Changing physical drives, moving boot partition - possible?

I intend to upgrade the hard drives on a server (stand-alone, standard installation, 10.5.1 Server). When building a new larger drive into the machine of course I would like to move all data (system and users) to that new drive.
Is that possible, can I clone my system to the new drive and then reboot from that new harddrive - or what would be the path to switch drives?
Thanks.

First use the Disk Utility to "format" the new drive (partition/initialize it).
Then use DiskUtility to Restore the old to the new drive - observe: without erasing the new bigger newly "formatted" drive.
If you boot from another drive (DVD server install for example) for the whole process, the copy can go faster (block copy is used instead of file copy).
(If using file copy I understand why you shouldn't erase the new drive but for block copy the Restore must also grow the volume to the new drive size.)
I tried splitting up a RAID 1 set in a Xserve, mounted 2 new larger drives in the 2 now remaining drive slots, mirrored those and tried to Restore from the now degraded first RAID to the new one but it failed approximatly when it reach the size of the old RAID volume.
For the second machine I first had a spare single drive in the third slot Restored to it from the mirrored drive using the method above (didn't boot from another volume because I hadn't any graphics adapter in the second server). I then mirrored two new drive and restored from the single disk to the mirrored volume - all went well and much faster than the first server.

Similar Messages

Rebooted computer, now firewire drive's boot partition is gone...

Here's the story.
First, I run a Mac Mini (1.25Ghz with 1GB of RAM, booting from a 160GB firewire drive). Everything was running stellar until last night.
Got home from work last night, noticed my computer wasn't seeing the internet, despite the fact that my home network was functioning. So, I decided to reboot. After hitting reboot once, Tiger tells me it cannot reboot because something had not quite (something loader, I think, I forget). I wait a second, and hit "reboot" again. This time, it goes to blue screen with spinning wheel (not the mouse spinning wheel), and the screen goes back.
Computer powers down and comes back up. On startup, I get the grey screen with the "I can't find your OS" flashing icon.
I reboot the computer again, get the same thing. Load in my Tiger disc, boot from the CD. From the startup screen, I go to Disk Utility, and it shows that Disk Utility sees my firewire drive (it tells me the enclosures connection hardware information, and my hard drive disk size), but it does not show my partition where all my data, especially my boot data, resides.
Disk Utility will not let me repair or verify the hardware I see (since there's no partition it can see). I have DiskWarrior here at work, so I connected my hard drive to the computer here, started the firewire, and got the error "Disk Insertion - The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer. [Initialize] [Ignore] [Eject]".
I hit ignore, and ran DiskWarrior, and it cannot see the partition either, so it can't help me rebuild my directory structure.
So, what do I do now? I'm a Mac and PC guy, and an computer technician, so I know my way around, but I honestly get aggravated when just a simple reboot hoses my entire system. Kinda goofy, y'know? Anyway, any ideas would definitely be taken into account.
-Will
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.3) Booting from firewire drive

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Typically it is not a good idea to rely on an external drive for booting because you never know when cables or power to the external device might fail or the Firewire port might need resetting. Regardless, take a look at the hints at the beginning of my FAQ here:
http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.html
And if none work you may need Prosoft Data Rescue to recover information off the drive if the data is not backed up. Note, any writing you do to that drive prior to attempted recovery will lessen your chances of recovery of information.
Disclaimer: Reference to links I make to my Macmaps.com website are a for your information only type reference. I do not get any profit from this page, and it is open to the public.

Changing Hard Drive in MBP? Possible?

Is it possible for the user to swap out the hard DRive in a macbook pro? Anyone done it yet? I have the 2.16, 1gb ram and 100gb 5200 drive. Looking to replace it with a 7200. Anyone know how difficult it is to do on a MBP? Thanks!
Steve

Yes its possible and is easy as long as you have a plastic spudger thing so you don't damage your MBP case
Here is a guide to show you what to do : http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/85.1.3.html

