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.,:bouncy:

 

[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.

 

[Ruthless_Edge]

yeah, i already thought about that one, doomulation. A virtual console though usually relies on taking up much of the pc's power, hence you only get half if not less of the performance. from what i see, the mojopac proggy seems to not waste any of the performance, not much anyway. i downloaded a trial and installed it on a minisd 2gb card, ill let you guys know how it performs in a few days.

i curently installed it but i think the card reader im using is usb 1, and mojopac says it requires 2.0 to perform well. if you look at the demos and videos though, it shows you even able to play 3d games, etc. i did try it with a 3d app i have, and although because of the speed of the reader i believe, it was slow, but once it was loaded, the model was there etc, i was able to rotate at a smooth framerate, n do what i wanted with it, so long as it diditn require reading from the card, but again i think this was due to usb 1.

it even works with ipods, so for those of you who have an ipod, you basically have a music player, and a personal pc with u lol. kinda cool concept, think about using your own itunes installed on ur ipod, plugging it into someones elses home, using there network to purchase or download music to ur "ipod pc" lol

anyways, ill hit u guys up in a few like i said and let u know how it goes.

 

[Cyberman]

It appears to be a virtualization system for XP. It requires administrative privledges which means it's an XP service. This runs at a higher priority. The program runs under XP then runs it under the current XP session (since you don't NEED to run Windows Explorer this desktop is removed that's why it needs admin privledges.) In any case it loads in your config for explorer and makes the kernel load the desktop information from the USB drive.
You might want to consider using a USB HD instead of a flash drive. Swap is likely the local systems HD but you may want to store data and flash drives are a bit slow in saving data. It looks like it needs USB 2.0 extensions too. Otherwise it uses the existing systems drivers and whatever is on the USB system for other stuff.

It's a plan, for you I suggest a USB hard drive. That flash drive simply won't do you will find.

Cyb

 

[WhiteX]

I made it on a CD, it is a win98 install and you can only successfully acess safe mode but it is smth.

 

[Ruthless_Edge]

thanks cyberman for that interesting tidbit. I believe you are right, however it doesnt seem to hog up much of the pc's power. I could be wrong though. as for the usb hd, thats my intentions anyway, just until i get a drive enclosure im testing this out with a flash drive, but still its good that you pointed that out, as i thought a flash drive was pretty fast, but i guess not nearly as fast as a hd, cool beans.

anyway i installed another proggy that came with it, with no probs, ima try somethin bigger and more complex maybe tomorrow, like photoshop. oh and yes i know that it needs 2.0 lol.

 

[Ruthless_Edge]

Hey sorry for not posting anything in awhile. Real life sucks lol.

Anyways, I got a usb hard drive enclosure and although im having issues at the moment (see "usb hard drive enclosure problems thread) im happy to tell you guys, if any of you are interested to know, that the mojopac program seems to work like a charm! I installed a trial of it, and it seemed to run most programs, games, etc with no probs. the only major drawback i had was it takes a minute to try to get the hang of switching to full screen on some of the gaming programs, emulators, etc. I think that was just me though. With a USB 2.0 hard drive, Mojopac works and is pretty darned fast. Personally, I like it.

I did do some research though, and if you google mojopac you will find there are quite a few problems with it. None of which affect my use and needs but if you are interesting, search the web and find reviews gripes and articles about it. It's a shame the company that makes it is having such problems but at least for basic usage, so far i didnt come across anything wrong.

But, Give me time to situate myself with my usb hard drive enclosure situation, and once everything is set up how i like and such, ill let you all know.

thanks again,.