24" imac luminance

Hi ..
i use my imac 24" (about 3 yrs old) extensively for photo-editing. i know these macs have a reputation for high luminance. i've done ok with calibrating my monitor by eye with the on board calibrator but decided recently to buy a spyder 3 pro. i've calibrated 7 times in less then 24 hours. Its sooooo bright. i've been reading around and people talk about the luminance level.
How do i determine what the luminance level is on here?
Also, is anyone familiar with spyder 3 pro? i've seen remarks about using spyder's 'advance' calibration which i dont even see as an option on here.
Finally, im thinking of upgrade to the new imac 27"..how it that system for photo editing?

Hi lc110
{quote:}Its sooooo bright.{quote}
Have you tried lowering the brightness before calibrating?
http://www.computer-darkroom.com/colorsync-display/colorsync_1.htm
I don't have a Spyder, eyeOne or other calibration tools, but I have seen and heard others struggling to calibrate the glossy iMac displays. See > [calibrating a glossy iMac display|http://www.google.com/custom?hl=en&client=pub-7796957396925846&cof=FORI D%3A1%3BGL%3A1%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BLC%3A%230000ff%3BVLC%3A%23663399%3BGFNT%3A%2300 00ff%3BGIMP%3A%230000ff%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3B&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&q=calib ratinga+glossy+iMacdisplay&btnG=Search]
Dennis

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24" iMac Screens better in recent batches? One non-Apple store thinks so...

I've been thinking about getting the Alu/Glass 24" iMac (waiting until at least Leopard's arrival) but after having read a number of threads here I thought I'd better go and check for myself...
I still use a PowerBook G4 15" at home and use a second cheapy (matte) monitor next to the latest white 20" iMac at work. I'm a web developer (not designer) but I would consider myself a pro user, so my standards may be higher than a typical home user, but not as high or finely tuned as a pro-photographer or graphic designer.
I visited a non-Apple store (in Stockholm, Sweden) and although I did not have a long time to play, I made a few basic adjustments to the screen settings (changed gamma from 1.8 to 2.2 and back) and the desktop background (white, light gray, dark gray, black).
Given the number and degree of negative comments I've read I was pleasantly surprised by the screen. Sure there were some colour imbalances (a little of the yellow/brown in the centre of the screen compared to the sides) but no obvious brightness differences from the left to the right side. I could not see any 'backlight bleed' issue at the bottom of the screen, nor any dark spots/corners.
The reflection however was something else! <insert your expletive of choice here>! Wow, the store itself was very brightly lit with many fluorescent tubes behind my standing position. I sure didn't need to turn around to see them, or my own reflection or that of the shoppers walking behind me.
My other concern is the screen brightness with reflection combined - I could imagine this causing eye strain and headaches. I'd need a longer trial to see if this is true for my (slightly less than middle-aged) eyeballs.
My home setting would obvious be very different to this, but opposite a window would be an absolute no-no. This may limit my options. But why should I have to think like this? Sure we had the same issue with CRT monitor way back when, but now? In 2007?
So, onto the subject...
The sales guy at the store saw me fiddling about with the demo model and came over to see what I was looking for. Without prompting from me he stated that this was the first 24" iMac he'd seen that he couldn't point to obvious display problems. This was the third batch of iMacs they had received. He said the first two batches both had dark spots or obvious brightness differences across the screen. I asked about the backlight bleed, explaining what it was, but he'd not seen it (probably because the store was too brightly lit). He agreed that there was a slight yellowing in the centre of the screen on light backgrounds, but otherwise this was by far the best he'd seen. I could probably live with it but not if I did a lot of heavy photography/design.
So have Apple have been quietly (so as to not admit a problem in the first place) making some improvements to later batches?
Personally, I'd have to trial one at home to be absolutely sure before parting with what I still consider to be a lot of money for a 'consumer' level computer (Apple or otherwise). I might try to find a supplier who can lease me a machine for a month to see if it would be ok in my situation, but quite frankly why should this be necessary?

