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Some time soon I am going on a long trip, I'm not going to be taking my current computer since it is utterly dying and has no chance of surviving the trip. But I do plan to buy a new laptop while I am traveling. So I am putting everything I have on 2 western digital 500GB external hard drives along with a few flash drive back ups.

So I have a few questions.

1) Can I install a copy of Windows Vista and XP on the hard drives, and then when I get the new laptop do a simple copy from the Hard drive to my new computer (I plan for it to be a macbook pro and thus want to put a copy of windows on it in bootcamp). Will this work so long as I have the CD keys? Or do I need to bring the CD's as well? I'd prefer to just have it on the hard drive.

2) I know that I can put games onto the external hard drive and play them on my laptop, but can I then take that drive and plug it into any other computer and play on that? Or does it need a installation on the new computer?

3) Tied into 1 and 2, if I manage to put the copy of windows on the hard drive would I be able to install the games into that copy of windows on the same drive then dump that whole drive onto the new computer?

4) Similar to 2. Can I install a copy of MS Works onto the hard drive then dump it onto new computer.


Basically I want to put everything including a copy of windows on my external hard drives then when I buy a new laptop dump all the stuff onto that. Is that okay or do I need to bring CD's with me... which I would really rather avoid.

Generally, you can't install windows or other programs onto one harddrive, and then plug that into another system and have it work. It needs to be reinstalled onto each new system. You can get standalone programmes that run without being installed, that will even run off a USB key - if you're travelling it might be worth putting one of those together. You can have a portable version of a webbrowser, with all your bookmarks stored, and an email client. You just pop the usb drive into any computer and run the programmes of the drive.

You could save an image of the Windows CD's onto the harddrives you're taking, then burn 2 new CD's from those images when you get your new laptop. Or create a bootable USB key that will install Windows onto your new laptop.

If you burn images of any software you want to take with you, such as your game installation disks, you could install those onto your new laptop using Virtual CD drive - a programme that will simulate a CD drive on your laptop, and read images as if you had the CD in the drive.

1. I believe it will work, my dad did it with an external harddrive, it will just be slow to boot off unless you use eSATA

2. You can do that, I do it all the time, I install things to my flashdrive and run anything I want off of it. Again, will be laggy unless you use eSATA

3. Sort of, it's a bitch to do, and unless you are good with computers and can pull it off, you would need to put some files in manually for Windows, through a cmd prompt.

2. Certainly, I run word of my flash drive.

You wouldn't need the CDs or the CD keys if it works the same way that it works on windows with mac. But how much space will you have on the mac?

Also, are you very good at computer stuff? because if not I would suggest just bringing the cd's and just copying the files, otherwise you could very possibly break a lot of things to the point of not working at all.

I'm okay with computers, I've never had any training, but I've used them since before I can remember so I have 20+ years of buggering around with them.

I figured the things like Word and games shouldnt be a problem to run of the drive, I just wasnt sure if it would allow me to transfer from the drive to the new computer when the time comes (New computer should have 500GB HD which I'll split in two, one for Mac one for Windows)

My main issue was the copy of Windows as I know Windows can be a real bitch with the instalation process. I know I can put it on the hard drive, but I'm still not sure if it will transfer to the new computer when the time comes.

Teaos wrote:My main issue was the copy of Windows as I know Windows can be a real bitch with the instalation process. I know I can put it on the hard drive, but I'm still not sure if it will transfer to the new computer when the time comes.

You can do it, I have, it's a real pain in the ass to get it to move there without losing functionality of it. But it is possible, I would just suggest bringing the cd's along just in case so you can have a clean install for bootcamp