usb hard drive own programs

[Ruthless_Edge]

hi i have a question, but first let me explain what i want to do.

i would like to be able to use a usb hard drive, plug it into a computer, (say, any computer that can support and handle the programs i want to use) and run my files, programs, etc.....is this possible?



i know there could be some limitations, like say using a media player or something installed on the other persons pc, and trying to access my music or files, but lets say that i want to run photoshop.

i plug in the hard drive, run photoshop and bam, from there i can store and use my own files, etc, on the drive.......does anyone know if this is possible or a more difficult task than i want?

i would love to have a hot plug n play type way of doing this, to where i can plug the usb hd into one pc, play my emulators, games, music, programs, etc, then unplug from that pc, go to a friends house and do the same......

if thats not possible, then my guess is you guys will answer with the same thing im thinking might work......installing an os of my own onto the hd, along with my files, programs, etc. and making the pc boot into that drive instead of its own os....im thinking this can be done by either the bios settings on some machines, or making a boot disk/cd that installs usb drivers to read and boot from the usb hd.....

portability is what im wanting here...... im hoping i can do the hotswap method without installing things onto other peopls hard drives or installing an os onto my usb drive, but it sounds tougher than it sounds lol

any help on this would be great, thanks.,

[WhiteX]

run your files is straight forward, if the host PC has the necessary software, the files will run.

your programs is another thong, you may have to install them, emulators may run without installation though.

[Ruthless_Edge]

yeah, well thats what i was asking about.....darn lol.....well, anyway nonetheless. yea i know most emulators dont need to be installed, and thats what i was hoping for was some sort of way to do the same with my programs.....

that sucks that you cant do that.....

so, another question.....what about my "boot from usb hd with os" idea? in reality, it should would. esp if you creat a profile for each system you put your hd on.....mainly i want to switch between two pc's in particular, so it should work, right?


......hey, heres an idea.....what about some sort of registry emulator? sounds crazy i know, but i wonder if theres a way you can emulate the registry on a hd, to where u can set up an install on that drive, and make it run the registry editor and work ur programs? i wonder if this has or can be done......


crazy dreamer here.....ha ha

thanks for your help whitex

[Ruthless_Edge]

ok someone reply to me on this lol.

what do you guys think about possible speeds with a usb hd? usb 2.0?

you think a windows xp os would be able to run fairly decent off a usb hd on a decent pc?

[Doomulation]

No, I very much doubt it. Better stick to internal HDDs for that.

[Cyberman]

First you would need to be able to boot off yuor USB port. You can't unless your computer's BIOS happens to support the USB stack. If it did then you would have to select which enumerated item to boot from on the USB port. It gets more complicated because then XP will reset the entire USB system and then go about enumerating all the USB devices. This means during boot up .. XP will mangle the connection information to the USB port and it will cease to be read. A USB drive cannot be booted from if it gets wacked each time the OS loads, which is what will happen.

USB requires a lot of software in order to function (at all) and even a simple connection requires the stack of drivers for enumeration then you need the driver for FAT32 (which is what a USB drive uses generally) or NTFS (not recomended but hey).


So the next possible candidate is SD, if you have a SD card reader, you might be able to boot from that. On a PC it's possible as long as the reader isn't USB based that is.

If you just want some software to be run on the USB drive you could use the autorun.inf file which is checked when ever a new volume is mounted.

To put it simply it's possible to boot from a USB just not with the way the firmware on PC's are at the moment. Even then the OS will screw things up.

What are you trying to do make a USB repair OS drive to fix machines that are toasted?

Cyb

[Ruthless_Edge]

thanks doomulation, and cyberman for the detailed info. lol i was about to start working on making this thing go!

but no, what im trying to do is, im staying with some friends right now, basically living with them, but i really dont have a place for my own pc/laptop, and i just figured it would be nice to use there pc's for my own personal things, but i didnt want to install stuff on there pc's......

so, basically what i wanted to do was use my existing hd from my old pc, and be able to work with photoshop, 3d designing programs, programming, or basically just general use programs from my hd, without having to install stuff on there pc's.......

this registry crap is bullshit......would be nice to have photoshop, or whatever program i want just run straight from hd......

so, any ideas on any way i can do this? thanks again guys for all your help

[Doomulation]

Tell them to ceate you a seperate user account, then get installing. When you're done, they can purge all your programs and delete your account. Most programs require installs, so it is the only way I see really...
Unless you get your own laptop.

[Ruthless_Edge]

hey thanks doomulation for the reply, but thats exactly what i was not wanting to do lol.

basically the reason behind this is because i dont want to possibly get blamed for things going wrong with there pc simply cuz i installed my own proggies, etc.....they have 3 kids and between all the pc illiterates in the home, im the one fixing the probs all the time, and i dont want to possibly "Be the reason" there pcs arent working right.....


anyways, i did some research, and i just thought you guys might like to know, i found this......

Welcome to MojoPac

basically it uses any kind of usb mass storage device, and allows u to put ur programs on it and run it on someone elses pc. basically from what i understand, if makes another instance of xp.....seems pretty nice from the websites explanation. even games, etc.....


tell me what you guys think

[Doomulation]

Looks pretty cool, though I have no idea how it works.
Another idea that springs to mind is a virtual machine. Simply installing a new copy of XP or whatever OS you use and use it like your own. Whatever you do there won't affect the PC you run the Virtual Machine on. There are free virtual machines out there, so it won't be a problem.