boot laptop via USB hard drive

[HiME]

I'm thinking about buying a low end laptop, which means it'll probably be equipped with a crappy hard drive. I wonder which models will support boot up via USB hard drive. The main purpose is to install an OS on the USB device.

I"m particularly interested in Dell since they seem to offer better low end laptop. Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

[Brainonska511]

It may not be possible to boot off a USB hard drive. Even if it was, I would imagine that it would still be slower than an internal drive because of the transfer limit on the USB channel.

 

[IlllI]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511
It may not be possible to boot off a USB hard drive. Even if it was, I would imagine that it would still be slower than an internal drive because of the transfer limit on the USB channel.

i'm thinking the same thing

 

[piasabird]

On new motherbords external SATA connectors are becoming popular. This may show up on Laptops as well.

 

[slugg]

buy a low and laptop and just replace the hard drive... you're going to buy an external drive right? an internal drive is cheaper... so just do that? Or better yet, buy an external enclosure, an internal drive, then put the new (bigger) drive in the laptop, and take the old (smaller) drive and throw it into the enclosure. This way, you now have a huge internal drive and you still have an external for random storage!

All else fails and you want to do the USB thing:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-n/
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=80811
^^ many more options, but this should get your started