(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); So I'm about to restore my laptop then put all my backed up files from my hd onto my comp again. I was wondering if later I could put another OS on the external drive to be able to dual boot.

I know I can do that, but if there's another Os on my hd, can I have any backed up files or will I not be able to because it'll need to occupy the whole thing for the OS? :???:

So your asking if you can have the back-up files and a seccond OS on the External HDD? if so then you will have to probably split the drive in windows so you have half for back-up and half for another OS. This would be the best way to do this without lossing your back-up files. Plus what OS are you looking to install to your external HDD?

Ubuntu and possibly Chromium

Well then you should be able to shrink your external HDD's disk size and split into 3 then use one for backup (already there), Ubuntu and chromium when its released (if im correct that the Google OS). I just dont know how you would boot one of the two OS' on the HDD

As jake has stated you would have to create 3 partitions on your external hard drive. One for each os and one for your files. I'm not exactly sure how to boot from an external hard drive but I've seen tutorials on the internet on how to dual and even tri boot.