I have a Laptop with a DEAD hard drive. Is there a way to boot to a CD with a fully funtional OS and install/run any programs off a external hard drive? No funds for a hard drive right now.

Thanks
JohnWell, you could use BartPE: http://nu2.nu/pebuilder to create a bootable CD that is meant for recovery and troubleshooting use. However, with a bit of tweaking, I'm SURE you could simulate a full-fledged Windows XP, with the one caveat that you will have to save all files to an external hard drive.


You could also use a Live CD of a Linux Distro, i.e. Ubuntu.


I had an external hard drive, I opened it, and I discovered it was merely an ENCLOSURE with a SATA drive inside. If your drive is out of warranty, you might want to do so.Hey Transfusion, I tried the BartPE and it works GREAT on 2 of my computers but not to well on my Laptop. I also tried Linux Mint which also worked Great on my other computers but not on my Laptop. Conclusion? Laptop no good anymore. I think the MB is toast. But, it's works great as a door stop.

Thanks
JohnJust wanted to state that with the ability to WRAP programs and applications now, making a Live Distro of Windows thru a custom Bart-PE is possible on whatever you can squeeze into a single 700MB or 4.7GB disc.

I saw on an episode of Hak5 recently a wrapper that allows you to run stuff that normally needs to be installed locally on the C drive to a thumb drive through a wrapper that allows for it to be added to a thumb drive and executed as a single stand alone EXE. That wrapper MEANS that you dont need to have registry keys on that local machine I suppose because the wrapper gives the app all of its registry hooks if I read it correctly through virtualization.

Making a TRUE Live version of Windows is illegal, so its advised not to do so! But it looks like its possible now with that wrapper.http://www.cameyo.com/ here is link to the software that might be able to make Bart-PE more functional
OK, pardon my inexperience. What's a wrapper?

Johnhttp://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/wrapper
DaveLembke, that is an excellent free alternative to Xenocode Virtual Studio, now known as Spoon Studio! I love it!