Windows on external drive

recently I have stumbled upon installing 10.7 lion on external drive:
+Playing with partitions is not for the faint of heart. Installing OS X Lion to a USB drive or external hard drive is a safer but likely slower option.+
Q1: Is it possible to do so with windows?
I would like to install windows on external drive and use it only when needed (hardly ever, but sometimes I have to)
virtualization is not fast enough for me :{
I have a MacBook Air and SuperDrive, however when I plug superdrive there is no place for external drive,
Q2: Unless I use some kind of usb hub?
Q3: Will it work? Have anyone tried this?

Hi,
OSX could be installed and run from external harddisk for quite some time.
Sadly, Microsoft choosed to not allow Windows to be installed and run from external harddisk.
However, you can find instructions on how-to do this nonetheless on the internet.
A good USB-hub (preferably one that is self-powered and not USB-powered) will let you use both the Superdrive and an external harddisk at the same time.
Regards
Stefan

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On a MacBook Pro - windows on external drive?

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to Macs. Looking to buy a MacBook Pro 17 inch, and I am wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to load windows on an extermal disk, firewire 800 or E-sata off an express 34 card?
If this isn't possible, can OS X be loaded on external drives?
I'd rather load windows on external drive than OS X.
Thanks,
Chris

You'll need to repair or replace your SuperDrive as that is the only way Windows can be installed (downloading is what you do with files on the Internet). And it must be the built-in SuperDrive. The external one Apple sells for the MacBook Air and 2012 iMac will not work.

How to format and backup Mac & Windows to external drive

I have a LaCie 1 T external drive. I want to use it to backup both my Mac partition and my Windows 7 partition. The Windows 7 partition was created using Bootcamp. I formatted the drive with exfat from within Lion and then divided the drive into two equal partitions, one for Mac and one for PC. I tried to use Time Machine to back up the Mac data and it seemed to blow away the Mac partition which is no longer visible to Finder and consequently cannot be backed up to. I haven't tried to do anything about backing up the Windows 7 partition. As an aside, one online source I saw said I need to do this setup routine of the external drive from within Windows 7 in order for the drive to be accessible to both operating systems?
Thanks for any help,
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PaulHand wrote:
I have a LaCie 1 T external drive. I want to use it to backup both my Mac partition and my Windows 7 partition. The Windows 7 partition was created using Bootcamp. I formatted the drive with exfat from within Lion and then divided the drive into two equal partitions, one for Mac and one for PC. I tried to use Time Machine to back up the Mac data and it seemed to blow away the Mac partition which is no longer visible to Finder and consequently cannot be backed up to. I haven't tried to do anything about backing up the Windows 7 partition. As an aside, one online source I saw said I need to do this setup routine of the external drive from within Windows 7 in order for the drive to be accessible to both operating systems?
Thanks for any help,
Paul Hand
You need to find a Windows backup software that will work with Apple's Bootcamp partition.
On a Mac, Apple does a hack to "fool" Windows into thinking it's on a PC with a Master Boot Record Partition map.
Mac's can only boot from a GUID Partiton map, so there is a hybid MBR installed into the Bootcamp partiton when you set it up.
Traditional Windows backup software won't work when you try to restore Windows because it expects to be a PC with a MBR and runs Linux to restore Windows with. (a Mac can run Linux if Linux knows it's talking to a GUID)
And You can only image backup Windows, not make it a bootable copy on a external drive like you can do with OS X.
So the external drive needs to be formatted with a GUID Partition map and 2 partitions.
1: OS x Extended (J) so you can use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone Lion to it.
2: exFAT so you can save the Windows image file to it.
Now you need to find software that will run in OS X, take the Windows image of the Bootcamp partiton and restore it. There used to be great free software that did this, but since Lion rolled around a lot of good software wsn't updated anymore, guess people figured Apple is closing up like iPads and didn't see the sense in it.

Mac and windows sharing external drive on mac.

