Can I use an external drive as my main drive?

My hard drive just died and I can't purchase a new one for about a month (I'm living in a mac-unfriendly place at the moment). Here are my questions:
1. Can I install an OS on my external Maxtor drive and use it as my main hard drive? Even with a dead internal drive?
2. If so, how do I properly install the OS onto the Maxtor?
3. (extra credit) I've been using my powerbook (AC 100-240V 50/60Hz) for the last 8 months in a country that uses 50hz 200V power. Though the apple adaptor specs clearly state that it is okay to use here, I'm wondering if it could be the reason for my drive's failure (This is the second powerbook that I've had here that has died -- seems suspicious).
Powerbook G4 15" 1.5Ghz   Mac OS X (10.4.2)  

You can use an external drive as your main drive,
although it's really not so hard to replace a drive
and you could get a new one for a hundred or so
dollars + mail order depending on what you go with.
Bear in mind the actual drive will not be unique to
Apple so that will be your best bet. Most drives are
Hitachi or Seagate I think - you might even be able
to upgrade to a faster 7200 drive - they start at
$150 I think.
As for the external drive, you can install the OS on
to it - I've seen that work - Apple store will
typically boot from an external firwire drive. I
think you might be able to plug in the drive, start
the machine with the install CD and then select the
external drive as the target to load the operating
system on - it should load on to it, assuming the
drive is in mac os format first. Others will pipe in
if I'm wrong. When you start the machine it should
search for your operating system.
You'll have no problems installing onto whatever drive you like, provided that it is powered-on during the boot process so Installer recognizes it. Once OS X is installed, holding down Option during power-on will allow you to manually select your external drive, since I think it will default to the internal until you tell it otherwise. Go into System Preferences --> Startup Disk and select your external as the new default.

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    Message was edited by: joell109

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