external hard drive compatible w/ Vista Home Basic SP 1

[bob111higgins]

Thanks for any feedback:

Recurrent problems with Vista Home Basic crashes over the simplest things. Dell replaced the hard drive recently, but to no avail. Could this be a motherboard issue? Just can't keep spending this kind of time repairing the @#^&%# thing. Considering buying an external hard drive and loading either XP or Linux.

Seek suggestions for an external hard drive compatible with Vista Home Basic SP1, i.e. which Vista will recognize and allow for easy install.

Also, once installed, how do I get the external drive to boot first? I have:

Dell Inspiron 518
Intel Core Duo CPU E7300 @ 2.66 GHz
3.00 GB Ram
32 bit OS Windows Vista Home Basic SP1

 

[WhatsMyUserName]

i had the same problem. turned out to be problems with the msvcrt.dll module. dont ask how that was the cause, but a quick rollback and it was fine. the problem occcurs when it doesnt automatically update, and when you install a program, 9 times out of 10 it will try to update mscvrt.dll, to a version(sometimes a custom one)thats compatible with it. this in turn creates a whole lot of other compatibility issues with other programs that dont even have anything to do with the prog. so, have you installed a program while everything is fine, then 1 or 2 days l8tr if screws up? mby thats your prob. also about the boot from an external issue, i dont have much exp with the subject but i would say its a BIOS thing.