Can i run my laptop just off an external harddrive?

My laptops internal harddrive is completely full, so i was looking on dells website to see if i could get a bigger harddrive for it. My laptops three and a half years old, so i cant. I was wondering if i could take out the internal hardrive on it, and run it just off an external drive. If you did that, would it recognize it as drive c instead of something different? THANKSCan i run my laptop just off an external harddrive?
How about you keep the internal drive, then get an external one and use them both? If you were gonna take out the internal one, why wouldn't you just put a new one in?Can i run my laptop just off an external harddrive?
[QUOTE=''Hot_Potato'']How about you keep the internal drive, then get an external one and use them both? If you were gonna take out the internal one, why wouldn't you just put a new one in?[/QUOTE]I wouldnt put i new one in because you cant buy them anymore!!! And i dont want to use both because i did for a while but it was a pain (trying to redirerct file locations, icons not working, etc.)
[QUOTE=''seals44''][QUOTE=''Hot_Potato'']How about you keep the internal drive, then get an external one and use them both? If you were gonna take out the internal one, why wouldn't you just put a new one in?[/QUOTE]I wouldnt put i new one in because you cant buy them anymore!!! And i dont want to use both because i did for a while but it was a pain (trying to redirerct file locations, icons not working, etc.)[/QUOTE]They use 2.5'' laptop drives such as the ones found here: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380%26name=Laptop-Hard-Drives[/url] so you can buy them unless you meant directly from Dell?EDIT: BTW, it may be possible to to boot from an external drive, you'd have to check your BIOS options to see what's available as far as booting goes.
[QUOTE=''Krall''][QUOTE=''seals44''][QUOTE=''Hot_Potato'']How about you keep the internal drive, then get an external one and use them both? If you were gonna take out the internal one, why wouldn't you just put a new one in?[/QUOTE]I wouldnt put i new one in because you cant buy them anymore!!! And i dont want to use both because i did for a while but it was a pain (trying to redirerct file locations, icons not working, etc.)[/QUOTE]They use 2.5'' laptop drives such as the ones found here: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380%26name=Laptop-Hard-Drives[/url] so you can buy them unless you meant directly from Dell?EDIT: BTW, it may be possible to to boot from an external drive, you'd have to check your BIOS options to see what's available as far as booting goes. [/QUOTE]Would all 2.5'' drives work for it? For some reason i thought only dell parts work with dells
[QUOTE=''seals44''][QUOTE=''Krall''][QUOTE=''seals44''][QUOTE=''Hot_Potato'']How about you keep the internal drive, then get an external one and use them both? If you were gonna take out the internal one, why wouldn't you just put a new one in?[/QUOTE]I wouldnt put i new one in because you cant buy them anymore!!! And i dont want to use both because i did for a while but it was a pain (trying to redirerct file locations, icons not working, etc.)[/QUOTE]They use 2.5'' laptop drives such as the ones found here: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380%26name=Laptop-Hard-Drives[/url] so you can buy them unless you meant directly from Dell?EDIT: BTW, it may be possible to to boot from an external drive, you'd have to check your BIOS options to see what's available as far as booting goes. [/QUOTE]Would all 2.5'' drives work for it? For some reason i thought only dell parts work with dells[/QUOTE]Mostly that is for desktops, they use a lot of proprietary stuff that makes it hard to change out parts. I could take a look on their site if you list the make and model or you could shoot Dell an email to see what size drive they used to be sure, but HDs is the one thing they don't manufacture to their own specs :) Mostly cases, MBs %26 PSU are Dell specific.
Ok, thanks. My laptop is an INSPIRON 8500