Clone C Drive to external USB Drive

I have be searching the forums on information on the ability to use Ver. 11 to be able to clone my C: drive to a external USB drive and be able to then use the external USB hard drive to boot and operate the computer.
From what I learned here, windows does not like to boot or operate from an external USB hard drive, however some information seems to point in the direction that it may be possible with some "tweeking". I would think the one of the biggest gains in being able to clone a C: Drive to a external USB drive and be able to then use the external USB hard drive to boot and operate the computer would be the instant verification of a good, complete, and operating backup of the entire original drive.
I do have a bios that will allow booting from an external USB drive and am currently using Win XP home media center.
I would greatly appriciate any help that could point me in the right direction.
Thank you.

 

Take a look at this thread and the link in Post #7.