Can I start programs on an external hard drive?

I got a laptop. Unfortunately he has very little storage space. I came up with the idea to get an external hard drive. Before I do that, I want to know the following: For example, I have a game from Steam and would put it on the external hard drive. Could I play it or open it?

Yes, theoretically, but the load times will probably be long (depends on how the external hard drive is connected)

Sure, you can install the game on it and play on it… An external hard drive is just like a normal hard drive built only with the difference that it is external (who would have thought it xD) On Steam, you would just have to create a new library and the Choose a hard drive, which you want to vollmüllen now with games (with you the external) And about that you can then install everything possible then…

Because it is because if it is an HDD or an SSD… If it is an SSD, of course, load the worlds Faster but there's again the question of whether it is USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 or USB 3.1

Everything is perfect on this answer except "theoretically".

Exactly so. From USB 3.0 but makes no difference to SATA. On the paper, anyway. External hard drives then have a nice ne version of USB 3.0+ (at least in my experience)

Yes of course. It is for the PC no difference, whether the hard drive is in the computer case or next to it.

A standard hard drive with USB 3.0 (5Gbit / s) is almost as fast as an internal eSATA bus (6 Gbps).

For a modern USB 3.1 port, the bus speed doubles again compared to USB 3.0 …

Yeah, if you refer to USB 1.0 hard drives ;-) A USB 3.1 has the faster bus…