[SOLVED] Cloning boot and var partitions to a new drive for booting

Ok first of all here's my setup:
fakeraid (dmraid) / and home on an OCZ Revodrive
boot with GRUB on a flash drive (since fakeraid doesn't support grub)
var and downloads/media folder on a 500GB WD Caviar drive
When I originally installed Arch I had the Caviar drive in my home server in a RAID5 array, so that's why I opted to install boot and grub on a flash drive simply for booting. Now that I have the drive in my desktop I've cloned the flash drive's partitions and MBR using dd:
#dd if=/dev/sde of=~/MBR.img bs=512 count=1
#dd if=/dev/sde1 of=~/boot.img
#dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=~/var.img
I then backed up my downloads/media partition, then removed the partition table, then used dd to put the img files on the Caviar drive.
#dd if=~/MBR.img of=/dev/sdc bs=512 count=1
#dd of=~/boot.img of=/dev/sdc1
#dd of=~/var.img of=/dev/sdc2
I also created labels for the filesystems and put those in fstab.
I'm able to mount both partitions, however I can't boot from the drive. I get a 'grub hard disk error' (no error number) when I put it as my first drive in the BIOS.
I can still use the flash drive as the first hard drive in the BIOS and boot from it, then it mounts the dmraid root partition and boots successfully. It is also able to mount the var and boot partitions in fstab.
Basically the only problem is that the MBR is somehow wrong. I then tried booting back into an Arch live USB and installing GRUB from the prompt:
grub
grub>setup (hd4,0) (in this case the Caviar drive's boot partition was /dev/sde1
So essentially what I'm asking is how GRUB handles the MBR. Is it specific to the partition table of the drive in which it resides when it's originally installed? For instance, since I had an 8GB flash drive with 2 partitions when I installed GRUB, is the backed up MBR no good for a 500GB drive with 3 partitions?
I have everything backed up so I can start with a fresh /boot and /var if need be....I'm just not sure where to start.
Thanks in advance.
Last edited by DarksideEE7 (2011-02-13 23:25:31)

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I tried to install GRUB from the GRUB shell in a live Arch USB. It failed on a few non-critical parts, and succeeded on the last part. I'm going to try again shortly, possibly I did something wrong. GRUB is able to find the stage files using:
#grub
grub>find /grub/stage1
grub> find /grub/stage1
(hd0,0)
(hd5,0)
grub>
(hd0,0) is the desired boot drive, while (hd5,0) is the current bootable flash drive with /boot and GRUB installed.
Here is the output of fdisk -l:
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sde'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sde: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 242251 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 1 3907029167 1953514583+ ee GPT
Disk /dev/sdb: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders, total 117231408 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xedb72db9
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 206848 117227519 58510336 7 HPFS/NTFS
Disk /dev/sdd: 40.0 GB, 40018599936 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders, total 78161328 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/sdd doesn't contain a valid partition table
Disk /dev/sdc: 40.0 GB, 40018599936 bytes
32 heads, 32 sectors/track, 76329 cylinders, total 78161328 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb8372fcd
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 32 21484543 10742256 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 21484544 156317695 67416576 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8497e059
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 206848 42149887 20971520 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 42149888 976773167 467311640 83 Linux
Disk /dev/dm-0: 80.0 GB, 80035053568 bytes
32 heads, 32 sectors/track, 152654 cylinders, total 156318464 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 65536 bytes / 131072 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb8372fcd
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/dm-0p1 32 21484543 10742256 83 Linux
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/dm-0p2 21484544 156317695 67416576 83 Linux
Disk /dev/dm-1: 11.0 GB, 11000070144 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1337 cylinders, total 21484512 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 65536 bytes / 131072 bytes
Alignment offset: 49152 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
Disk /dev/dm-2: 69.0 GB, 69034573824 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8392 cylinders, total 134833152 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 65536 bytes / 131072 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/dm-2 doesn't contain a valid partition table
Disk /dev/sdf: 8086 MB, 8086618112 bytes
249 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1023 cylinders, total 15794176 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8497e059
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdf1 * 62 200693 100316 83 Linux
/dev/sdf2 200694 15794175 7796741 83 Linux
I'm using dmraid, so just to be clear I've configured the raid using:
#modprobe dm_mod
#dmraid -ay
Then I saw the array stored in /dev/mapper/silXXXXX. I then created partitions for /boot, /, and home. At that time I was hoping to get GRUB working with the AUR package grub2-dmraid. I wasn't able to get it working for some time, so I just went ahead and installed boot and GRUB to a separate USB flash drive.
Here is the output of df -h:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 10M 268K 9.8M 3% /dev
/dev/mapper/sil_bgbgdjaddicbp1
11G 5.3G 4.3G 56% /
shm 6.0G 584K 6.0G 1% /dev/shm
/dev/mapper/sil_bgbgdjaddicbp2
64G 38G 23G 63% /home
/dev/sda1 95M 16M 75M 18% /boot
/dev/sda2 19G 142M 19G 1% /var
/dev/sda3 439G 148G 269G 36% /home/l33/Torrents
none 1000M 132K 1000M 1% /tmp
shm 6.0G 584K 6.0G 1% /dev/shm
/dev/sde1 1.8T 1.1T 665G 62% /mnt/Green
and cat /etc/mtab
proc /proc proc rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime
sys /sys sysfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime
udev /dev devtmpfs rw,nosuid,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=1022975,mode=755
/dev/mapper/sil_bgbgdjaddicbp1 / ext4 rw,noatime,barrier=1,stripe=32,data=ordered
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw 0 0
shm /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/mapper/sil_bgbgdjaddicbp2 /home ext4 rw,noatime 0 0
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 rw 0 0
/dev/sda2 /var reiserfs rw,noatime 0 0
/dev/sda3 /home/l33/Torrents ext4 rw,noatime 0 0
none /tmp tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,size=1000M,mode=1777 0 0
shm /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,size=6G 0 0
rpc_pipefs /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs rpc_pipefs rw 0 0
nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd nfsd rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/sde1 /mnt/Green ext4 rw 0 0
Also I don't have a /proc/mdstat. That's only for mdadm RAID setups, right? It's been quite some time since I've used mdadm so I can't remember.
EDIT:
So I booted into a live Arch USB and entered the grub shell. I ran:
#grub
grub> root (hd3,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> setup (hd3)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists.....no
Checking if "/grub/stage1 exists.......yes
Checking if "/grub/stage2 exists.......yes
Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 exists....yes
Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd3)".....25 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd3) (hd3))1+25 p (hd3,0)/grub/stage2 /grub/menu.lst".......succeeded
Done.
Last time I recall more errors than this, then it reporting that one was a non-critical error, so I think the problem may be solved. More to come.
Last edited by DarksideEE7 (2011-02-13 23:18:44)

