Hardware Talk :: External hard drive for experimentation

My new mini itx system (m10000) is now fully operational.

I would like to install an external hard drive for experimentation. I would like to have it to test alternative linux versions while maintaining my operational system on the internal drive.

I was thinking of an external case for a 3.5" drive possibly running through a usb port.

Does anyone have experience or suggestions along these lines?

Thanks, Jeff

I am sure you could do it with any Linux distribution that is set up to be bootable via sda.

So you could have:
DSL
Puppy
MandrakeMoves
(some of the DSL knockoffs)
Knoppix
ZipSlack
Others I can't rercall

Hi
Booting from USB drives works great. I have booted from all sorts of external drives including a cdrom drive in a 5.25" enclosure. The only requirement usually is that you make and boot from the USB boot floppy or that your BIOS allows you to set it up to boot from a USB device. Most older systems can't. So making and using the USB floppy is your best option.
good luck

original here.