Can I run 3 bootcamp partitions?

I have been running a Vista partition under bootcamp for a while now, and everything works well except for the fact that I don't use Vista much.
I'd like to install Linux Ubuntu as well. Can I add a third partition?
Alternatively, I have lots of FW800 external drives; can I put Linux onto one of these using bootcamp and run it from there?
Thanks,

You can easily put OS X and boot from external, yes. Windows is a no, and I doubt Ubuntu will. Which for playing with different systems, Fusion really is a nice way to experiment and get your feet wet.
I had some bookmarks, one of which is sometimes off-line on the topic of triple booting:
http://www.twocanoes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=645
http://macapper.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134
http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/TripleBoot_viaBootCamp
http://www.windowsonthemac.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2
Some things just take some experimenting and getting familiar. Yes, over-whelming at first.

Similar Messages

How can I remove the BootCamp partition? as the size i created ws too small to install MS Office on 64Bit Windows 8.1 on MacBook Pro (Aug'13)

How can I remove the BootCamp partition drive for Windows 8.1, as the size which I created was too small for me to install Microsoft Office onto Windows 8.1 64-BIt. The machine which I have is the MacBook Pro 13' inch purchased in August 2013.

Either use Paragon's CampTuneX to resize it or use Boot Camp Assistant to remove the partition and restore the drive to one partition. Then create a new, larger Boot Camp partition. This will remove/delete/erase your Windows system.

How can I fix my bootcamp partition?

Hi there,
I'm a relative noob when it comes to OSX so please be gentle with me.
I'm running an early 2011 Macbook Pro which initially had OSX Maverick with a Windows 7 Bootcamp partition. All was working perfectly and seamlessly until I enthusiastically decided to upgrade to OSX Yosemite which resulted in my Bootcamp partition disappearing. In my haste to try and fix this I looked through the apple support community questions and used fdisk to try and fix the issue.
It initially worked and I now could see the Windows option on the boot menu but when actually trying to boot into Windows it ended up saying "Missing Operating System"
I then tried to boot into Windows recovery using my Win7 CD in an attempt to repair the boot sector or whatever to no avail. I also started to try and repair the windows installation by installing it again and that crashed while I was working on it so now I have an "Unknown" area on my hard drive.
Then I installed rEFIT and partition inspector to try and fix it and this it the output:
*** Report for internal hard disk ***
Current GPT partition table:
#      Start LBA      End LBA Type
1                  40       409639 EFI System (FAT)
2             409640    490273855 Unknown
3      490273856    491543399 Mac OS X Boot
4      563173376    625141759 Basic Data
Current MBR partition table:
# A    Start LBA      End LBA Type
1              1       409639 ee EFI Protective
2         409640    490273855 ac Apple RAID
3      490273856    491543399 ab Mac OS X Boot
4 *    563173376    625141759 07 NTFS/HPFS
MBR contents:
Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable
Have I well and truely ruined my bootcamp and have to start from scratch? It's not the end of the world since I backed up most of my important documents and pictures etc but it took me a long time to install all the software that I require for work on my Windows partition.
Any help or advice would be appreciated and again, please be gentle, I am a noob.
Thanks in advance!!

You have screwed up the original bootloader that enabled you to boot each OS properly. At best you can open Boot Camp Assistant and see if it will remove the partition, but my guess it will not. Hence, you must re-partition the drive back to one partition, OS X, then make a new Boot Camp partition. Alternatively, you can try using Camptune X for Mac | MacUpdate to manipulate, etc. the partition and restore the drive non-destructively.

Can I create a Bootcamp partition without installing Windows immediately?

I have a clone of my bootcamp that contains Windows 7, but can't restore to the Clone without a Bootcamp partition.
I am running Lion.
Is there anyway to create the bootcamp partition without the Windows Install Disk?...if so, I could just restore my Cloned Bootcamp onto the Bootcamp Parition.
Thank you,
AK

Wait...after I hit send, I realized you had cloned your boot camp parition with winclone. My bad...well, you can always try putting the cloned partition on the exFAT partition, if possible. I think what I had to do when I bought a new hard drive was to boot into the old had drive. I then attached the new drive with a handy universal drive kit (http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3NVSPATA/). I think I used iPartition to create an NTFS partition on my new drive. I then copied my cloned Windows partition onto the new drive.

Can I have 2 bootcamp partitions?

I have a bootcamp partition with Windows 7 installed.
I would also like to have another partition with Windows 8.
So a total of 3 partitions: OS X, Win 7 and Win 8.
Is that possible? I have licenses for all 3.