I deleted the extra boot partition, will there be any problems with upgrading to Lion 10.7.2?

I have a Macbook 5,2, with a triple boot setup including Lion, Windows 7, and Ubuntu, managed by rEFIt. After upgrading from Snow Leopard, the Lion installer created a "boot partition" before my Windows partition, screwing up my mbr/gpt sync and making me unable to boot into the other operating systems. After many tries at other fixes, I deleted the boot partition after first copying its contents to an external HFS+ partition, and resized my Lion partition to include that space (although there is still a few hundred megabytes separating Lion and Windows).
Since the 10.7.2 release notes specifically mention changes to how the boot partition is accessed, I wanted to make sure, before upgrading, that it will not once again wreak havoc on my partition scheme by installing another boot partition or trying to modify the Windows partition thinking it is the missing boot partition. I think I read somewhere that in certain multi-boot setups, the Lion installer did not add the boot partition specifically to avoid the problems I was having; how do I make sure that I do not have them again?
Thanks.

You shouldn't have any issues, since Parallels v9 is the current version. You might want to visit the Parallels support forums to see if users there are aware of any issues. I know I upgraded my MBP from Mountain Lion to Mavericks and I had no issues with my Parallels v8. A short while after the update to Mavericks, I did upgrade my Parallels to v9, but I wasn't really having any problems on v8 either.

Is it possible to change the size of a partitioned hard drive?

I use an iBook G4 (PowerPC) and partitioned an external hard drive. Is it possible to adjust the size of the partition without losing the contents of the external drive? If so, how?
Thanks!

Hi The Zach;
Please read the requirements of these applications for resizing partitions very carefully! Most of them suggest that you back up prior to using them.
After reading all of these warning rather then using any of these applications what I simply do is the backup first then change the partitioning with Disk Utilities and restore. I find this method to be quick and inexpensive.
Allan

Boot partition on 2nd or 3rd Drive?

