Run software through hard drives

[TWardy]

Can I install software/programs onto my external Hard drive and run them through my laptop as normal?

I have lots and lots of adobe products and heaps of music and movie editing software. I dont use them everyday but play around often.

Is it possible? What are pro's and cons?

Thanks guys

 

[Maguscreed]

pretty horrendous transfer/app load rates unless you have eSATA on that laptop, and the drive.
Also you'll pretty much be stuck with having that drive plugged in when the laptop is on to prevent any potential problems from popping up regarding registry entries and drive letter assignments etc.

 

[kado897]

There is lots of portable software out there which can even be run from a USB stick. This is a good collection LiberKey - Portable Applications

 

[TWardy]

Thanks Magus + Kado

What do you mean transfer/app load rates? Slow to start up? What is eSATA?

My hard drive is always plugged in.

 

[kado897]

eSata is a data transfer protocol which is as fast as your internal drive. Most external drives these days are USB 2 which is relatively slow.