winMe on hdd and all apps on usb hdd good idea?

[bluedolphin]

My laptop hdd is not upgradable, i am down to 173 mb on it. I am strongly considering buying a usb hdd and erasing all the apps on the laptop (thus freeing up space) and reinstalling them on the usb hdd. This is because I dont have money to buy a new laptop. Will this work? I have posted here before and since then I have been told that upgrading the hdd on the lptp is definintely not an option. I envisage a slower working speed and know that the usb hdd will always be essential for using apps ...am I missing anything? I am kinda worried about drivers for the peripherals and software where would be the best place for them?

[Hippy]

If I were you I would leave the main Operating System and main Apps like Office, Works etc on the internal HDD, and use your USB storage for data and other apps that you use less frequently. You need the core activity of the OS to run as fast and efficiently as possible, and furthermore, you need your OS to be working before you can see anything through the USB connection.

Doing things this way, you will have to uninstall the apps you want to move from the HDD then re-install specifying the new USB location during setup. Move the data in the normal way by using Windows Explorer then use a utility programme (Norton etc) to tidy up the installation on the HDD then defragment it.

[j2buttonsw]

Hey Bluey, a USB 1.1 HDD is a comparatively slow device. I would have the OS plus all the applications on the main HDD and have the USB HDD for data only. As Hippy says, move you old data and use disk cleanup to free up space on your old HDD and defrag it for better performance.

[Phantaxus]

Your laptop hdd is probably a 2.5" device so it is certainly upgradable but it all depends on how easy it is to get to the hdd and what limitations are imposed by your Bios version