How does one tell the installer to partition the 2nd HDD or 3rd HDD.
It defaults to the root drive \dev\cd0 but I want it on a different HDD.
Is it possible to boot solaris from the 2nd or 3rd drive. Is it possible to have fdisk change drives??

Hi,
Please select mode as Interactive for installation.In this mode system will prompt many questions which need to be answered. Under disk configuration window you will observe all the drive on left window. You can select appropriate disk and click On button indicating >> to select boot disk which will be shown on right window after selection. There on you need to partition the disk and continue.
However, after installation you need to use DCA floppy to select appropriate disk to boot the system.
I hope this tips help to solve your problems.
Regards,
SD

When I try to partition my hard drive with boot camp assistant, I get "Boot camp assistant quit unexpectedly"

I am seeing numerous people with the same problem, but I couldn't find any answers. This is a new macbook Air with all updates installed. This is a common problem
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x000000000000003c
I am clueless as to how to find a solution.

I was able to get it to work when downloaded the drivers to an external hard drive formated for windows instead of burning it to my external DVD driver. The partition loaded. The down load failed, but the partion worked. I had to restart and hold down the option key to change the boot disc to the external DVD drive that had the windows installation disc loaded

Boot partition on GPT USB. Other Partitions on MBR Hard Disk.Possible?

Hi all,
I have successfully installed Arch on my 8GB USB with a GPT. I didn t want to harm my HD with Windows initially. My HD is MBR.
I was wondering if it was possible to move the Home and Root partitions into the HD on specifically ext4 partitions, of course, while keeping the Boot partition on the USB. Is it harmless or risky, given that USB is GPT while HD is MBR?
I wanted to do that to avoid dual-boot. Since other users are mostly using my computer with Windows, I wanted to use the USB as a sort of "magic key". No security needs, just I didn-t want to bother with dual boot the users that are using the pc most of the time.
Can I just do that with dd? Is it harmless having Boot partition on GPT disk while the rest on another MBR Hard Disk?
Thanks.

nomorewindows wrote:
Nukles wrote:
Many thanks for your answer!
To copy the partition can I use dd ? Because I read in another post that one must be very careful when using dd - or is it to be careful for specific dd usages?
Thanks.
Given that they are different disks, and how everything gets rearranged from one disk to another, I would just mount the disks involved and copy them over with cp/mv. There's not really any point in exact disk duplication here.
Linux doesn't care whether the partition table is MBR or GPT it operates as it should. I converted from MBR to GPT in place using gdisk. Linux didn't have to rename anything. GPT is viable if Windows is not a problem. So leaving Windows alone is probably the easiest with your travel media. Why you would leave your /home and other directories to the availability to others when you already have a travel drive, might pose an unneeded situation for you. Although the travel drive will wear out quicker.
Hi,
I tried today with cp, but I have run into issues...
I have /, /boot and /home in three different partitions in the USB. I want to move / and /home into the HD into specifically created partitions, formatted with ext4.
I mounted sda8 and sda9 (my partitions on the HD for the new / and /home) into /mnt/root and /mnt/home.
Doing
cp -a /home /mnt/home
did not make any issues...
Issues started when I made
cp -a / /mnt/root
. In fact the destination partition unexpectedly filled out completely, despite being so much bigger than the source partition.
Then I realized that something (do not know yet what) had mounted my 500 GB external HD into /media/run/HD500GB so cp was copying the contents of that into the new root partition...!!! Although there is no mention of that in the /etc/fstab.
Why does it do that? If the file system of my external 500GB HD is in another partition, how come does cp copy that content, coming from the root partition, into the destination?
By the way, I unmounted the 500GB HD, and performed the command again, but... after a while it says
cp: cannot stat `/run/user/1000/gvfs`: Permission denied
Actually the first time I ran the command it stopped after a while complaining that some file systems he failed to extend due to lack of permissions... The size though was almost the same of the original partition. The directories of the new root partition were however not the same.
In the original root I had
bin boot dev etc home lib lib64 lost+fount mnt opt proc root run sbin srv sys tmp usr var
On the destination root I had
etc lib lost+found opt run sbin sys tmp usr
So my questions would be:
- Why you think the command didn t perform correctly? (I ran it after doing su - root)
- Why did it copy also the file systems residing in other partitions?
- If it copies also things in other partitions, then if I copy root, it will also copy the entire /home filesystem into the new root directory, although I had copied that already into another partition...
Can you help me?
Thanks a lot!

