External HDD to boot XP?

I like the "one" but at times I find myself missing the functionality I am used to with XP(Printing, bluetooth, gps, ect... I realize its not a great idea to use xp with the SSD, but would it work well with an external laptop HDD with a USB cable? That way I could use linux on the go, or XP when I need more functionality (I am sure linux can do what I need, but I don't like fiddling with code I don't understand.) If I could run windows and have it work smoothly with an external drive I would be very happy. I suppose I would also need an external cd drive to install from?

 

It should work. You should be able to install XP onto the external HD on another computer, if that is easier than finding an external CD drive. Probably best to google how to install XP on external first, I'm not sure if the installer is smart enough to be able to guarantee that it doesn't mess with the boot sector of the internal drive.

 

An XP install made on a portable harddrive on another computer will be configured and have drivers for that other computer -not for the One. It is therefor trickier than it looks.

"Live" installs of XP that also work from USB on a wide variety of different computers do exist (e.g. BartPe, Ubcd4win, Reatogo) - but they are not fully functional XP installs, often lacking features and primarily aimed at system rescue and data recovery.

 

Well it turned out to be a major PITA, but I got it working, and wow its awesome. I have linpus on the SSD and tinyxp on my 160 gig USB HDD whenever I want it, its faster than my desktop in terms of boot time and running basic programs(due to tinyxp, which I think I will put on my desktop as well).

 

TinyXP ? Tsktsktsk. You criminal
(you realise of course that tinyxp is rather illegal ?)

 

heh, well if XP would have worked I would have used it, I tried everything I could think and find... got really close and really frustrated, tinyxp made it easy... and I like it so well I put it on my desktop as well...

 

Nomad,

How did you do this??!! I have been trying 3 days to get this to work, and when I try to install XP onto the external hard drive, I keep getting an error that the volume is not compatible with XP, to re-create the partition. I do this through the menu, and it gives it to me again. I've tried re-formating it 50 ways..... what can I do? Please help..... :roll:

 

Hi,
can you explain how you did it please?

Alex

 

Nomad,
Could you post here the steps to do it with TinyXP, or where to find it?

Tkx