I returned my 24"iMac today -- after receiving the long-awaited response from tech-support on their escalation of my issues/inquiries to the engineering department. The "final" (non)result is that Apple REFUSES to disclose the specific display quality standards alluded to in their claim that:
+"Apple designs, tests and certifies our displays to meet+
+stringent visual ergonomics (front of screen) criteria."+
_Apple engineering's response:_
+"The URL http://images.apple.com/environment/resources/pdf/APES24-in_iMac8-07-07.pdf+
+is for documenting the environmental requirements of the machine. For technical specifications+
+regarding the machine see http://support.apple.com/specs/imac/iMacMid2007.html.+"
_English translation:_
"+Certified? ...stringent criteria?+ You didn't really believe that BS, didya? ...BWAHAHAHA!"
They also flat-out REFUSED to comment (based on numerous screen photos and luminance measurements) on whether my iMac's display, would satisfy Apple's double-super-secret "stringent criteria."
_Apple engineering's response:_
+"Previous reports of luminescence and brightness non-uniformity+
+were found to be within the expected range for iMacs."+
_English translation:_
"Is yours within expected range? ...uh, see "+stringent criteria+," above. ...BWAHAHAHA!
I also asked repeatedly if any remedy was in the works. But of course, since the official corporate position is to deny that any problem exists, they can hardly admit to be working on a fix -- whether they are or not.
... specs?? ...we don't need no steeenking specs!!
Looby

I have IMAC and use Aperture and I am looking for a good App to turn a photograph into a painting look

I have an IMAC and use Aperture and I am looking for a App that will allow me to have one of my photos look like a painting - any suggestions? It is a gift for my brother

I like photoshop elements.
http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/blog/from-photograph-to-painting/
You can also do something like this:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/new_page_9.shtml

IMac G3 VGA to s-video

I have searched for, but cannot find, an adaptor which will allow the connection of my iMac G3's video out port (VGA) to the s-video input on a TV. I don't need sound output.
I have a mini adaptor for my G4 iBook which does the deed... but an iMac G3? (standard dual FireWire indigo model).
Thanks in advance.

Standard VGA has Red, Green, Blue. H-Sync. V-Sync.
S-Video has Luminance, Chrominance, and Sync.
You can't get there from here.

How do I set 23 in Apple Display luminance to 100 lux

Hi,
We have a new Imac G5 and a new 23in Apple display that we need to have match our existing CRT monitors. We use an Eye One Display 2 to calibrate our monitors to 100 lux. But we have not found a way to do this with the Imac or the Apple Display since neither of these displays have monitor controls for brightness. We set the System preferences brightness level all the way down. We are getting a luminance of 188 lux. Does anyone have any suggestions to help us match our luminance of the apple display and Imac to our CRT monitors?
Imac G5, Intel G5 w/ 23in Apple display Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I have a new 20" display and it has brightness buttons on the right side which I adjust while watching my Eye-One calibrator brightness readout in the software.
Are there no brightness buttons on the right side of the 23" ? I thought the only difference between these monitors was the size. When I was calibrating I found that the brightness buttons on the side did the same thing as the Brightness slider in the Displays preference, but the slider allowed more precise adjustments.
My target brightness, which I think was 100 (can't remember though), was met when my OS X on-screen brightness bar was at about 1/4 of the way across.

How to keep iMac screen black while keeping secondary monitor running for visual experiments in Matlab

Hi,
I'm trying to run a visual experiment using PsychToolbox in Matlab.
I've attached a secondary monitor to my iMac for this purpose and I'm having difficulties trying to
'black out' the iMac screen.
I need the secondary monitor to run at a refresh rate of 120Hz and at linearised luminance (did this for my secondary monitor),
so I can't really use my iMac screen. However, i need my iMac screen to be darken out because I'm doing a vision experiment.
I tried dimming my iMac screen but it doesn't go completely dark. I tried Ctrl+Shift+Eject (or was it Command) but it will darken both
monitors. I also tried mirroring, but it doesn't seem to work too.
I'm really stuck and any ideas will be greatly appreciated!
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NB:I'm using OS X Version 10.8.3.

I do not know the details of your experiment, but creating a black monitor is not difficult. For example a completely black page, e.g. in Power Point, set to fill the screen?
The advantage of doing this with PP is that you can move in to or out of the black page with just the space bar. You can set up your monitors so PP is displayed on just one monitor.