Some files can not be moved to partition hard drive

"Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again." is the message I receive every time I attempt to partition my hard drive for boot camp. Is there a step-by-step way to do this?

Bean Boy:
When a partition is created the computer moves all files to one area of the current partition so that it can have a clean new partition. In your case it appears that your drive is fragmented (files scattered throughout the drive) and Boot Camp is having issues trying to consolidate them in one area. Try moving any large files to an external drive and see if that helps. Perhaps try making a smaller partition size of Windows under Boot Camp.
If none of the above works then you can take more aggressive measures by choosing one of the following. Please note that I have tried none of the below as I did not experience the issue that you are having.
Option 1 - Click [Here|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7311606].
Option 2 - Purchase [iDefrag|http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php] and defragment your HD. This will move all of your files in one area. You can then run boot camp and it should go well from there.
Option 3 - Back up your HD using Time Machine. Boot from Leopard installation disk and format the entire HD (OSx format). Run Boot Camp from Leopard Installation disk and create the Windows Partition and Install Windows. Once that is done then Boot From Leopard Installation disk again and restore the OSx parition with the Leopard backup that you created via Time Machine.
Axel F.

Why can't brand new MacBookPro9,1 (OEM Mountain-Lion) boot from Snow Leopard on external drive, or internal partition?

Why can't brand new MacBookPro9,1 (OEM Mountain-Lion) boot from Snow Leopard on external drive, or internal partition?
Is this because of hardware changes? Or firmware changes? Or is it just and Apple Inc. administrative fiat?

@Steve Holton: Sorry Steve, but you're wrong about that one . I'm using 10.8 (purchased and downloaded) on the internal HD of this MBP8,3 (2.2 GHz, 17"), and I am also able to boot into 10.7.4 and 10.6.8 from external FW800 partitions.
However, I DO have problems with my MBP9,1. It came with 10.7.4 installed and ran fine. Then I purchased and installed 10.8. It ran fine but could no longer boot from 10.7.4 on an external partition. I then reinstalled 10.7.4 on the internal HD and discovered that it is still unable to boot (even 10.7.4) from an external FW800 partition.
One of Apple's Senior Support Advisors has done some remote troubleshooting but the case is still open and unresolved. An earlier Apple Support case suggested that when, I installed the downloaded copy of 10.8, there had been a "firmware update" (behind the scenes) that is now causing the problems with booting from my external partition(s). This apparently is "a bug": it is not what is supposed to happen.
So - I believe - "the problem" really has nothing to do with hardware capability. It is strictly about Apple's strategy for "managing its future customer base". If you don't like it - use something else - I am seriously considering Ubuntu as an alternative.
If there's a hidden caveat in all this it's probably "Read Appple's Licence Agreement VERY Carefully".

Manual setting change on Tektronix 3014 Phosper Oscilloscope when it is control by Labview IVI driver. Is it possible?

In my labview test program, I would like to allow manual setting change on Oscilloscope like moving cursor position but other part is still controlled by IVI instrumental driver. Is this possible. I found the oscilloscope is locked once it is controlled by labview and don't allow any setting on the scope front panel unless I power off and then power on the scope.

There is a GPIB command called "Unlock" that will unlock the front panel (see page 2-32 of the programmers manual). You will need to send this using a Visa function call since it is not supported by IVI. Unlocking the front panel may cause problems if you are using IVI state caching because if settings are changed (other than cursors) the state cache will be out of synch with the actual settings. So, I suggest you disable state caching using MAX. This will degrade performance somewhat. I also suggest you lock the front panel again ("Lock" command) after the manual settings.

