDD.It is divided
into 2 partitions of 15GB and 65GB(NTFS)
Is there any way I can boot with my external HDD
with a basic GUI interface OS or application
so that I can transfer important documents
from the pc onto my external disk before
formatting?
Plz Help.
Sunny

[davidundalicia]

Yes, you can install any operating system to your external drive.
but if all you want to do is to save your documents/programs
you should be able to do that without an OS on your external drive.

Once a drive is formatted(external) you can then copy/delete from and to your external.......................

[pemdas21]

okay, this is what you are wanting to do: Copy files to the hard drive... Yes?
If the above statement is true, then DO NOT INSTALL AN OPERATING SYSTEM ON THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!!! All this will let you do is boot from it, and yes, you could copy files to it, but it is much easier to just not install an os, and just plug it in to your computer. When it is plugged in, click on my computer, and it should popup. Double click, and paste away. (of course after you copy all the files that you want on the external.)

[lovethatbluegrassmusic]

Some folks prefer to use Norton Ghost and make a mirror copy of the
complete hard drive onto the external drive. Now you'd have two
complete identical drives. You could then rebuild the original, and
restore the backup to the original.

[aconstas1]

just copy and paste into your external drive all the files that you want to keep. Then format. dont need to install OS, but if you really want to, you can.