DS Folder on IDE HardDrive

[SWAT]

Yes, DreamShell can load resources from HDD, just put DS folder to it.
DS Core you can run from other device, for example SD or BIOS and from HDD too.
You can use any combination, DS at startup will be scan all devices and all partitions on them with supported file systems. And you can put files to Root directory of the partition, not only in DS directory.