Success: moving bootcamp partition to an external drive

Background
Due to the relatively small, non-exchangable SSD on my Mac, I'd limited the bootcamp partition to 50GB when installing Windows. I needed to install new software in Windows, but was running out of space fast and didn't have the necessary space on the Windows side. I don't use Windows that often and for that reason, I wanted to move the Bootcamp partition to an external hard drive, freeing up space for the Mac side on the internal SSD. I'd read many conflicting reports on the web, some claiming they'd done it successfully, while others said it would be impossible, because Windows 7 wouldn't run from an external drive. I had a HDD in a USB 3 enclosure, and first tried to install Windows to this (using various guides on the web). I was very close to success with this USB 3 drive, but Windows would fail during start-up. Most reports claiming to have successfully been able to run Windows 7 from an external drive, had used Thunderbolt drives, so I decided to get myself a Lacie Rugged USB 3/Thunderbolt series Solid State Drive.
Hardware used
MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display (mid 2012), 2,3 GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 250GB SSD
Lacie Rugged USB 3/Thunderbolt series, 120GB Solid State Drive
Software used
Mac OS X Mavericks, 10.9.2
Windows 7 Ultimate
Plus several free downloads from the internet, see description below.
Procedure
Step 1: Get the Thunderbolt drive to work under your Bootcamp Windows 7 installation.
This should be simple enough, but proved to be a little tricky. Here’s what I did (assumes you are running Mac OS X before you begin):
1. Make sure your Thunderbolt drive is disconnected before proceeding.
2. Restart your Mac and hold down the option key (alt key on some keyboards) during startup.
3. Choose the Windows drive to start up Windows 7 on your Bootcamp partition.
4. After log in to Windows 7, download the necessary driver software for your Thunderbolt drive (find it at the manufacturer’s homepage of your Thunderbolt drive - in my case lacie.com).
5. If the downloaded driver installer is in a compressed format (like zip for example) be sure to decompress it before running the driver installer.
6. Shut down your computer.
7. Connect your Thunderbolt drive to your computer.
8. Start up in Windows 7 (see items 2 & 3 above) and if it all went well, you should now be able to see your Thunderbolt drive under Start>Computer.
Step 2: Format your Thunderbolt drive in NTFS-format.
Still running Windows 7 with your Thunderbolt drive connected and visible to the system, it is now time to format your external Thunderbolt drive in NTFS-format. There are several ways of doing this. I used the procedure described here at tedhhack.co.uk.
Step 3: Follow the directions at intowindows.com to clean install Windows 7 onto your external Thunderbolt drive.
As described at intowindows.com, this involves downloading Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) and running command line tools. At step 9 in the described process at intowindows.com, at the point where the installer asks if the drive you are installing to is a USB hard disk, the correct input is Y for yes, even if your external drive is a Thunderbolt drive (and obviously not a USB hard disk).
At step 10 in the described process at intowindows.com (Reboot your PC), remember to hold down the option (or alt) key at every restart in the installation process, so as not to start up in Mac OS X. Also, since your machine now has two Windows 7 installations, Windows Boot Manager will appear and ask you to “Choose an operating system to start” and there is a list of two Windows.
I don’t know how to tell which one is on the external drive and which one is on the internal drive at this point, but I started with the top one on the list and this turned out to be the one I wanted (the newly installed one on the external drive). If you pick the wrong one (on the internal drive) at first, simply restart the computer and choose the other one. You know you got the right one when the installation process continues and asks for further input.
After the Windows installation is complete (there will be at least one other restart required - remember to hold down the option (alt) key to start up in Windows, and choose the same Windows on the list in the Windows Boot Manager), you’ll be running a freshly installed, but crippled Windows 7, as you still haven’t installed the specific drivers for your hardware. But don’t worry, that will be fixed in the next step.
Step 4: Clone your Bootcamp partition from your internal drive to the external Thunderbolt drive.
In this step you will copy all the software, drivers, settings and other files from your Bootcamp partition on your internal drive to your external Thunderbolt drive. The easiest way to do that is to clone your Windows partition - and to that end you’ll need to download some free software: AOMEI Backupper Standard 2.0 fits the bill perfectly, as it will let you clone at the same time as resizing the partition to fit your external Thunderbolt drive (I went from a 50GB internal Bootcamp partition to a 120GB external Thunderbolt SSD).
1. Download AOMEI Backupper Standard 2.0 (I used the 17MB download for Windows 7), install it, and run it.
2. In the left column choose “Clone” and in the right column choose “Partition Clone”. By choosing Partition Clone instead of Disk clone, you won’t ruin the newly created (but invisible) boot partition on the external Thunderbolt drive.
3. Press Next and choose your internal Bootcamp partition as the Source Disk.
4. Press Next again and choose your external Thunderbolt drive (your newly installed Windows 7) as the Destination Disk.
5. Press Next again and you’ll get a warning that you will erase the contents of the destination partition and it asks if this is what you really want to do. Press Yes to this question.
6. Next screen is an Operation Summery. Toward the bottom of the Operation Summery screen there are a few interesting options: Edit Size of Partition, Clone Sector by Sector and Align Partition to Optimize for SSD.
7. If your destination partition is larger than your source destination like mine was, press Edit Size of Partition. This will take you to another screen, where you can drag to resize the partition. I dragged this all the way to the right to give Windows 7 the full size of my external Thunderbolt drive.
8. Leave the checkbox Clone Sector by Sector unchecked.
9. If your external Thunderbolt drive is an SSD, put a check in the checkbox entitled Align Partition to Optimize for SSD.
10. Now press the Start Clone button.
11. When the cloning process is done, exit AOMEI Backupper and restart your computer (holding down the option or alt key) to start up in your new clone of your old Windows 7 with all the same software, drivers, settings and files.
Step 5: Enjoy running all your Windows 7 applications from your external Thunderbolt drive!
Step 6: Here is where I need help/advice – can I remove the Bootcamp partition on my internal drive now?
I am reluctant to entirely remove the Bootcamp partition from my internal drive, as I am unsure whether this will disable me from starting up in Windows. I would love to hear from anyone here with insight on the matter.

