Problems installing windows xp to a portable HDD

I have tried installing windows to my portable HDD and failed every time. My portable HDD is partitioned into 150 GB drive for the OS and standard stuff, 15.5 GB for system recovery, and 300 GB for storage. I tried installing XP using a pre activated SP3 version and here are the problems with that: I burn it to a CD and put it into the drive. I can load the CD from my desktop and select install but no matter what CD key I put in it always says invalid key. I tried booting from the disk and installing it that way but after it loads it shows a blue screen that says something about restart if this is the first time you have ever seen this screen, if not run virus scan and check disk /F. Then it shows this: STOP 0x00000078 (0xF78A2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000). This shows up every time and virus scan showed nothing on drive F. I tried installing a different version of windows which is a stripped down “performance” version and it installed fine from a boot CD but once it came to rebooting and actually booting from my portable drive the XP screen with the scrolling bar loads and then gives me the same blue screen with the exact same message. Drive /F is the 300GB partition for my HDD and when I booted windows off a flash drive and unplugged drive F it still gives me the same message.
It all comes down to how can I successfully install Windows XP with full working status onto a portable 3 partition portable HDD. If you have links to other versions of XP that you have tested to work, please share.
Answer #1
its because when windows boots it restarts the usb controllers. so if your trying to load of an external drive it will crash because windows will automatically disconnect it. i dont know how to make it not restart the controllers i dnt know if its easy to do. there are live versions of xp available for booting of portable devices but they are normally very stripped down and cant really be used as a primary OS, mainly for recovery purposes(Bart PE).
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Answer #2
I don’t think its that because otherwise this would be a fairly common problem. It keeps saying something about drive /F even when i unplug it and all other devices. I think that I’ll try it from another computer to see if it works.
Answer #3
to behonest its not common to install an OS on an external drive. if you want to do it, try bartpe or this guide http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176
also  http://club.cdfreaks.com/f138/install-xp-professional-usb-hard-drive-205376/ look at posts 10 & 11
Answer #4
Alright so you are right, but I am getting a completely different kind of screen. The screen says that it is stopping the computer to prevent further damage and it says to run virus scan and check disk /f. I had a feeling that it was a boot sector virus but it seems that my mbr is fine after scanning it with test disk, hiren’s boot disk, and avira boot sector repair. I also updated my bios. Could it still be virus related? I unplugged all devices including my internal and external HDDs and booted from the xp install disk but i still get the error just after it finishes loading all of the files on the bottom of the xp install screen. I never get to the screen where it lets you select your install options. Basically I can boot to my normal OS fine and everything seems to be working but it doesn’t look like my computer will be able to be formatted and have any OS installed on it because the pc came with no windows install/recovery disks only a vista upgrade disk and I keep getting this error.
And I have already tried everything in the first article and still no luck.
Bottom line: Even if I can’t boot from usb how do I get past this screen. I would probably be able to get it to work using the first link but only if I could actually install it after making all the modifications to the disk.