Running "applications" off external hard drive

[Beakman]

Hello all. I make music, more particularly hip hop beats, and I had a question about external hard drives. The program I use is FruityLoops... which some of you may be familiar with, but that is besides the point -- there are plugins of "virtual instruments" called VSTs, that you can use in FruityLoops... and I was wondering if they would be crippled by running them off an external hard drive. Most of these are small files (a few megabytes), but some of the more professional ones go up to a gigabyte (one is even 32 gigabytes).

In music, it's essential that everything "reads instantly" so I'm hearing what the rhythm will be like. (as I'm playing it on the keyboard) Some instruments have a slower "attack" or "decay" than others, so... basically I'm worried there would be a slight lag in what I'm hearing and what it actually is.

When I render the song, it'll be on time... (where I've placed the notes) but as I'm creating the song if there is a "lag" and I'm thinking things are on time, but actually aren't... then its going to render differently than what I was hearing. (slightly off -- whatever the lag time was)...

Maybe I'm thinking completely wrong about the concept how a hard drive works... but it just popped in my mind that this may be a possibly. I just want to make sure of things before I go out and spend money on an external hard drive.

Also -- can you just install things to it like it was "C:/program files" and it be able to run/read off any computer you plug it into (as long as the computer can handle it/meets requirements)?

Basically... I want to install all my samples (.wavs) and VST's on the external and be able to take it around to other locations/computers and have my whole collection with me. (Not trying to copy 'em from the HD to their computer either)

Thanks!!!

[citronym]

Also -- can you just install things to it like it was "C:/program files" and it be able to run/read off any computer you plug it into (as long as the computer can handle it/meets requirements)?

No. You can install files to it without any problems, but if you move the drive to a different computer the programs won't be installed on that machine. You will be missing things like registry entries and user data. Your particular music related files might function fine, but any program that is packaged with an installer likely won't.

[Beakman]

Yeah... I was thinking there was going to be other files outside the directory, like the registry and data as you said.... and, the bigger sized ones are the ones with the installers too. -- I'm guessing my solution is to just use my other computer and dedicate it to music stuff. Thanks. If anyone else has any ideas how to make "installer" programs universal, please chime in... otherwise -- problem solved, and thank you!

[AlucardCasull]

You could have a server, then run the program through the network on any computer.

[Mr.Guvernment]

an application server to be specific

you could technically run them over the internet but not sure how well they would perform.