Installing Windows 7 onto an external hard drive?

So I got a 2TB external LaCie hard drive and my question is: can I install my copy of Windows 7 onto it using bootcamp?  I rarely use Windows7 so I just want to be able to plug in the external hard drive and boot from it whenever I need to use Windows.  I've seen mixed answers on this so I just wanted to get it clarified.  Thanks!

What kind of connection is the external hard drive? If it's USB, probably not because Apple's CSM-BIOS implementation doesn't support USB boot. Firewire should work.
And also what Apple hardware? The 2011 minis have an SD slot that purportedly does support booting Windows or any other OS. I have a 2011 MBP8,2 with such an SD slot but haven't attempted an OS install or boot from it.

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