Not using Boot Camp. Only one is allowed. If you would prefer abandoning Boot Camp, then you can use Boot Runner instead. It will support multiple partitions and allow booting from any one you choose at startup.

Replaced my iMac optical drive with ssd - now I can't create a bootcamp partition

I have a late 2009 imac 27". Recently my imac hard drive crashed so I used this opportunity to replace the broken hard drive and also replacethe iMac optical drive with a SSD drive. The idea was to use the ssd drive as my bootcamp partition and boost things up. WRONG IDEA!
I wasted already 5 hours trying to get bootcamp to install windows 7 onto the ssd using an external optical drive, a USB drive, an internal partition of my new hard drive. I used rEFIt to try and boot from these fine devices - nothing! Once the OS restarts to install Windows 7 it gets stuck either in blank screen or with a message that it requires a bootable device.
This is one of the most puzzling situation I've seen. Any help will be highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Amir

This is the same problem people have with their MacBook Pro. Some people have had success using rEFIT, but many didn't. The only solution that I found was just installing my opitcal drive back in and installing windows on what ever hardrive you need. Then taking the optical drive back out. I know that sounds like a lot of work, but once your done you will be relieved.

Can I make a bootcamp Partition on the HDD on an iMac 21.5" with SSD and HDD

I am planning to buy an iMac 21.5" . I am not sure yet, whether to get one with ssd and hdd pre-installed. But I would like to, cause it's much faster.
In the manual of the boot camp it says that if you have more than one internal hard drive and you wanna put bootcamp on one that isn't the first, you have to remove the other hard drives. That would be hard cause you can't open the iMac easily. And especially not without loosing guarantee.
So my question is. Has anyone installed windows with bootcamp on an hdd partition on an iMac pre-installed with ssd (on which is macos x) and hd(on which I want my windows partition and the Mac files such as photos and videos)? It must be possible without opening the iMac right?
Thanks for your help.

27" iMac: Apple's SSDs are still quite slow
Community Search: "iMac SSD"
That article is misleading to an extent and applied to the workstations with 4 internal drives and easy to access - and misleading as to why other drives had to be removed etc.
As for warranty, it use to be a customer upgraded part to swap out hard drives. All that is needed to disconnect the data cable going to the drive.

Can I resize my bootcamp partition without reinstalling Windows?

Hi
I have recently installed an OEM version of the Windows 7 and I have allocated 50% space in the bootcamp? I want to resize the partition now, to allocate lesser space for Windows. How do I do it without reinstalling my Windows? I mean I can't re-install my Windows as the OEM version allows only 1 installation.

CampTune from Paragon http://www.paragon-software.com/home/camptune/ but it seems not yet Lion-enabled.
(The System requirements only mention up to Snow Leopard).
But since you are doing a reinstall of WIndows onto the same computer as the first time, you are entitled to use your OEM version for it.
Stefan

How can I add a bootcamp partition to a MacBook Pro (10.6.8) with Parallels 6 already installed?

Goal: Install Windows 7 to run Rhino 5

Open Boot Camp Assistant, read the documentation carefully, then configure the partition. Your hard drive must contain only one partition - the OS X partition. If you've made a second one on which to run Parallels, then you cannot create a Boot Camp partition.

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...

How to resize my bootcamp partition without deleting itit

How can i resize my bootcamp partition to make it larger without deleting it or having to reload windows?

Yesterday expanded my bootcamp partition from 50 up to 100 Gb using Mini Tool Partition Wizard Home Edition, a Freeware Windows Program after seeing this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeKeawqxUa0
Note that I have OSX Mavericks, Steps are:
1) backup all your files (optional but strongly reccomended).
2) Using OSX Disk Utility resize MacintoshHD partition leaving unallocated space as much as you need to add to bootcamp partition.
3) Set Bootcamp as Boot Disk and restart the mac.
4) in Bootcamp with Windows running launch Mini Tool Partition and select the bootcamp partition.
5) Choose "expand" option in order to expand the partition using all the unallocated space.
6) The program prompt to you to restart the mac for apply the task, cause is not possible while the partition is mounted and windows running.
7) Restart the mac and then automatically Mini Tool Partition will do the job in a "graphic msdos like" form.
I was lucky and worked for me, I have a Late 2009 Mac Mini with MAVERICKS and a samsung 250Gb SSD Evo.
Hope this can help the community but decline any responsibility, do it at your own risk, you can use programs like winclone or camptune if you feel more comfortable with a pay app.

Can I delete my OSX partition when running win7 via bootcamp, without breaking anything?

