clone iMac HD, run off laptop for a while

Kind of a odd question I suppose. I tried searching but found it hard to find answers for such a peculiar question.

So here is my question.

I have 24" iMac I use for my business, my life, etc. I sit in front of it 10 hours a day pretty much. I need to leave the country for about a month and will be working In South Africa. It seems far too risky to pack up my computer and ship it, or take it on a plane. I am wondering if I can dump the entire HD to a external FW HD, shut down the iMac, and take the external HD to SA. ONce I get there, take the HD and pug it into a Macbookpro, boot it via target disc mode(?) and run the MBP off the external HD for the month I will be working there. Thus saving me the worry of breaking my main computer in shipping, as well as allowing me to still have access to 100% of my data and programs.

I have also head scary tales about how hard it is to travel with a computer with the new rules about how they check your computer at airports and etc. I'd like to avoid this hassle. I do not have anything illegal on my computer, but somebody randomly scanning my computer for hidden treasure seems a tad invasive.

Anybody ever done this or have a better idea?

I have used superduper to make a bootable copy of my MBP's HD and started up computer's from it. I think thats what you want.

Thanks eliehass.

It also just occurred to me that I can test it by trying to run the iMac off the external as well. If the iMac will do it, the MBP should hopefully.

I don't believe the iMac binaries will work on a MacBook Pro. All you need to do is copy all of your data on to an external drive. Including the application you need if you don't have them on the MBP. You should be able to do what you need to do using the external drive.