Boot Partiitons - two HD's

I have a Dimension 4100 with an original 60G drive (now the secondary drive) and a 80G new internal drive with XP Home - this is the boot drive (original still has ME installed & FAT files) - used as additional storage/Backup.

Now I have an external WD 250G drive to use for backup, storage etc. I would like to install a boot partition on it as well as for security especially in case of failure of the internal boot drive. (1) Is this feasible?
(2) how do I go about doing this?

Would appreciate any advice.

 

What exactly you are trying to do?
On some computers, the bios can be configured to choose to boot other devices. Otherwise the system would need an OS to load first and install usb drivers before the external hard drive could be accessed

 

My BIOS will allow this - currently boots off of (1)CD (2) FDD & (3) HDD.
I want to add a measure of protection in case first boot drive crashes.
Maybe what I really need is to make an image of it periodixcally instead.

Not experienced in this area, so suggestions are welcomed.

 

I'd say - do both (make image+Keep backup partition)

 

Not an option with your system - meaning only the latest BIOS versions have the option of booting from a USB external drive, and that's an if..

Your best bet is drive imaging to that external drive. That will insure recovery in case of either hosing the OS or drive failure.

Regards - Charles