Calibration of 24" iMac(white) please advise

Hi,
We recently purchased a 24" iMac(white, late 2006), we were lucky enough to find one, I'd read negative things about the new Alu iMacs and when my wife(a photograhper) saw one in the store she said "no way" so the previous was a good choice. It seems the one we found was the last one in the city, nobody else had one in stock. I suspect Apple are pushing the "Creative Profesionals" towards the MacBook Pros and Mac Pros with ACDs hence the changes but that's just my opinion...
Anyway here's the thing, have been trying to calibrate it. I'll try to explain what it is I've been doing as a series of steps so it's easy to digest
1. We have an eye-one display 2(now X-rite "i1") with the software updates so it works fine in Intel Mac.
2. I had been browsing this and other forums and discovered that when calibrating I should specify a native white point or 6500K(for inkjet), gamma 2.2 and a luminance of 120.
3. When using the i1 software I selected LCD and then the advanced mode. When it gets to the select white point there's an option for presets or red, green and blue. The latter I cannot do as there are no such controls so I select the presets, click next, it shows the target as 6500K but the actual was 7000K. When I try the RGB presets as a test it shows the blue as being too high(7000K).
4. When specifying the target luminance I couldn't get the brightness below 145 so I had to use the "shades" software to get it to 120. That allows the profile process to complete correctly but what I don't understand is once the profile is complete do I leave the shades running(without touching the slider) and not touch the OS X brightness control or turn off the shades and leave the OS X brightness control setting where it is? Can someone please clarify/explain this?
5. I then come across the "coloreyes" software which supposedly is the best of them all so I download the demo(have 4 trys remaining). The implementation of this is very different from other apps I've seen but there's lots of info.
6. Coloreyes has this "Apple Monitor" preset which I tried but then I read in this forum that others had used the LCD Brightness preset instead, is that "LCD Brightess/Gain"(with iMac like icon) or "LCD Brightness"(with laptop like icon)??
7. Coloreyes has gamma of 1.8, 2.2 and L*, should I use this L* for a 24" white iMac late 2006?
8. Coloreyes has a pre-calibraton brightness checker, I should place the OS X brightness slider in the middle(for example) start the process and use the keyboard controls until the brightness = 0 and then start the profiling?
9. The current profile started with brightness = 0, native white point, gamma L* and luminance 120. My wife says the photos look a little dark. She doesn't use the screen as a final guide for her images more so the levels in photoshop and the final prints but I guess the onscreen results should be as accurate as possible. Am beginning to think the iMac(which was to be a much better option than a 24" Alu) was a bad idea, it's otherwise a lovely computer and she's very please with it.
If someone has an idea on this can you please reply with details in steps like above? Maybe it's an idea to paste my post and add commments or suggestions inline. I'm far from an expert on this subject, my knowledge is based on what I've found when searching google. It seems that opinions and experience vary quite a lot

Hi,
What do you mean exactly by "I found that for some reason I could not calibrate from the "apple monitor" setting at first." do you mean you couldn't specify native white point, luminance 120, gamma 2.2?
I'm assuming you did it this way(please correct me if I'm wrong as I more than likely am
1. You started with "LCD Brightness only"(native white point, luminance 120, gamma 2.2?) first, not "LCD Brightness/Gain" and setting the brightness to 0 prior to starting the profiling.
2. You then used that as your starting point(although profiling apps ignore the current profile when starting) choosing "Apple Monitor"(native white point, luminance 120, gamma 2.2?) without setting the brightness as that option doesn't specify it.
I'm assuming you specified the same settings twice?
Another thing that has me puzzled is how come when using an i1 with eye-one software for luminance 120 you have to push the OS X brightness slider all the way to the left and then use "Shades"(or equivalent) to decrease the brightness even further to reach 120 where as with an i1 and coloreyes you can specify luminance 120 and just use OS X brightness slider to reach the correct value? I'm assuming it's because coloreyes is a better app?
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to understand the process and find the best method/solution

Calibrating Imac 24 with Gretagmacbeth and Hummmmm

I have heard some issues with Monitor hum with the new imac 24 when decreasing monitor brightness. I was wondering if anyone has used a monitor calibrator such as the Gretagmacbeth i1 display calibrator and experienced any monitor hum. I’m wondering if the hum happens only when the brightness control slider is used. Anyone have any experience with this?

