I do agree that you will see improved performance with an external drive, by splitting data and programs (with OS) onto separate drives you make it easier for the computer to simultaneously access and transfer OS and program requests, as well as loading things like samples and storing project audio. If it all has to happen on 1 drive it can bog down pretty quickly.
Please detail your ports - USB 2? USB 3? eSata?
But first, let's fix original thread stuff.
Bob Bone