No love for portable drives

[Axxon]

While I sit here on break I am really jonesing for some FOF2K7 and I can't play it which brings up one of my biggest rants.

Why no love for portable drives?

I have an external 160 gig hard drive which basically holds everything I do on any computer except the operating system. This is smaller than a laptop and way less expensive so it's a great solution but it has huge disadvantages.

I can't install win xp on it. Most anything I install still insists on installing crap on the C:\drive so those programs won't work and games like FOF won't work because the elicense is with the C drive and not the install drive. Again, if I had a laptop I'd be fine.

I don't get it. I'm only using one licence, one install and I'm the only one who uses it. It seems like some crappy plot to sell laptops.

It just really bugs me.

That is all.

[cartman]

Look into VMWare. You can install a whole OS into a VMWare environment on the external drive, and if you install VMWare on the machines you hook the external drive up to, you can load the OS up on any of them.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by cartman

Look into VMWare. You can install a whole OS into a VMWare environment on the external drive, and if you install VMWare on the machines you hook the external drive up to, you can load the OS up on any of them.

Googling now, thanks.

I thought the problem was the fact that XP won't install on a USB drive as it reinitializes the USB drivers on reboot.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Axxon

Googling now, thanks.

I thought the problem was the fact that XP won't install on a USB drive as it reinitializes the USB drivers on reboot.

Well, VMWare works a little differently. It virtualizes the OS. VMWare will create a file that it handles like a whole disk partition. You install the OS into this file, and it looks and feels just like if you installed it on a physical machine. You still have your main system running, but inside of VMWare is a whole other OS. It can be Windows, Linux, Netware, pretty much anything that runs on an Intel or AMD chip.

This is one of the technologies I work with all the time. If after your Googling you have more questions (which I'm sure you will) let me know.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by cartman

Well, VMWare works a little differently. It virtualizes the OS. VMWare will create a file that it handles like a whole disk partition. You install the OS into this file, and it looks and feels just like if you installed it on a physical machine. You still have your main system running, but inside of VMWare is a whole other OS. It can be Windows, Linux, Netware, pretty much anything that runs on an Intel or AMD chip.

This is one of the technologies I work with all the time. If after your Googling you have more questions (which I'm sure you will) let me know.

Thanks, I appreciate the help. This sounds like exactly what I want to do.

Hmm, just noticed what you said about installing VMWare on the computer I'm hooking up to which kills it for the work machine but on the other computers I use it will be very useful.