Hi John
I'm currently awaiting the arrival of our 24" iMac which will join our G5 Dual 2.0 machine in the studio. I've just finished calibrating and profiling a colleagues 24" iMac with the Gretag i1 Pro and ColorEyes Display software.
I turned the brightness all the way down with the keyboard and then profiled it to 65k Gamma 2.2 and a luminance of 120cd/m2. This give a match to our 23" HD Cinema Display (first version - not alloy). The results were really impressive.
If you'd like to have a copy of the profile and the profile validation data that shows just how good this screen can perform with correct profiling email me and I'll forward them on to you.
Regards
Jason
Replica Imaging Limited
www.replica-imaging.co.uk
G5 Dual 2.0, PB15"DL, Quicksilver 733 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

How to overcome prints too dark from iMac

I calibrate my iMac 24 with a spyder and use a stylus Photo R1800 but still have prints that are much darker than what appears on monitor. What do others do about this.
Bob

Bob,
It's a very common problem (Google "My prints are too dark". BTW, both North Light Images and Luminous Landscape are superb resources). The first places to consult are Datacolor and Epson.
Things to look into and perhaps change:
- Are you using the most recent printer drivers?
- is your OS and Aperture up-to-date?
- What luminance is your iMac calibrated to?
- Have you confirmed your screen brightness setting?
- How are you viewing your prints?
- Have you (can you) calibrate your printer/paper as well?
- Have you controlled for your environment?
- Have you used any on-screen proofing?
- Have you turned off dynamic screen brightness?
Robert Coder wrote:
What do others do about this.
You'll not likely be pleased to hear that my solution was to purchase much more expensive monitors (NEC), hardware calibrator (Munki), software (NEC SpectraView II), and printer (Epson Stylus Pro 3880).

Calibrating the 27" iMac

Hi all,
I need to calibrate my 27" iMac display, and keep reading about issues with luminance.
I hear some people use ColorEyes to correct the luminance issue, but I don't know which calibration device to pick. I do want it to last a long time, so I'll consider all options.
What do you guys use? I've heard of the X-Rite Eye-One, Spyder3 and ColorMunki.
Thanks!

I'm using a Spyder3Pro with the new iMac and haven't run into problems. I did bring down the brightness three notches before calibrating - that LED is very bright.
I know there were problems with the previous generation's glossy screens (too bright) but I've gone from the old matte version to this one and I'm loving it.

Anyone using ColorMunki Photo with Retina iMacs?

I've been successfully using X-Rite's ColorMunki Photo to profile my current MacBook Pro display. I just got a new iMac 27" Retina Display with the upgraded video card.
Tried to profile the iMac, and couldn't get the luminance control in ColorMunki to work properly to adjust the desired (100) display luminance as an early stage of profiling. So went ahead and went thru the profiling process, came to "Save" and did that, and the display turned posterized! I finally was able to figure out how to get back to the 'standard" profile and get rid of the custom profile, but not a pleasant experience.
Has anyone used the ColorMunki to successfully profile their iMac Retina display? Works fine on my MacBook Pro's Retina display, but goes haywire on the iMac.
I will contact X-Rite tomorrow, but would appreciate anything you could pass along on this.
Rick

ADC doesn't work with all monitors with all profiling solutions, so you just have to try it and see if it works. If not, then you always have to remember to turn that check box so you can set the brightness and other settings ADC would normally do manually.
Check the System Preference under Keyboard (Shortcuts tab), and make sure the keys to increase or decrease brightness are off.

Apple Mini-DVI to Video Adapter doesn't fit my aluminum iMac

I previously had a 17" white iMac (pre-Intel) machine, and about 6 months ago I bought the mini-DVI to video adapter so I could connect it to my television. Worked like a charm. But I recently bought a new aluminum iMac, and the adaptor doesn't fit into the mini-DVI port in the back of the machine. It appears the adaptor and port are both male ends.
Has the port changed on the aluminum iMacs? The product description for the adaptor on Apple's website says it works with iMac (Intel Core Duo). Isn't the aluminum iMac an Intel Core Duo? I can't figure out why it doesn't fit and which cable I'm supposed to be using instead.
Any advice would be appreciated!

