can a external HD run programs like CS4
 

the wife wants photoshop CS4 package

one idea was buy a computer with the programs loaded on it

an other idea was buy a external hard drive with pre-loaded programs
as she has seen several on E-bay at $100 to 150
cheaper and allows wider choice in computer spec
and looks like a good deal

but will it work that is the question ????

can CS4 on a external HD run on a mac computer?

or will it hang on activation or some other problem ?

not sure about a mac, but cs4 takes about a solid 2-3 minutes to load on my 1 year old high line laptop. runs ok once loaded but it uses a tremendous amount of memory and processing power. (runs fine on my desktop, which is a very high power gaming pc) dont think where its located, as in an internal or external hard drive, would make that much of a difference.

wait, do you mean just PS CS4, or the Adobe Suite CS4? (which comes with DW, FL, FW, etc..) PS itself, isnt that bad to run..