Step 6: Here is where I need help/advice – can I remove the Bootcamp partition on my internal drive now?
To answer my own question in Step 6 above, no, or at least I haven't found a way yet...
Here's what I've done so far:
Used the Bootcamp Assistant to remove the bootcamp partition on my internal drive.
Booted the system with the option (alt) key pressed down and now there was NO Windows drive to choose.
Therefore I used the Bootcamp Assistant to install Windows back onto my internal drive (including installing Bootcamp drivers in the Windows environment). This time I chose the minimum partition of 20GB for the Windows installation on the internal drive.
Booted into the new Windows on the internal drive and installed the drivers for my Thunderbolt drive.
Restarted with the option (alt) key pressed down, chose the Windows drive, but Windows Boot Manager still didn't pop up to allow me to choose the Windows installation on the external Thunderbolt drive.
Booted from the Windows DVD and chose Repair.
Restarted with the option (alt) key pressed down, chose the Windows drive, and now Windows Boot Manager finally popped up, which allowed me to choose the Windows installation on the external Thunderbolt drive again, phew!
So, I can run Windows 7 from the external Thunderbolt drive, but I have to use 20GB of my internal drive for a Windows installation I'll never use. Not the best solution, but at least I've saved 30GB of space compared to my previous Bootcamp partition - and I now have enough space to install the Windows 7 software I need on the external Thunderbolt drive...

New to Mac... I have partitioned my hard drive Dual Boot M.Lion/S. Leopard with 2 OS partitions and a Media Partition. How do I direct my file storage to the Media Partition? Can I put a "Media" folder on both OS Desktops that will allow me to drag n drop

New to Mac... I have Partitioned my MacBookPro with Dual Boot Partitions running M.Lion and S. Leopard and a seperate media partition.
How do I assign my storage to the MEDIA Partition once I am booted in either OS?
Can I place a folder on my desktop so I can read/write ALL my media to?

Why not? Make a folder in your media partition and put an alias folder (shortcut) on the desktop of each partition/ OS. You can right click on the folder in the media partition and click on "make alias".
If you want to direct your iTunes media to point to the media partition, google "move iTunes library to external disk" and follow the steps; the instructions should be the same for a seperate partition as it is for an external drive.

Is it possible to install windows 7 on my macbook from a removable hard drive using boot camp? How would I do this?

Is it possible to install windows 7 on my macbook from a removable hard drive using boot camp?
How would I do this?

If you have Lion installed, and run Boot Camp, it will create the boot flash for you, just followe the tutorial on screen. As far as I remember, this was not possible prior to Lion.

Changing physical drives, moving boot partition - possible?

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