Internal HD failing, using External HD as main drive(music production purposes)

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to know if it's advisable to use an external HD as my main HD for my iMac 5.1(late 2006) instead of my internal HD. I will be using this for music recording purposes(Pro Tools). My internal HD has been failing and I've done everything from Disk Utility repairs to a Clean Install and it still shows me a slow startup and shutdown process and the spinning rainbow wheel all the time. I'm too scared to do a DIY and replacing the HD myself.

Is it possible to use an external HD as my main drive and have the iMac boot from there and bypass my internal one? Would I encounter any speed issues with this?

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advanced.

-Louie

never ever.

it is possible that a hiccup with the main failing drive will cause a corruption with any files in use when it fails.

Drives are cheap, do it right and replace the internal one before it fails. It will be less expensive and heart breaking if you just get it replaced before a failure.