I am trying to access my external drive on my mac from my pc. Sharing is enabled but the drive doesn't show up. what are the options to do this? I have tried to find it by name command line in windows but no go. I also tried to mount it to the pc but no good the drive mounts but will not asign a drive letter and is not a readable format for XPpro.... Doh!
Thanks
Mark

If you want the drive to be readable on both peecee and Mac, the drive should be formatted as a FAT32 volume which OSX can read and write to or as a NTFS volume which the Mac can read but not write to.
That is not correct.
Windoze does not recognize any Mac formats.
That's true, but Windows doesn't need to read Mac formats to access a network disk. The disk formatting is handled by the computer directly connected to the disk (which is the Mac). The network file access does not contain any disk formatting information and therefore it doesn't matter what format is used on the disk.
You can use SharePoints to make that drive visible to non-Admin users.

Previously windows used external drive to be used in mac (and windows)

i´ve just bought a macbook and planned to use a couple of external drives i previously used on my pc with time machine and whatnot. only it seems they are write-protected in mac os, so they can´t be used as back-up drives. do i have to format them again using mac, or do it in windows, or is there a way around this? and can it be done so both mac and windows recognizes it as writable?
thanks

Dave Sawyer wrote:
They're probably formatted NTFS, which Mac OS X can read but not write. There are third-party NTFS drivers, one open-source and one commercial, but you can just reformat the drive as FAT32 (MS-DOS format in Disk Utility) and it will work just fine with both your Mac and Windows systems.
If the OPs intent is to use it with Time Machine, the external drive needs to be formatted HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) via Disk Utility. I believe there is a Windows app that permits viewing of HFS+ drives. Since you have a 'couple' of external HDDs, it's probably best to use a dedicated HDD just for TM backups.

Mac os 10.4 & windows on external drive

Hi All,
Back to mac after ~ 18 years so some things are "new" to me. I would like to install os 10.4 and windows on an external drive, while leaving 10.5.1 (I own full copies of each) on my macbook and be able to choose which to boot from. Is this possible? If so is a USB external or firewire required?
Thanks,
Carl

Hi,
You say
while OSX can easily be installed and booted from an external HD,
Stefan
Well I thought it should be easy, but I must be missing something. I bought a 100GB HD for a laptop that didn't turn out to need it, so I thought it would be good to install 10.4.11 on it so I could use it to start up coomputers having HD problems. I put it into a USB "slim carrier", plugged it into my iBook, put the install disk into the superdrive and clicked install. When the iBook re-started and the installation steps showed up, the drive showed up, but the install program showed the drive as a non-installable location.
Is there another way to do this? Must it be in a firewire enclosure, or should USB work?
Many thanks for any hints here,
...Tom

Mounting a windows formated external drive

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Thanks,
ssc

@Shootist007, thanks for your reply, yes, it's a USB dirve (seagate) and I do have it connected to the wall outlet via AC adapter. It was originally formated to work with my windows machine but I thought the Mac could read windows formatted drives....?
fotoz

Windows on external drive files

I read on dualbootguru.com that with a properly reformatted windows disk, it is possible to install windows on an external drive. However, the re-formatting process of this disk is extremely complicated. Does anyone one have pre-formatted files to download to save me a few hours? Thanks.

Thanks for your help.
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Moving Windows from external drive to a new internal partition

I have Windows 7 installed on an external drive connected to my Mac Pro, which I access by rebooting into Windows. I am transitioning from the Mac Pro to a new MacBook Pro and want to copy the Windows disk (with all its installed applications and data) onto the laptop's internal drive. Without creating a partition with Boot Camp and reinstalling Windows, how can I do this?
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Hilal Malawi wrote:
Thanks, but that site doesn't have a clear answer.
Correct. As it clearly states, there are too many variables to have detailed solutions for every possible situation.
In the 'pink' box, which best matches my situation, the instructions begin with: "•You must be logged on to the account being moved...".
That's not clear at all. How do I log in to an account that doesn't exist yet? Connecting a hard disk that has a home folder to a new Mac doesn't allow me to 'log on' to that home folder's account, because it doesn't yet exist on the new Mac.
You may have to set up user accounts "from scratch." Then change the ownership and permissions on the old home folders so you can copy the contents of the sub-folders from the old home folders to the new ones.
If you're comfortable with permissions and Terminal, this may help: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20013630-263.html

Installing windows on external drive, or other method without formatting HD

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thanks!