Helpful answers only please this isn't a Win vs. Mac discussion
I'm running Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro, which I installed via bootcamp and haven't used OSX since...
Can I just delete the partition to which OSX is installed and use Windows 7 only or could that break my system?
Thanks,
Robin

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can do what you want to do, because the EFI partition remains untouched. Windows comes with Disk Management (you can find it digging into Control Panel), that allows you to do what you want to do. See > http://technet.microsoft.com/es-es/library/cc770943.aspx
I do not recommend you to delete OS X in case you need to install firmware updates, but instead what you can do is to give OS X the minimum space possible and give near everything to Windows. You can do this in OS X with Paragon Camptune.

I have recently installed windows XP on my bootcamp partition. I am in need for the drivers and what not so that it will run effectivly and the bootcamp assistant canot find the "Windows Support Sofware" Can anyone help me find it manually?

As the title has stated, I have recently installed Windows XP on my Bootcamp Partition. I am in need of the "Windows Support Software". I am assumeing that is the information that has the Drivers and what not that allow me o properly use my Mac with windows. If anyone can help me locate this inforamtion i would be greatly.... Greatfull.
P.S. The bootcamp assistant is telling me that the Windows Support Sofware canot be found.

You both would have had correct awnsers, but i have a Macbook that is close to three years old. And i can't seem to find my Disc. The only reason i haven't ordered a new one in case of emergencies is I plan on upgrading to the new OS in less then a month.
I think the following may help me (In case anyone els is looking):
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL830

Can I install Windows 8.1 as Bootcamp partition from OSX Mountain Lion using a USB stick?

I have the following:
Bootable USB stick with Windows 8.1 - 64 bit
MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion 10.8.5 - it's probably 3-4 years old.
The Bootcamp partition currently has Windows 7 installed.
I want to know whether I can install Windows 8.1 from a USB stick into a Bootcamp partition. Apple's article on the topic refers to Bootcamp 5.1, but my OSX install has Bootcamp 5.0 - I am assuming 5.1 comes with the Mavericks version. I don't want to upgrade to Mavericks because I am running out of space as it is on the OSX partition.
Thus my question. So can I?

Your laptop has a DVD drive, right? If so you need to burn your ISO to a disc, will not work off USB

Can't restore to 1 partition after bootcamp

Ok so I ran into a weird problem, and after searching for a while I can't seem to find a solution.
Can't find anyone else who has had the same problem either.
I'm currently running a 2012 RMBP. I had bootcamp installed running Windows 7.
Today I wanted to remove the Bootcamp partition to free up some space on my HD.
So I went to Bootcamp Utility and selected the option to restore Mac to 1 partition and remove bootcamp
After a while it gives me an error message, something like "cannot remove bootcamp partition or restore mac to single partition"
Ok...
But not the bootcamp partition is gone from the bootcamp utility. It's also gone from Disk utility and the Finder.
But the space that the partition was occupying (about 20+ gigs) did not change.
So it's like it's still there but I cannot erase it or get that space back for some reason.
I've tried everything. I tried rebooting using CMD+R and going to disk utilities from there also. But the bootcamp partition
doesn't show up at all. But the space it was taking is still there.
Also in Disk Utility I cannot "erase free space", it's greyed out. I can't do anything. It's like the bootcamp partition is gone, but
the space is still being taken up. So it was never really removed.
I don't know what else to do. Any ideas? Has this happened to anyone else?

I encountered the same, or very similar problem with my 2012 15" rMBP. Upon trying to uninstall Windows 7 and its associated 60GB Partition via Boot Camp Assistant (BCA), some sort of error (dialog disappeared too quickly to recall specifics) apparently prevented completetion. During my second attempt, the process appeared to stall at about 25-30% completion. After the "progress bar" hadn't moved for 10 minutes, I quit BCA.
My third attempt ended at the second BCA screen, as the initial three options (for installing Windows) were again available. I thought perhaps I had actually erased the Windows Partition, but Disk Utility still displayed an unnamed 60GB Partition. Unfortunately, resizing my boot volume to 768GB triggered a file system verification error, as did Mende1's thoughtful solution.
Finally, after highlighting my SSD (not my boot volume Partition) and selecting "Verify Disk", the "Repair disk in Recovery Mode" error suspended Verification. After rebooting in Recovery Mode (command + R after chime), repairing the drive in Disk Utility did just that, and I was able to simply resize my boot volume Partition, removing the empty partition. I guess BCA had uninstalled Windows 7, but failed to remove the partition.
Sorry for the longwinded post, but since the OP's solution didn't work for me, I thought I would share the process that worked for me.
Michael Henk

Can I run 3 bootcamp partitions?

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