Quote Originally Posted by jm47048
I want to buy a hard drive to use externally with my laptop. I have already tested my laptop with Knoppix and works great I just wanted to know how someone could install the OS on an external USB Hard Drive of 80 gigs or so, and have it not affect Windows. Basically, I want to set the bios to boot from the USB and it will just run off that drive, without knowing about the internal hard drive used by Windows.

Has anyone done this successfully? With this or any other distrobution?
Did you look in here ? http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11796
Works great for me since I use it now almost everyday with various Knoppix remaster I have done ...
Just edit the text file boot.ini of the ntfs partition and copy a couple of files (grldr, menu.lst,kernel, boot ramdisk and iso)
PS: only the grldr and menu.lst have to be on the XP boot partition, all other files can be on any other devices,
including your external hdd... An other option coud be to boot grub from a usb dongle, and all the other files from your usb hdd.
Hope this helps,
Gilles