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Your question has a rather complex answer... I'll give it a try.
Assumption #1 - Windows
Windows is an interesting operating system. Firstly, the O/S contains a basic set of drivers that can handle common motherboard chipsets, integrated video cards etc... The default set of drivers is no way adequate to run anything other than maintenance programs. For example, the graphics driver is based on the old VGA standard and will driver resolutions up to 1024x768 in non-hardware accelerated mode. The chipset drivers contain enough to initate most of the chipset architecture, but not all. Generally speaking, motherboard manufacturers provide additional drivers for Windows to load. Additionally, windows itself will not install to a USB drive (you’ll have to clone the internal drive to the external one).
So, where does this leave us? Well, once you have the HDD imaged to the USB drive, you can get into the BIOS and tell it to boot from the USB.
Problem solved…. Or is it?
If you take the USB drive off and try it in another computer that does not have the same hardware configuration, Windows will have to load the drivers or you will have to install them manually. This mean that you will need to have the Windows DVD image located on the external drive so you can install any drivers that your “new system” requires. Since there are endless possible hardware configurations, you will need to have all the drivers for all hardware you have. Easily done if you have a large external drive… Soooooooooo…
Problem solved…. Or is it?
Windows stores the hardware configuration of the machine you install it on and notes any hardware changes over time. If the configuration completely changes from the previous one, it notes it and results in an error when it comes to the validation process (it thinks you have a pirated version of Windows running, as it was on a different machine previously). You will have to re-register Windows over the internet. If you unplug the external drive and put it in another machine, you will have the same problem. Five times and you are out… you’ll have to call Microsoft and explain the situation at which point you will be told you are in violation of the end-user agreement, as the operating system is technically being used on more than one machine.
Assumption #2 – Linux.
Everything regarding the need for all drivers still applies for Linux, however, since Linux is modular, almost every hardware driver is already installed and are loaded dynamically as the system boots up. You won’t even notice that different drivers are being loaded. The exception is graphic drivers, which are vendor specific. However, you can write a script and place it in /etc/init.d to query and load the correct driver on start-up.
Assumption #3 – Apple
Isn’t that a fruit?
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