Windows cannot be installed on an external drive. This is a Windows thing. If you want to use Boot Camp then your internal drive must have no other partitions. Boot Camp will then create a special Windows partition of any size you designate.
If your drive is already partitioned then repartitioning the drive or resizing existing partitions will result in some data loss. Essentially in order to restore the drive to a single partition you must first backup whatever data is stored on the partitions that must be removed. Alternatively, if possible move that data to the main volume (top volume in the partition mapping.) Doing this makes it possible to delete the other partitions, then resize the remaining partition to full capacity. This can be done on the fly using Disk Utility. Of course there's always risk of something going amiss, so it would be wise to have everything backed up.

MacPro won't mount Windows USB3 External drive

I have a macPro 2,1 and it won't mount a Windows external drive that is USB3. I've tried NTFS-3G but still won't see the USB3 drive. I thought USB3 was backwards compatible. Can anyone help?

WEll, Paragon tends to have kept up their NTFS drivers
Your Mac is using PCIe 3.0 controller which are iffy even on OS X and may not be seen by Windows (and my Windows PCIe 3.0 card doesn't show up or work in Mac OS).
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Windows NTFS External Drive and Permissions

Hello,
I have a 250 gig Maxtor OneTouch I use for storing/backing up files from my PC (Windows XP Home Edition) In the past I have been able to use my external drives on both my Mac and PC without any problems. This time, however when I connect the drive, it mounts, but I only have "Read Only" access. I'm currenty using 10.3.9 and I am the administrator. Is this something I'm going to have to change in the PC or can I do it from the Mac? Thanks in advance!
Heres the info from Disk Utility:
Name : OneTouch4
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk3s1
Mount Point : /Volumes/OneTouch4
File System : Winows NT Filesystem
Connection Bus : USB
IO Content : Windows_NTFS
Writable : No
Capacity : 232.9 GB (250,056,705,024 Bytes)
Free Space : 216.3 GB (232,248,385,536 Bytes)
Used : 16.6 GB (17,808,318,464 Bytes)
Number of Files : 3,680
Number of Folders : 0
Permissions Enabled : Yes
Can Turn Permissions Off : No
Can Repair Permissions : No
Can Be Verified : No
Can Be Repaired : No
Can Be Formatted : No
Bootable : No
Supports Journaling : No
Journaled : No
Disk Number : 3
Partition Number : 1

Well, no I hadn't written to this drive from the Mac in the past. It was a new drive and I used it on the PC first. Would it be possible to maybe create a new partition, either on the Mac or the PC in a Mac readable format without destroying the information currently on it?

Booting Windows from external drive

Hi all. I recently got an external Firewire 400 drive for backups, and it's just occurred to me that I could possibly run Windows off of it and reclaim some 60GB of internal hard drive space. I would like to know if this is possible. Yes, I know that Windows supposedly cannot boot from an external drive, but I have read reports of people booting it off of USB drives, and wonder if a similar tact can be tried for Firewire for greater I/O speed. I also know that OS X can be booted from Firewire, so it seems it should be possibly for Windows.
My guess as to how to do this would be to. . .
- use dd to do a bit-by-bit copy of the Windows partition on my internal drive to a partition on the external drive
- modify the boot.ini on the external so that it points to the correct location
- modify a .cfg file to load Firewire drivers earlier in the boot process (?)
The first step is trivial, and the second will be easy since the Firewire drive will appear in the same place unless I have another external or CD attached. What I'm not sure how to go about doing is the third - which .cfg? I can probably figure out the drivers otherwise.
Finally: has anyone else done something like this? If so, links/hints? Thanks.

