Yes I read what you tried to say.
I would test it but i have little/no idea what to do.
My query about speeding up my laptop stems from a conversation i had once with a school IT head who asked why i had bought the external hdd - did i want speed or storage? i said storage as i was busy transferring vinyl to mp3. That job done, I am aware that i have a comparatively slow computer- slow to start up, sometimes slow to run a program or a particular element of that program - especially where graphics are concerned. remembering his question made me wonder if i could exploit the memory capacity of the usbhdd in another way - to speed things up.
So, to try nd answer yr qu again, i have read what you suggested. I have several programs i'd like to keep and occasionally use. Can i put them somewhere, call on them when i need to use them, usethem and then drop them out of use, back into 'storage'. If so, how? i am quite aware that accessing the program from the usb drive will be slow, but i only use them rarely. if i drop it into my computer for a few hours to use it then remove it i care little that the process of transfering the program so it can be used is lengthy. i'm after general day to day speed interrupted by a rare, necessary slowdown whilst i use a program.
Maybe an example.
I have the application winzip. i use it once a blue moon. Does having it on my start up page along with apparently 39 other processes slow my computer down. Can i stash it somewhere and 'reload' it thereby freeing memory which can be used on processes i am using?
This might seem incredibly obvious, and i believe i can stash programs, i do not really know how. I do have a usb cdwriter too.
Cheers for your patience!