External hard drive question...?

ok, so i want to buy a 250 GB external hard drive... i have a hp that has enough space for me to do anything on really, i just dont want it all on my computer... for example, all my music, pictures, i have a few Sims 2 games... and software like my webcam, my digital camera software, my mp3 player software... would i be able to put that kind of stuff onto an exteral hard drive, or are those only for files and stuff??

Music and pictures can go easily onto the external drive.

Programs is another issue. In order to put the program on to anything other then the main C: drive of the computer, the program has to have an option which allows that. Usually you will be able to do an "advanced" or "custom" install which will allow to you to pick a different drive. But you WILL have to reinstall all those program to make them go to your external drive.

Yes, you can add software on your drive and will be able to use the programs as long as the drive is connected.

Storing your movies, music, and pictures is great for externals. I would recommend against installing applications on the external however. Use it for storage... it's speed is much slower than internal drives, and not a good plan using it for installing programs onto.

Anything that you can put on an internal HD, you can put on an external. It is all 1s and 0s.

the external hard drive is the same as the one that is inside your hp right now. it can hold wahtever. the only difference is that is it is external. now you say you want it just so you don't have all that on your computer, which I understand for security. but putting stuff on your external isn't going to make a difference. the external drive is still hooked up to your computer so if your computer takes a hit then so will your external drive. if you are worried about security, load it down with anti-virus software, firewall, spyware, etc. good luck!

generealy thats all ok, an external hard drive would do that, but beware, there wud b a slightly slower speed between opening and using files on a external hard drive then internal ones.
as for the sims 2, its in my experience that you cannot install them onto external hard disks.
as for ur camera software, generaly that is the driver used by the OS (windows im assuming) so that would usualy have to remain on the main hard drive.

you can use the programs (webcam soft,Sims 2,)as long you install (not copy them over) them into the hard drive and make sure its plugged in everytime you want to use them

as for the mp3s and pics, just copy them over like you would normally

you can do everything listed, just keep in mind it takes longer to pull info off an external than it does from an internal drive

External hard drives are just like normal hard drives except they can be moved from computer to computer. The only thing I wouldn't recommend putting on the 250GB External is any version of Windows. If you move the hard drive from computer to computer with it installed it wont work on any other computer except your own, but you can still access the files. You just cant boot Windows off it unless your on your own computer, or the exact same TYPE of motherboard.

Music, pictures, and movies are fine. They are only accessed when needed. But for software to properly work from your external hard drive, you must have had the external hard drive when you installed it.

When you install a software, it'll ask you where to install (example: C:\norton). You can simply install the files onto your external drive by changing the drive letter during installation process(example: E:\norton).

BUT you can not transfer software after it has been installed, otherwise it will not work, as windows will try to look for it where it was originally installed.

Hope that helps.

I would use the external drive for data file storage, not application storage. Move your pictures / music / word docs etc.. to the external drive and configure your applications to look / store data there.

I have 3 computers on a network, one has a 300Gb external drive which holds picture and music libraries that all can access we also backup to that drive.

I'm also looking to by a external harddrive mostly for backup on my laptop. I know you can put anywhere to software to games and pics on it, its pretty much like a pocket computer just without a screen.