Installing windows from OS X on an external?

[watchmen]

Hello,
My laptop has a broken optical drive, and I recently had my laptop harddrive died. I plan on getting a new drive today or tomorrow. I plan on partitioning the drive and install OS X on it. I am wondering if I can install XP if I boot up from the harddrive while it's in an external enclosure on another mac and install windows XP like that. I know this is a round about way, but will it work? Finding an external optical would be easier, but I don't have the spare money right now to buy one.


Thank you for your help.

 

[twoodcc]

so you want to boot from your hard drive on another mac, and then install windows on that same hard drive?

i don't think it will work. windows does not like to work on external hard drives. but you can always give it a try

 

[DoFoT9]

XP sometimes lets you install on an external drive, how will it be conencted to the computer? try to connect it via FireWire, USB isnt supported i dont think..