Install Windows XP to USB Hard Drive and Run from It

Install Windows XP to USB Hard Drive and Run from It I wanted to know if there was a way (that worked!) to both Install and Run Windows XP Pro from a USB 2.0 connected Hard Drive. My system does allow to boot from external usb hard drive, but when I tried to install Windows XP to the USB HDD, it didn't allow me to.
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Guest [Entry]

"I'm pretty sure that no Windows variant is happy booting from a USB mass-storage based drive, unfortunately. There are a couple of other options though.

If you have an eSATA port on the machines, or install one with an add-on card, I'm told that Windows tends to see these as just another SATA drive (assuming your machine will boot off it).

If you are not using the machine for 3D work or anything that imposes a large I/O load, you could run your main Windows install in a large VM on the external drive. Though this way you still have to have the base OS installed on each machine but Debian/Ubuntu+VMWare is not difficult to install and can be cloned easily. Make sure your Windows licenses allow you to work this way though - OEM licenses that come with machines do not allow use in a VM."