Hi Paul
Yes the Intel iMac [Spec's|http://support.apple.com/specs/imac/iMacMid2007.html] call for the (M9319G/A) Apple Mini-DVI to Video Adapter!
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=M93 19G/A
The iBook, eMac, or iMac G5 use the Mini-VGA to Video adapter.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=722 C6629&nplm=M9109G%2FA
Dennis

Multiple iMacs, multiple family members -- so common, yet so hard?

I have a media-loving family of four. We're an Apple family. One shuffle, two touches, two iPhones (coming Friday), three AppleTVs, and two iMacs. We love them all.
I HATE the pain it seems to be to keep my media in synch, however.
It's not so hard keeping my account in synch with the AppleTVs and my Touch. Where I get into trouble is in wanting to allow my family members to leverage MY library as a basis for theirs. Moving and copying music and movies from my library to my daughter's, for example, just seems a lot harder than it should be. As does keeping my library on my upstairs iMac in synch with my downstairs iMac.
I've been unsuccessful in attempts to use iTunes Ranger.
What's the best way to move between accounts on an iMac?
And, is there an easy way to keep two iMac iTunes libraries in synch?
Also -- can anyone point me to some really good documentation that explains the finer points of media storage on a Mac. Everything Apple provides (unless I am missing the secret detailed manual with all of the crazy tips) seems so high level...
Many thanks in advance. Appreciate the support.
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thejester77 wrote:
Also, latest news shows that Android only made $22million in revenues last year, and spend $20 billion acquiring Motorola. So I don't see Andriod being able to do much in the year 2012 to ramp things up to compete against Windows Phone 7/Nokia and Apple. What news are you reading? Android is not a company but a phone operating system. GOOGLE acquired Motorola, not Android. GOOGLE's 2011 revenues were 37.9 billion, NOT 22 million. Google acquired Motorola for 12.5 billion, NOT 20 billion.
Also, here's another suggestion... Do like AT&T has done and give users a early termination fee to get out of there contracts. I believe they charge $35 dollars or something higher if your not satisified and want to terminate your contract early.
Since you don't want to support or offer any more Windows Phone 7, why keep us as unhappy customers. Give us an option to pay a early termination fee and leave!!! Again, where are you getting this information? The AT&T ETF is $325 less $10 for each month of your contract which has been completed. It is NOT $35. Verizon has a similar, although slightly higher ETF of $350 less $10 for each month of your contract which has been completed.
Yes, we can hear you, but you are not making any sense!

Cannot install windows 8.1 on imac 5k - apple support says "Correct, that machine can't install windows" Boot camp fail

I have a brand new imac 5k, with 4ghz i7, 295x GPU, 3.1TB fusion drive. Bought the machine so I could dual boot - I need windows for VR Dev work.
I've spent the last week and a half on tech support calls with Apple Senior Tech agents, and Microsoft agents as well, and today have been told that indeed this machine cannot run windows 8.1. Apparently Apple engineering knows about the issue, but says the problem is microsoft's. Ugh.
The latest iteration of the issue comes when installing 8.1 onto an external thunderbolt SSD (without even using boot camp) - I go through the EFI installer, convert the drive to GPT, format it as ntfs, but when I select the partition to install onto, the installer says it can't find the partition it just created. Smuh?
I've also tried the install through boot camp. This installation actually worked twice, but the install was unstable. After booting back into osX, then returning to Windows, the windows install went corrupt and couldn't be repaired. Subsequent attempts to install windows yielded a flurry of different errors, including "windows doesn't support GPT in this mode" or "the disk is locked, please unlock the disk" or "MBR must be converted to GPT" (where once I converted to GPT, the drive could no longer be found, despite the operation completing successfully.)
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Thanks,
MC

Michael Conelly wrote:
After much gnashing of teeth, and a half dozen support calls, I'd all but given up. I finally seem to have solved this though - sort of - by installing windows 8.1 on boot camp on an older iMac, then cloning the bootcamp disk to an external thunderbolt drive via Winclone. That worked seamlessly, sticking to winclone's instructions, and I can boot via EFI to Windows 8.1 on the new iMac. So far so good.
I usually install W8.1 via EFI by using DU and a Free Space partition. The 3TB Fusion is first split into the underlying SSD/HDD physicals. OSX and Windows OSes are installed on SSD via EFI (no BCA). The OSX part and half the HDD are then used to create a new CS volume. The other HDD half becomes NTFS for non-Windows OS files. The Hybrid MBR method is completely unsatisfactory with the 3TB Fusion drive.
How is the TB/Winclone image for performance of the OS (since pagefile.sys is also on the TB)?