i recommend looking into rEFIt:
I've looked at rEFIt before (because I really didn't want to go through all that hacking), but I think the problem still exists: Windows XP does not support EFI (and neither will Vista), so there's still the problem of USB/Firewire drivers loading at boot time. From
http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-224050.html
some people got rEFIt on the external drive, and that helped to dual boot on that drive, but it still required hacking the Windows CD (it's the registry, that I think goes into the installation itself, that's hacked). It's a Window's problem.
you should be able to do this using esata external
drives with a esata express card for native speeds.
If the expresscard includes drivers that support booting, it may work (hence the mention of the Nitro AV card). I know that not all cards do, and I haven't heard anyone had success with it. But, it would be cool if someone decides to get such cards and try ; )

Moving Files NTFS (Windows) to external drive to Mac

I have some files from a windows computer which has a hard drive format of NTFS. I need to get it onto my Mac which is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I have an external hard drive that i use for editing videos with final cut normally. I want to know what format I should make my external hard drive so that I can transfer files from the windows pc to my mac.
when i go to 'disk utility' it only gives me a bunch of different Mac OS Extended things (either Journaled, Case-Sensitive, or Case-Sensitive Journaled), MS-DOS (FAT), or Free Space.
will any of those work? if not, what do i do?

i tried plugging in my external hard drive which was formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and the windows computer (NTFS) wouldn't recognize it.
But I am transferring video files that were shot in HD, so they're larger than 4GB's sometimes.
what do you mean by installing MacDrive on the PC?
also, how would i network the computers without using the drive?
also, new side note, the PC ONLY has USB ports on it :/
i'm not the one that owns the pc, some guy owns it and has all this footage he shot on a crappy camera and i have to get it off his computer and on mine to start editing it. i'm in a real big jam here

Not enough disk space on a Windows-formatted External Drive?

I keep getting 'not enough disk space' message in Tiger when trying to back up my data to an external HD, formatted for windows (I share it with Bootcamp-based windows partition).
Now, the disk is 100 GIG and I'm only trying to back up 10 GIG. The disk is almost empty, and the disk's trashcan is empty.
I had same issues with a flashdisk at my father's. It was 2 GIG, and I was copying 500 megs of pictures. OSX kept telling me the disk didn't have enough space! Embarrassed, I had to copy photos in batches of 20. Of course, my Mac was ridiculed thoroughly.
I appreciate any help!

Hello,
Your problems may very well be related to the NTFS file system used by Windows.
The Mac OS has very limited support for NTFS partitions. It cannot write them at all. And, it only supports reading to a limited extent.
If you want to be able to read and write Windows formated partitions, you should be using the FAT32 format for your Windows drives. The Mac OS can read and write FAT32 drives without any trouble.
But, there are some Mac OS files and archives that absolutely cannot be written to a FAT32 drive either. So, you cannot backup your entire Mac OS hard drive to a FAT32 drive.
The Mac OS "PKG" file type will usually refuse to be written to a FAT32 drive. And, there are a lot of PKG files in the Mac OS installation. And, many of the software update downloads are also in PKG format.
If you want to backup your entire Mac OS hard drive to another drive, then that drive will also need to be formatted as a Mac OS X Extended volume.
But, if you are just wanting to share files between a Mac OS X and Windows XP installation, then you can safely use FAT32 for that shared drive / partition.
I hope this helps.
As for the comments that you endured, you should have asked him if his PC would even try to read a Mac OS formatted drive / disk. See how much laughing he does then.
Now, there are special programs that will enable Windows to read Mac OS disks. But, Windows cannot do it on it's own.
But, that brings us to another option for you. If you wanted to have all your other partitions fully compatible with the Mac OS (as in formatted as Mac OS X partitions), then you could do that. Then, use a program such as MacDrive on your Windows XP installation to enable you to read and write the Mac OS formatted partitions.
You can read more about that here:
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/bootcamp.asp
I hope this helps.

Windows on external drive

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