Booting from clone with malfunctioning internal hard drive

I have a MBP 15" core 2 duo 3,1, OS 10.6.8. I am getting sudden instant shutdowns without warning signs.
It has been suggested to me that this is a hard drive on the way out.
I've cloned the internal drive to an external drive Firewire 800 connected.
I have 2 partitions on the external drive. The clone and a clean install of 10.6.8.
I've tried booting from the clean install but am still experiencing sudden shutdowns.
My question is if the internal drive mounts but then experiences problems while I am booted into my fresh install on the external drive can that cause a shutdown? I had assumed that this would not be the case but now am not so sure.

Well it seems to be a hardware issue of some sort, it's likely not software related as it occurs on the externals even with a fresh install.
It could be the internal drive, but you won't know until you disconnect it and boot from the externals.
If it's something else, at least you got a clone off.
Try a hardware test
https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509
Try resetting your SMC
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Heck your PRAM too
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/26871.html
That's the best we can do from here, you'll have to open her up and place pressure on things to make sure they are snug and a secure connection, perhaps disconnect the internal hard drive cable and see if your problem continue.
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/

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