[Guide] Install and run Windows 7/8 from an external drive without using bootcamp (works for late 2012 iMacs with 3TB drive)

This is a copy of a post from my blog, you can also Read it on my blog...
Introduction
After I received my new iMac with a 3 TB Fusion Drive, I was disappointed when I realized that Bootcamp was not running on this model and prevented me from installing Windows on it. I wanted to take advantage of the powerful iMac hardware to play games but I couldn't.
There are a few ways of working around this limitation, but I found most of them quite complex and most of the time they required formatting the internal hard drive or repartitioning it and go for a brand new installation of Mac OS X. I was not comfortable with that.
But there is another way, and that is to install Windows on an external hard drive, using either USB or Thunderbolt. Personally I used a Lacie Rugged 1 TB drive that has both USB3 and Thunderbolt connectors. Both work very well.
This guide may interest you if:
You have an internal hard drive of more than 2TB and you can't run bootcamp at all (like late 2012 iMacs with a 3TB drive)
You have limited space or you don't want to dedicate disk space on your internal hard disk drive to a Windows installation
What this guide will make you do:
It will make you erase all your data from your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
It will make you install Windows on your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
It will make you install bootcamp drivers
What this will not make you do:
It will not make you modify anything on your internal Mac hard drive
It will not make you use or install the bootcamp assistant
It will not activate the Preference Pane for the default boot drive. You have to boot by pressing the ALT key to manually select your boot drive each tome you want to boot Windows.
What you'll need
An external hard drive with a USB3 and/or Thunderbolt connector. This drive will be formatted so ensure you saved your files before going further. You can use either an SSD drive or a classic hard drive.
A Windows 7 or 8 install DVD or ISO (check whether to install 32 or 64 bits versions based on your Bootcamp drivers) and the corresponding Windows serial number.
One of the following:
Mac OS X with a Windows 7 or 8 Virtual Machine (use VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop for example. Note: VMWare Fusion seems to have some issues with Thunderbolt and USB3. Plug your drive to a USB2 enclosure or hub to work around this -it worked for me-, or use another VM software) → Read the important note below
A PC running Windows 7 or 8 → Read the important note below
Windows AIK (free) running on your Virtual Machine or on your PC, or just the imagex.exe file (the rest of the Windows AIK package is not needed)
Download imagex.exe
Download Windows AIK (this download and installation is not required if you have already downloaded imagex.exe)
Bootcamp drivers for your Mac. You can get these either by running bootcamp from your Mac (Applications > Utilities > Bootcamp) or, if like me you have a 3TB drive and can't run bootcamp at all, use the direct download links here.
A USB stick to store your bootcamp drivers
IMPORTANT: If your Mac has a 64 bits processor, your Windows Virtual Machine on OSX, your Windows installation on your PC and your Windows DVD/ISO must also be in 64 bits!
Step by Step guide
Step 1: Get the install.wim file
If you have a Windows ISO file:
Mount the ISO
If you're on OS X: double click on the ISO file
If you're on on Windows 7: Use a software like Virtual Clone Drive (free)
If you're on Windows 8: double click on the ISO file
Open the mounted drive, then go to the "sources" folder and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
If you have a Windows DVD: open the "sources" folder on the DVD and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
IMPORTANT: If instead of a "install.wim" file, you have "install.esd", you can not continue this step by step guide. And an ESD file can not be converted into a WIM file. So you must get a version of the Windows installation DVD/ISO that has an install.wim file.
Step 2: Clean, partition and format your external hard drive
On your Windows installation or virtual machine, plug in your external hard drive (can be plugged using USB2, USB3 or Thunderbolt at this stage)
Open the command prompt in administrator mode (cmd.exe). To run it in administrator mode, right click on cmd.exe > Run as admin.
Type the following and hit enter to open the disk partitioner utility:
diskpartType the following and hit enter to list your drives:
list disk
This will display a list of disks mounted on your computer or virtual machine. Make sure your drive is listed here before you continue.Identify the disk ID of your external hard drive. Replace # by your real external disk ID in the command below:
