I have an Aspire 8930g, the internal HD died this afternoon. The laptop has eSATA and USB 2.0. Boot options are IDE 0-2, network, USB HDD, USB CDROM and USB FDD. Can I boot a Windows disc, install on the external drive and then use the drive as a main system drive while connected into the eSATA port, or will it only work in the USB port?

I'd say boot up the windows install disc and see if you can select the esata drive.

edit:
why not replace the faulty harddrive inside the laptop?

A quick look tells me that an internal laptop drive would cost over twice an external one. Warranty, I think it's long gone but even if it's still valid, a) it will take a long time to get a replacement, b) bit of a hassle to package and send it, c) it'll be the same model and I no longer trust it. In the past I've had more than one HD from the same manufacturer die on me.

I don't have an eSATA drive to test with, I'll only buy one if I can boot from it. Otherwise I'll get a flash drive and boot from that until I can find a better solution.

I might be wrong here but usually there is no difference in terms of hard disk between internal usage and external. For instance my external USB drive is a sata drive stuck to a USB connector...

No idea if the same applies for eSata, but i think it should.

EDIT:
obviously you need to an external drive with a notebook size type (should be 2.5-inch)

Laptop HDs are very different, and cost a LOT. Desktop HD using eSATA is also significantly faster than SATA-USB 2.0.

I though laptops hard drives are just regular 2.5" sata/pata drives?
Was pretty sure until just now.

Edit: http://www.newegg.com/Store/Su ... p;name=Laptop-Hard-Drives

i've managed to successfully boot to windows via eSATA on my FS lappie, didn't even have to fiddle with thy boot menu.
Just took the 2,5" out of the laptop, used a 2,5" hdd casing with eSATA and voila

You can get a 500GB laptop hard drive for like £40 - I doubt you'll find a external that much cheaper.

Quote from BlackEye :

I though laptops hard drives are just regular 2.5" sata/pata drives?
Was pretty sure until just now.

Edit: http://www.newegg.com/Store/Su ... p;name=Laptop-Hard-Drives

They are of course the same in that sense, but 2.5" (cost) and lower rotation speed (performance) do make a difference.

Quote from Fuse5 :

i've managed to successfully boot to windows via eSATA on my FS lappie, didn't even have to fiddle with thy boot menu.
Just took the 2,5" out of the laptop, used a 2,5" hdd casing with eSATA and voila

Did you first boot from a Windows disc and then install to it, or was it already on the disk? I'm guessing it was Vista or 7 too?

Quote from Jakg :

You can get a 500GB laptop hard drive for like £40 - I doubt you'll find a external that much cheaper.

I'm not really looking for international shipping. In fact, I was hoping to walk in and buy on the spot. When I looked, ~€80 for a 500gb external, ~€120 for a 320gb internal and way more for a 500gb. There was also mention of the internal ones being for specific brands, but I don't really know about that one.

I'm thinking I'll get a 500gb eSATA/USB and if for some reason the former fails, the latter should work. It would be a shame to be stuck with a 500gb drive on USB only, because I don't need the backup store space