select disk #Clean all partitions by typing the following (warning: this will erase all data from your external drive!):
clean
Create the boot parition by typing the following followed by the enter key:
create partition primary size=350
This will create a 350MB partition on your external driveFormat the partition in FAT32 by typing the following:
format fs=fat32 quick
Set this partition to active by typing:
active
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter B in our example. If B is already used on your PC, replace B by any other available letter:
assign letter=b
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Create the Windows installation partition using all the remaining space available on the external drive by typing the following:
create partition primary
Format the new partition in NTFS:
format fs=ntfs quick
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter O in our example. If O is already used on your PC, replace O by any other available letter:
assign letter=o
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Exit the disk partitioner utility by typing:
exit
Step 3: Deploy the Windows installation image
Still using the command prompt in admin mode (you didn't close it, did you? ), locate the imagex.exe file mentioned in the "What you'll need" section and access its folder. In our example, we have put this file in C:\imagex\imagex.exe
Type the following and hit enter (remember to replace o: with the letter you have chosen in the previous step):
imagex.exe /apply C:\wim\install.wim 1 o:
This will take some time. The Windows installation image is being deployed to your external driveOnce done, type the following to create the boot section (remember to replace o: and b: with the letters you've chosen in the previous step):
o:\windows\system32\bcdboot o:\windows /f ALL /s b:
If you get an error message saying that you can't run this program on your PC, then most probably you are running on a 32 bits installation of windows and you're trying to deploy a 64 bits install. This means you did not read the important notes in the beginning of this guide
If you get an error message on the options that can be used with the BCDBOOT command, then it's because you're installing Windows 7, and the /f option is not supported. If that is the case, remove /f ALL from the command and retry.
Step 4: Boot from your external drive and install Windows
Plug in your external drive:
If you've done all the previous steps from a Windows PC, unplug your external drive from your PC and plug it to your Mac, either on a USB3 or a Thunderbolt port.
If you've done all the previous steps from your Mac using a Virtual Machine, ensure the external drive is plugged in to a USB3 or Thunderbolt port. Using USB2 should also work but you'll get very poor performance so I don't recommend doing that.
Reboot your Mac and once the bootup sound is over, immediately press the ALT (option) key and release it only when the boot drives selection screen appears. If you did not get the boot drives selection screen, reboot and try again. The timing to press the ALT (option) key is quite short. It must not be too early or too late.
On the boot selection screen, choose "Windows" using the arrow keys on your keyboard, then press enter.
The Windows installation starts. Follow the on-screen instructions as normal. The installation program will restart your computer one or 2 times. Don't forget to press ALT (option) right after the bootup sound, and boot on Windows again each time to continue the installation.
Step 5: Install bootcamp drivers
Once the Windows installation is complete, plug in the USB stick where you stored the bootcamp drivers (see "what you'll need" section), open it and right click on "setup.exe" and select "Run as admin". Follow the on-screen instructions.If you have an error saying that you can't run this program on this PC, obviously you have installed a 32 bits version of Windows and the bootcamp drivers for your Mac are made for a 64 bits version. You have to restart the whole guide and make sure to get a 64 bits version of Windows this time!
Once the bootcamp drivers are all installed, reboot and press ALT (option) after the bootup sound to boot on Windows again. And Voilà, you have Windows installed on your USB3/Thunderbolt drive running on your Mac.
Now each time you want to boot on Windows, press and hold the ALT (option) key after the startup sound and select "Windows", then press Enter.

Hi i'm trying to follow your guide, I installed windows 8 on bootcamp to do it planning to remove it after the operation is done, but i get stuck at part 3: every command i give to imagex i get a pop-up ftom windws asking how do I want to open this kind of file install.wim and imagex does nothing, what do i have to do to stop those pop-ups?

24" imac luminance

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